Case Study: Garden City High School, Garden City, Kansas

Despite rapidly rising numbers of English as a Second Language students, Garden City High School has raised student achievement in reading, mathematics and science. Even with a more rigorous curriculum and higher graduation requirements, the dropout rate fell from 15 percent in 1993-1994 to 3.4 percent in 2003-2004 and the attendance rate rose from 89 percent to 96 percent. This study describes how the school succeeded by focusing on increasing expectations, raising graduation requirements, improving professional development for staff, aligning its curriculum to state and national standards, improving guidance and advisement, and upgrading its career/technical programs.

Keywords: improving achievement, higher graduation requirements, rigorous curriculum, high expectations, Garden City High School

(05V09); 20 pages; 2005; $1

Goal that it reflects: Every school has high student performance and meets state academic standards for all students each year.
 

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