Type Charter school Dean Fernando Seminario Grades 7-12 Phone +1 801-302-7261 | Established 2006 Principal Scott Jones Enrollment 574 Mascot Patriots | |
Address 11577 3600 W, South Jordan, UT 84095, USA District Paradigm High School District Motto "A Different Kind Of Think" Similar Herriman High School, Riverton High, Bingham High School, Summit Academy High Sch, Providence Hall Junior High Profiles | ||
Paradigm High School is a high school in South Jordan, Utah, United States. Its main focus is leadership and classical education. Every year it is ranked as one of the worst schools in Utah for academic performance, based on its SAGE test scores. Even though the school had a high test opt-out rate of 54%, the low proficiency scores are based solely on the tests that were taken.
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Paradigm high school welcome video
History
Paradigm was organized as a charter school under the Utah State Department of Education. It received its charter on July 13, 2005, and opened in September 2006.
The Utah State Board Of Education gave Paradigm High School a 38% F grade for its performance in the 2015-2016 school year. Paradigm High School is outranked by every public high school in the state of Utah. In fact, Paradigm High School is outranked by all schools of any kind in the entire state of Utah except for one other charter school, though this is based solely on SAGE testing. Many students at Paradigm opt out of SAGE testing. Yet the Paradigm students who have taken the SAGE test have tested well below proficiency in every subject.
Ethnic diversity
As of the 2015-2016 school year, Paradigm High is one of the least diverse schools in Utah. Only one high school out of all 20 public high schools in Salt Lake County (Riverton High) has less ethnic diversity. Riverton High is in the same neighborhood as Paradigm. Paradigm High had 516 white students out of 587 total students enrolled.
Courses
Paradigm offers a variety of unusual courses in addition to standard courses, such as Novel Writing, AP Environmental Science, and taekwondo. Among its wide variety of English courses are one on the writings of C.S. Lewis, and classes about Western and Eastern World, French, Gothic, and British (including Shakespeare) literature. It also offers Latin, ASL, German, Spanish and French.
Leadership
Unique to Paradigm High School is a class called Leadership, which is offered in three levels: Foundations, Transitions, and Scholar. Its focus varies at each level:
This course is now integrated into the Seminar Course, which is a classics-based blend of English, Leadership, History that meets in a double block class.
Extracurricular activities
Paradigm has many extracurricular activities and competitive teams. The Paradigm Chess Team (PCT) took third in the 1A-3A division in the Utah High School Chess Championships two years in a row, and the basketball teams received second place (girls') and first place (boys'). The girls' volleyball team won second place.
Paradigm no longer offers competitive sport teams and encourages students to play for neighboring high schools, while supporting a strong intramural program.
Paradigm also supports an excellent Academic Decathlon team. In March 2011, they beat reigning state champions Park City High in Super Quiz, one of 10 categories, and the most competitive, by 5 points out of a possible 6,000.
New in 2011-2012 was a mock trial team. Their first competition was February 24, 2012 against Mountain View High School.