Paradigm High School is a charter high school in South Jordan,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States.

History

Paradigm was organized as a

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

under the Utah State Department of Education. It received its charter on July 13, 2005, and opened in September 2006.

Academic performance

2 years ago The Utah State Board Of Education gave Paradigm High School an F grade (based on a 38% proficiency on the SAGE test) for its performance in the 2015-2016 school year. These rankings are based primarily on the SAGE test scores. Coincidentally, Paradigm also has one of the highest opt out rates for the SAGE test at 54% testing in the state. Due to the high SAGE opt-out rate by parents, Paradigm uses the ACT for internal performance tracking. The school has administered the ACT to all High School grades twice per year since the 2014/2015 school year. For those years, the student ACT opt out rate has been below 5% and average ACT scores have been equal to or slightly better than state averages.

Ethnic diversity

As of the 2016-2017 school year, Paradigm High is in the bottom 1/3 of schools for ethnic diversity.

Courses

Paradigm offers a variety of courses in addition to standard courses, such as Novel Writing, AP Environmental Science, and

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

. Among its wide variety of English courses are one on the writings of

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

, and classes about Western and Eastern World, French, Gothic, and British (including Shakespeare) literature. It also offers

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, ASL,

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, Spanish and Chinese.

Athletics

Starting in 2021-2022 Paradigm joined the USSA (Utah Schools Sports Association) from which boys and girls can compete in Volleyball, Cross Country, Basketball and Soccer. The Boys Volleyball team also competes in the Spring League playing other top high schools in Salt Lake County. Paradigm offers Standard PE classes, including Fitness, as well as Dance and Yoga.

Extracurricular activities

Paradigm has many extracurricular activities and competitive teams. The Paradigm

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

Team (PCT) took third in the 1A-3A division in the Utah High School Chess Championships two years in a row,. Paradigm also supports an excellent

Academic Decathlon The Academic Decathlon (also called AcDec, AcaDeca or AcaDec) is an annual high school academic competition organized by the non-profit United States Academic Decathlon (USAD). The competition consists of seven objective multiple choice tests, tw ...

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.

References

{{authority control Public high schools in Utah Schools in Salt Lake County, Utah Charter schools in Utah Buildings and structures in South Jordan, Utah