Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in Glendale, California, United Stated. The school is managed as a part of the

Glendale Unified School District The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States. The school district serves the city of Glendale, portions of the city of La Cañada Flintridge and the unincorporated communities of Montr ...

History

The school was conceived from the recommendations of the "Vision of the Future" Task Force, created by the

to investigate overcrowding at the school district's three comprehensive high schools, Glendale High School,

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

and

Crescenta Valley The Crescenta Valley is a small inland valley in Los Angeles County, California, lying between the San Gabriel Mountains on the northeast and the Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills on the southwest. It opens into the San Fernando Valley at t ...

. The task force recommended a new

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

be commissioned, to focus on advanced technologies and the physical and earth sciences. To alleviate overcrowding, Clark Magnet High School accepts students from the attendance of all three comprehensive high schools through a lottery system. The school uses the former campus of Anderson W. Clark Junior High School. It underwent a US$15,000,000 renovation and opened in September, 1998. The school is bolstered by corporate sponsorships. Doug Dall was the inaugural principal for Clark Magnet. He served the school until his retirement in 2016. Lena Kortoshian has been principal since 2016 until 2022, where she got promoted to a district level job. Following Kortoshian's leave, Assistant Principal Dr. Brian Landisi, became Clark's new principal as of October 2022. About 300 students are enrolled each year. The Class of 2013 accepted 325 students out of 607 applicants, or about 54%.

Academics

In 2005, it was designated as a California Distinguished School, an honor bestowed by the California Department of Education to the best schools in the public system, and received the California Exemplary Career Technical Education Program Award. In 2005, it had the top

Academic Performance Index The Academic Performance Index (API) was a measurement of academic performance and progress of individual schools in California, United States. The API was one of the main components of the Public Schools Accountability Act passed by the Californ ...

(API) ranking of any high school in the

. In 2006 it became a

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

. In addition, five students of the school won the 2010-2011

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...

Eco Challenge Grand Prize for their analysis of toxins present in

lobsters Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

. In 2015, it was ranked nationally as the 153rd best school in the country by Newsweek.

2021 rankings

Clark Magnet High School is ranked averagely high in many different categories. Clark Magnet has an overall score of 96.54/100. The school's rankings as of 2021 are as follows: * #510 National Ranking * #70 California High Schools * #29 Los Angeles, Metro Area High Schools * #105 Magnet High Schools

Application process

In order to attend Clark Magnet High School, students must fill out an application. These are the requirements for Clark Magnet High School as of 2019: * Grade point average of at least a 2.0 (C's). * Living in the GUSD area. * Eligible for Integrated Math I. * No more than five unsatisfactory (U's) citizenship marks. * No more than 10 missed days of school the year before. The eligible applications will then go through an electronic lottery. Students who apply after the deadline are put on a waiting list. After an applicant has been chosen in the lottery, they have to accept or decline their seat at Clark Magnet High School.

Sports

Clark Magnet has

intramural sports Intramural sports are recreational sports organized within a particular institution, usually an educational institution, or a set geographic region. The term, which is chiefly North American, derives from the Latin words ''intra muros'' meaning " ...

. These intramural sports allow students to participate in athletic activities such as

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

flag football Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down. The sport has a strong amateur following ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

. Students form teams with other fellow students and compete for trophies and medals. The school also hosts other informal athletic activities, such as a mountain biking club.

Demographics

''Statistics for 2008-2009 school year'

about 60% of the students were Armenian American, ethnic Armenian.

Students by grade

*Grade 9 - 313 *Grade 10 - 296 *Grade 11 - 261 *Grade 12 - 243

Gender and ethnicity

Gender

*Male - *Female - 519

Ethnicity

* American Indian/Alaskan Native - 1 (0.1%) * Asian - 102 (9.5%) * Hispanic/Latino - 58 (5.4%) * Caucasian/White - 841 (83.5%) * Multiple or no response - 4 (0.4%) * Black/African American - 1 (0.1%)

Robotics

Clark Magnet High School Team 696 2003 Robot

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

Team 696 (The Circuit Breakers) is based at Clark. Each year since 2001, members have created functional robots in the six-week time period allotted. With the help of several mentors, the team of high school students has competed at FIRST Robotics regional competitions in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

, and

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

. In the 2007 season, after taking finalist in the Los Angeles Regional and winning the San Diego Regional, the team attended the FIRST Championship in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

for the first time in the team's history.

VEX Robotics VEX Robotics is a robotics program for elementary through university students, and a subset of Innovation First International. The VEX Robotics competitions and programs are managed by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF). In ...

A VEX Robotics team was established during the 2014–2015 school year. The team, instead of using custom built and machined parts, uses VEX's prefabricated products and systems to create competition-ready, functional, and operational robots. The team attends its own competitions and competes with other schools, similar to the FIRST team.

Mentors

The FIRST team is supported by mentors who guide the students in the creation of each year's robot. The

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, located in Pasadena, California, has long been a source of mentors for the team. Other mentors come from local community organizations and businesses and provide the team with machining resources and sponsorship. Parents also mentor the team, and provide guidance through their knowledge of construction, machining, design, and strategy. During the 2010 season, mentor Hannah Goldberg was awarded the Woodie Flowers Award at the San Diego Regional. In the 2015 season, David Black, a Team 696 alumnus from 2002 who became the head mentor of the team in 2011 also received the Woodie Flowers Award during the Ventura Regional, presented by Woodie Flowers himself. The Woodie Flowers Award is presented to one outstanding mentor at each FRC competition.

Notable alumni

* Tatev Abrahamyan, Armenian-American chess player

References

Magnet School Excitement is Coming to Glendale
by Chuck Sambar, ''The Sambar Press'', 1997, retrieved 15 February 2006
A High School for the Next Millennium: Clark Magnet High School
by Douglas Dall, ''The Journal'', August, 1999, retrieved 15 February 2006
District Schools, Clark Magnet High School
retrieved 15 February 2006
Enrollment Data - 2006-07
''2006-07 California Department of Education'', retrieved 25 May 2007

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1998 High schools in the San Fernando Valley High schools in Los Angeles County, California Public high schools in California Magnet schools in California Education in Glendale, California Buildings and structures in Glendale, California 1998 establishments in California