Harding Senior High School

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Harding Senior High School is a public comprehensive high school located on the East Side of Saint Paul, Minnesota. The school is one of six high schools in the Saint Paul Public School District and is the largest high school in the city of Saint Paul with enrollment at approximately 2400. The school was opened in 1926 as the second high school in the East Side after Johnson Senior High School. Harding has an IB Diploma Programme and also offers Advanced Placement classes. The school is divided into Small Learning Communities based on students interests. Harding is a member of the Minnesota State High School League and the athletic teams compete in the Saint Paul City Conference.EducationHarding Senior High School is one of several schools participating in smaller learning communities. In a somewhat similar fashion to specific colleges within the University of Minnesota, smaller learning communities were implemented in the 2002-2003 school year to group students that had similar interests together for a career. Freshmen are automatically placed in the 9th Grade Academy, and the following year, select to be in the Academy of Fine Arts, the Medical and Environmental Sciences Academy (MESA), the Human Services Academy, or the Science, Engineering, & Information Technology Academy (SEIT). However, the Academies have been facing difficulties with the large student body and change has been slow. While academic performance has improved over the past few years, there is not enough data to associate the increase with smaller learning communities. There is a limit of 500 students per academy, which has presented a dilemma with the Academy of Fine Arts who have had to reject a number of students. A possible cause is the large base of students involved in some form of fine arts. Another challenge is scheduling students to just their academy teachers.