Высокая школа Улисса С. Гранта: История и традиции

Ulysses S. Grant High School is a public high school located in the Valley Glen neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, in the east central San Fernando Valley. It is located adjacent to Los Angeles Valley College. It is part of District North 2 of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school serves several areas, including Valley Glen, much of Sherman Oaks, and sections of both Van Nuys and North Hollywood. Its mascot is the Lancer and the school colors are brown, orange, and white. The school motto is: "What we are to be we are now becoming." The school newspaper is called The Odyssey in reference to President Grant's first name Ulysses the main character in Homer's epic The Odyssey. There is a school tradition that, on or about April 1, a satirical issue is distributed called the "Oddity", which contains comical and irreverent articles. Past "articles" have been about finals being canceled, the school being closed, rats infesting the cafeteria, clothing optional P. E. classes, etc. The school yearbook is called The Shield. Connected to Grant High School is a communications/technology magnet which emphasizes smaller class sizes and communications technology electives including film/video production, broadcast journalism, computer technology, graphic communications, and performing arts.

Grant opened as a high school in September 1959. Grant's original purpose was to serve as a high school for the families of World War II veterans who were moving into the San Fernando Valley. It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD. Reut Cohen of Neon Tommy, a publication of the Annenberg Media Center, wrote that in the 1970s and 1980s the school was "regarded as an excellent public institution." In the 1990s there was ethnic tension between the Armenian students and the Hispanic and Latino students. An LAUSD official stated a belief that the tension may have originated from earthquake relief drives held in the 1980s which were meant to benefit Armenia and Mexico. Cohen stated that the ethnic tensions were a major factor in the decline of Grant's reputation in the 1990s. By October of that year there were discussion programs aimed at further reducing tension. A fight involving almost 500 students occurred on March 8, 2005. In 2006, Grant was relieved of many 9th and 10th graders by the opening of East Valley High School, which planned to phase in grades 11 and 12 in the following two years. Ethnic tensions reappeared during an Armenian remembrance event in 2008.

In the late 1960s, a local L. A. television station aired a game show called It's Academic, which featured competition among L. A. area high schools in a quiz show format. Grant won the competition both years that the show was on the air. In 1977, students at Grant achieved a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for playing the world's largest musical chairs game (record since broken). Grant students are also credited with helping to paint one of the largest murals in the world—the Great Wall of Los Angeles—in the Tujunga Wash that lies on the border of the campus. The mural, which depicts southwestern U. S. history from prehistoric times, is 2,754 feet (840 m) making it the longest mural in the United States. Grant's award winning Academic Decathlon team placed 11th out of 64 schools in the 2009 regional competition. In 2018 Grant High School had the highest growth of any high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District in SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment California) testing, with an increase of 18 points in the English language arts section and 17 points in the math section.

Grant High School will divide their school into multiple smaller learning communities in order to better create an environment of inclusion and additionally serve students with a curriculum that also includes their interest. Teachers will use techniques that have been tested and proven to be successful in academic success. The freshman academy is designed to help incoming freshman adapt to the High School environment. The freshman academy will continue its focus on Math, Social Science, Science, English, and PE with methods that will help students better prepare freshman for the next years to come. Not only will they focus on academic preparation but it will also focus on social enhancements with hopes of gaining more student involvement in extra curricular activities. Since the year 1990 Humanities has been a small academy at Grant High School. The purpose of this academy was to build a sensed community and to challenge students academically. In August 2018, Humanitas was newly established as the "Humanities Magnet for Interdisciplinary Studies. The program would remain consistent of its original mission but with new enhancements. Students enrolled in this program will have access to Los Angeles Valley Community College, college courses, that are specifically open to the students in this program. The classes will count towards High School and College classes. In addition, Humanitas students have the ability to go on field trips and participate in school activities that are only accessible to them.

In the mid 20th century the school, as a part of the 'Fourth Jewish Ghetto' in Los Angeles, was composed primarily of Jewish students, perhaps as many as 80% of the student body and a similar proportion of the teachers. The tracking program in use revealed that at least 90% of the student body attended college, from local community colleges to Ivies, the majority being awarded scholarships and competitive financial support. At the time, Grant was ranked No. 3 among LA high schools, following Pacific Palisades and University High Schools. Deborah Dash Moore, the author of To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L. A., wrote that this made the presence of these Jewish students "more visible than numbers alone would warrant." Grant offered Modern Hebrew classes. As of 2010 65% of the students were Hispanic and Latino, and 20% were Armenian. The Hispanic and Latino students, as of 2015, often originated from families who migrated from Mexico and Central America and were born in the United States; they prefer to identify by their countries of origin even though they are grouped together as Hispanic and Latino. The Armenian students, as of 2015, originated in a wave of immigration from Armenia and the former Soviet Union that began in the early 1990s.

In 2000 the socialization point for the Latinos was the south side of the school's quad, while the Armenians socialized in the north side. As of that year, fights between Armenian and Latino students often occurred in October. As of 2000 the common belief at the school was that Latinos wore baggy clothes while Armenians dressed more conservatively.