ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, Patrick Henry High School was identified as a school at risk. With enrollment at barely 800 in a school designed for 1,200, spotty student attendance, low morale, and high teacher turnover, the school was in danger of being shut down. Yet, by March 2000, district data rated Patrick Henry more highly than five of the seven other Minneapolis public high schools (Minneapolis Public Schools, 2000). That year, Newsweek ranked Patrick Henry number 218 on its list of top high schools in the United States (Mathews, 2000).
