Gahr High School
Richard Gahr High School, often simply known as Gahr High School, is a public, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) magnet high school in Cerritos, California, serving grades 9-12. Gahr High is one of three comprehensive high schools in the ABC Unified School District. At Gahr, the plan for all students is graduation and on to college and career, and the teachers and staff believe “ALL STUDENTS CAN and WILL LEARN.” Classes and programs offered at Gahr include English Second Language; College Preparatory; 37 Advanced Placement/Honors Courses; Arts Technology Academy (ATA); AVID (Advancement Via  Individual Determination); Project Lead the Way – Biomedical Sciences, Computer Science, or Engineering Pathways; and variety of Career Technical Education (CTE) such as Automotive, International Business, Multimedia Communications, Theater Production, and Video Production. Moreover, there are 25 student club/organization and 20 Competitive Sports Programs. Though it has a comparatively small student population at around 1,900, Gahr is known as a very ethnically diverse campus, (located in "the most ethnically diverse place in America", according to a California State University, Northridge study, as Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Filipino Americans and African Americans together constitute a large majority at more than 70 %. The school's graduation rate is also 16% higher than the county average. History. Gahr High School opened in 1965 as the first high school in both the newly unified ABC Unified School District, and the recently incorporated City of Dairy Valley (the city would be renamed to its current state two years later). Indeed, the originally proposed name for the school was "Dairy Valley High School". The school was officially named after Richard Gahr, who had served as the school district's Superintendent. During the 1970s, as the student population in Cerritos rapidly grew, Cerritos High School was created  for district expansion, and during its construction the latter used part of the Gahr campus. In 2006, Gahr High School was invited to apply to be a California Distinguished School, and early in 2007, it was readily inspected. Now it has "California Distinguished School" to add to its resume. During 2017–2018 school year, Gahr High School is a Gold Ribbon School and California Distinguished School with a 99.6% graduation rate and a 97% college attendance rate. Statistics. California Standardized Testing Rankings for 2006. Data reported are the percent of students achieving at the Proficient or Advanced level (meeting or exceeding  the state standards). Expenditure per student for 2002-2003. Data reported in dollars per student is as follows: