Murrah High School

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Murrah High School

Motto	The only place to be..
Established	1904
Type	Public secondary
Principal	Dr. Roy Brookshire
Faculty	200
Students	approx. 1,500
Grades	9-12
Location	1400 Murrah Dr. Jackson, Mississippi, USA
District	Jackson Public School District
Colors	Blue and Silver
Mascot	Mustangs
Yearbook	The Hoofbeat
Newspaper	The Murrah Matters
Website	[1]

1 History
2 Special programs
3 Notable alumni
4 External links

[edit] History

William Belton Murrah (1852-1925) was an American Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1910. Born in Pickensville, Alabama, he was educated at Southern University (now Birmingham-Southern College) in Greensboro, Alabama, and at Centenary College in Jackson, Louisiana. In 1897 Murrah received the LL.D. degree from Wofford College in South Carolina. Prior to his election to the Episcopacy, he served from 1890 till 1910 as the first President of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. Murrah High School in Jackson and Murrah Hall on the Millsaps campus were both named after William B. Murrah.

[edit] Special programs

[edit] Base Pair program

JPS is a partner with the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC) in the Base Pair research mentorship program funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The primary focus for Base Pair is to utilize the physical resources and intellectual capital of UMC to enable the pursuit of excellence in science education within a local public school environment. The program matches high school students with UMC faculty members for in-depth experiences in the sciences.

Base Pair has consistently emphasized three objectives:

To cultivate career awareness among high school students in areas related to biomedical research
To train such students as effective "communicators of science" to the general public
To advance teacher professional and science curriculum development within the JPSD

That program, funded since 1992 and continuing through 2007, has brought approximately $1.3 million for science education enhancement into the district. Base Pair-trained high school students are authors on more than five dozen published scientific papers or abstracts. Twenty-five Base Pair graduates are currently in post-baccalaureate academic programs, including 12 in M.D., M.D./Ph.D., Ph.D. (science) or Masters degree in science training. Six of these are currently enrolled in a program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Visit the UMC Base Pair Web site at http://basepair.library.umc.edu

[edit] SOAR

The Student Oriented Academic Research (SOAR) program is a companion to the Base Pair program at Murrah High School. SOAR was developed to implement advanced science research activities for JPS students outside of the UMC zone. In this program, students are enrolled in Biology II during their junior year and other advanced life science courses during their senior year. The SOAR program supports advanced biomedical and forensic science laboratory research by students at each high school site.

[edit] Academic and Performing Arts Complex (APAC)

The Academic and Performing Arts Complex (APAC) is open to students in grades 4-12 who are academic achievers and/or who show aptitude for one or more of the visual or performing arts. There is an application process held each year for entrance into the programs for the following school year.

Academics:

Eligibility for the academics division is based on past grades, standardized tests, entrance tests, and teacher recommendations. Cooperative learning and higher order thinking skills are emphasized. Courses in math, science, language arts, and social studies prepare students to take further APAC and Advanced Placement/APAC classes in high school. APAC academic courses are offered for grades 4 and 5 at Power APAC Elementary; for grades 6 through 8 at Chastain, Powell, and Peeples middle schools; and for grades 9 through 12 at Murrah High School. In October 2002, Jackson Public Schools received a federal grant totaling almost $1 million to increase the number of middle and high school students who complete college-level courses in high school. This Advanced Placement (AP) Incentive Grant money has been used to increase the number of middle and high school students enrolling in and successfully completing Advanced Placement or college level courses in high school and in pre-AP courses through the district’s accelerated academic program (APAC).

Performing Arts:

The performing arts division offers classes in dance, music, theatre arts, and visual arts. Students must make application and audition for entry into the program. These courses are offered for grades 4 through 12 at the Power APAC site.