Talk:David H. Hickman High School

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David H. Hickman High School was a good article nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these are addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Reviewed version: June 11, 2007
Peer review David H. Hickman High School has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.
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  • Copyedit: needs some consistency of style and grammar check
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[edit] School Size

2000 students is the largest in Missouri? I doubt this is the case, I came from a different high school in Missouri that also had over 2000 students. Perhaps it is the largest in Columbia, but not in all of Missouri? 12.207.135.128 04:52, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Fixed! I checked the enrollment numbers at MSHSAA and got an actual count. Turns out there are many schools that come before HHS:

DeSmet 3033 Christian Brothers College 2927 St. Louis University High 2879 Hazelwood Central 2806 Rockhurst 2787 Hickman 2752

Genius00345 00:43, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

--Hey, Americasroof, unless you have another source you can point out to us, don't say that Hickman is the largest high school in Missouri. Check out the numbers above. Genius00345 23:57, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

The school's own website says it is http://www.columbia.k12.mo.us/hhs/welcome.html and the Columbia Tribune says it is. http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/OurTown/20050626OurTown096.asp You can do what you want with that information. I'm not going to get into a revert war over it. Americasroof 05:28, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
For what I it's worth I also did some spot check on your numbers. St. Louis University High School web sites says it has an enrollment of 1,065 http://www.sluh.org/about/profile/ The De Smet Jesuit High School shows enrollment of 1,250. I suspect your reports were for the entire school system. Hickman is one big ass school (and even at that it's only grades 10-12 while most schools are 9-12. Americasroof 05:47, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I've probably spent much more time on this than I ever thought possible. I do think you're off on the the Catholic schools (DeSmet is the largest private school) but there's an asterik on Hazelwood Central High School.

The official site for the Missouri Department of Education which lists school size of all public schools is: http://dese.mo.gov/directory/

Columbia site is: http://dese.mo.gov/directory/010093.html It lists Hickman's enrollment as 1,974 (for 10-12)

Hazelwood's site is http://dese.mo.gov/directory/096088.html It lists 2,633 (for 9-12)

Since MSHSAA competition sizes are based on 9-12 the schools would be almost identical in size from a competition standpoint (doing rough math, Hickman's size would be 2,632 -- 1,974 + 1974/3). Hickman is probably bigger in real terms since they add the ninth grade classes that would attend there.

A more detailed breakout on the size issue would definitely raise the article to very notable (rather than just being another high school entry). Most folks would think the biggest Missouri school would be in KC or STL. And there's all sorts of hot buttons that can hit when a school in a moderate size university town gets that big.

Americasroof 13:54, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

--Wow. You really did some research! I was basing it off the only source I could think of, which was MSHSAA. I wasn't thinking that MSHSAA based the numbers 9-12. That definitely changes things. However, I am mystified as to why the other school's numbers are so far off. You suggested that MSHSAA covers the whole school system, but my school's number is correct for just the high school. Although, do we want to base the numbers for 9-12 or by the size of what the district considers 'high school' (in this case 10-12)? If you go by 9-12, Hickman and Hazelwood are basically tied. But by 'high school,' Hazelwood beats out Hickman no contest. We need to come to a consensus to avoid conflict in the future, and perhaps address this issue on the WikiProject Schools page as well. I'm sorry for seeming a bit snappy when I said "Hey, unless you have..." I guess I'm just a devoted Wikipedian striving for factual information. And out of sheer curiousity, are you a HHS student/alum, or just a devoted Wikipedian like me? Genius00345 22:57, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I went through the Columbia Public School system, and vouch for considering 'High School' as grades 9-12. Not only is this the classical definition of high school, but it is also the running norm in the US. 9th graders in Columbia have to compete at state music festivals and other competitions under the category of the high school they will be attending in 10th grade. Mixed teams are not allowed, so in effect they are already going to either Rock Bridge or Hickman, but just are not yet in the main building. Also for the future when a third high school will be built, the Jr. Highs will each be a 'feeder' school to one High School, much like Jefferson City's current use of a 9th grade building. Grey Wanderer 23:40, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
I forgot to mention that the current figure of enrollment on the Hickman website, is outdated, by several years. The current enrollment is upwards of 2,100 (10-11). I'm still waiting for a published source so we can source this. But those are the numbers I've gotten from the Administration there. I forgot to thank you guys ( Americasroof and Genius00345) for all your hard work. Grey Wanderer 23:47, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for your comments and work. This article is the most notable of any high school article I've seen what with the Kewpie, alumni list and school size. In the for what it's worth I kept the total number mentioned on the wiki article before I started editing as it "sounds right" rather than doing my rough math based on the state education site (as 9th grade is almost impossible to verify via web). Also in the for what it's worth department, if you have any contacts with MSHSAA, I would love to see a list of state champions (with runners up) at least on the major sports from the beginning. It seems it's a state secret (I've contacted them via email to no avail). The whole reason I wondered in here was because I kept doing variations of google "Missouri State High School Champions" (hence seeing the Tribune reference to biggest school -- I didn't realize when I posted there had already been a debate). And of course the starting point was the whole Spoofhound thing. Also, it would be interesting in telling the story of Hickman to find out when it changed from a four-year to three-year school. Presumably at some point 9-12 was at the school. Amazing how wiki connects dots!!! Americasroof 01:00, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
  • The 2007 enrollment numbers for Hazelwood Central are up to 2,882 according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. With the increase in that number, does Hickman still hold on to the top spot, or has it been passed by Hazelwood Central? BlueGold73 05:03, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Hmm....I'm not sure. Hazelwood certainly has the most on one campus, (they don't split up their 9th graders right?), but I don't know how big the 9th grade class at Hickman is...I wish MSHSAA would release numbers it would make things easier. I'll do some more poking around on this. Grey Wanderer | Talk 22:19, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

This article has been Quick Failed from GA for the following reason(s):

  • Referencing: Large sections of the article are unreferenced. Additionally, a consistant style should be used, currently both footnotes and in-line citations are used.

Other notes: One image Image:Hickman High School.jpg is likely not fair use, since this is not an article on the architecture firm nor are they mentioned in the article in any way, thus the image is not used to critque their work. It shoud be easily replaceable by someone taking a picture of the school. Also, a second picture (the one of Reagan) my not be the work of the US governement and thus in the public domain as the uploader did not give a source to verify the information. If not US gov work then it needs to be removed.

Content: This is very broad coverage and meets those guidelines. You may consider breaking off the athletics section into its own article and putting together a good two or three paragraph summary as the long list of state champs takes away from the article. Writing: This artilce needs to be copy edited. In the lead we have: "being rating within the top 5% of high schools " which should be rated. But that is not it, otherwise I could quickly fix this. A quick critique on just the History section:

  • Public secondary education began in Columbia during the 1880s with the founding of Columbia High School in 1889 at the intersection of Ninth Street and Rogers. As most high schools were at this point in history CHS offered a two-year course of study. In 1895 it was increased to three, and again in 1896 to four. Extracurricular activities in 1989 included a literary society, choral union, orchestra, and debate team. Sports teams were present, but were not yet funded by the district. Overcrowding caused the demolition of the old school and the construction of a new three-storey structure at the same site.
    • First sentence good. Second sentance uses most, please see Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words. 3rd, expand to include years after at least three to avoid any confusion since "it" is already used and not the actual noun. Next sentence, "1989" I am assuming is supposed to be 1889, but if not this does not flow with the rest of the paragraph and should be moved to an area covering that time frame. (skip one sentence) Last sentence should be more along the lines of: Increased enrollment at the school led to overcrowding by (insert year) and a need for a new, larger facility. Most of the existing building was then demolished to make room for a new three-storey structure at the same site.

In the end, this is a great start and far ahead of most high school articles and even many college articles. It is a solid B class article, but needs some work to bring it up to GA. I would strongly suggest waiting for the peer review requested above and getting a third party to copy-edit this article before submitting for GA again. Once again, great job getting the article this far. Aboutmovies 20:48, 11 June 2007 (UTC)