Discovery High School at Newton-Conover

301 West 18th Street

Newton, N.C. 28658

Phone (828) 466-5581 Fax (828) 464-8003

CEEB Code 342911

2016-2017

John Robinson Elizabeth Arditti Principal Counselor

Discovery High School was created through a partnership grant with the North Carolina New Schools Project, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Newton-Conover City Schools. The initial grant continued 5 years. Discovery is now completely funded by Newton-Conover City Schools. The Newton-Conover School Board sees the school as an institution of choice for public high school students and their parents from across Catawba County. Founded in 2005, as Newton-Conover Health Science High School, DHS is a “redesign high school” following a problem based learning design. We may be best described as an academic magnet school, focusing on rigor, relevance and relationships. Our mission is that every student will be college ready. Discovery High School is a one to one technology school.

Discovery High School enrolls 234 students. Admission is competitive through application, essay and interview. Accreditation: North Carolina Public Schools, August 2016. Discovery (NCHSHS) was the recipient of the 2009 Innovator award by the New Schools Project and is a feature school of ASCD. For the 2015-2016 school year, DHS was designated a P21 Exemplar School. Discovery High School received a performance letter grade of “A” from N.C. Public Schools for the 2015-2016 school year, a designation only 86 out of 2,459 schools received. In 2016 a DHS student was named a Park Scholar, and several DHS students have received perfect SAT and ACT scores. Our academic program is organized on a modified block course schedule. Seven credits per year is the normal student course load.

Grading Scale

A / 90-100 / 4 / An Asterisk indicates weighted courses for ranking and are given
additional quality point(s).
*Honors level classes receive one quality point
**AP level classes receive two quality points
All other classes are non-weighted
B / 80-89 / 3
C / 70-79 / 2
D / 60-69 / 1
F / Failing grade / 0

Honors English I*, II*, III* IV*, AP Literature**

Math I*, Honors Math II*, Honors Math III*, Pre-Calculus*, Discrete Math*

Honors Biology*, Honors Earth/Environmental Science*, AP Environmental Science**, Honors Chemistry*, Honors Physics*, Honors Anatomy*,AP Biology**

Honors Civics/Economics*, Honors American History I*, Honors American History II*, AP U.S. History**, Honors World History*, AP World History,** AP U.S. Government & Politics**, AP Psychology**

Other AP courses can be accessed through North Carolina Virtual Public High School and Newton-Conover High School.

College transfer classes can be taken through Catawba Valley Community College.

Class of 2016 Statistics: 60% attended a 4-year college; 30% attended a 2-year college, and 9% joined the military.

Colleges Attended by Graduates from the Last Four Years:

Appalachian State University High Point University University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Clemson University Lenoir Rhyne University University of North Carolina-Pembroke

East Carolina University Methodist University Wake Forest University

East Tennessee State North Carolina Central University Warren Wilson College

Gardner Webb University North Carolina State University Western Carolina University

Georgetown UniversityUniversity of North Carolina-Asheville

Georgia Institute of Technology University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill