In the theater of his mind, Ulysses Brown has always pictured himself triumphantly returning to his old high school one day with a bachelor's degree to show the teachers who believed in him that they didn't waste their time.

By the time he starts his freshman year at Penn State University this fall, Duquesne High School will be shut down, its students and staff scattered to other school districts, and Mr. Brown's dream ending will never be more than that.

"There is no school for me to go back to and visit the teachers and say, 'I got this. I got my degree,' " said Mr. Brown, 18, who will major in criminal justice. "I want to give back to the school. This blows my mind."

Duquesne High School's 110th commencement last month represented the final graduating class for a school district that state education officials say has failed to prepare its high school students properly.

When they marched up to get their diplomas on May 25, the seniors didn't know theirs would be the last class. It wasn't until more than a week later that the state board of control voted to close the high school.

Of the 42 who started the school year, 30 seniors graduated after taking classes at the school this year, and another eight earned diplomas by attending alternative education and special needs programs. Four failed to graduate, said Vernon Tipton, the school district's executive director.

Those who graduated persevered in a school district that had for years promoted all students to the next grade whether they earned credits toward graduation or not.

Only 17 members of this year's senior class began the year as academic seniors. The other 25 students who should have been seniors spent the whole year retaking 11th-, 10th- and even ninth-grade classes they didn't pass the first time around.

More than 200 high school students and dozens of staff members who remain at Duquesne High likely will be dispersed to multiple school districts next school year.

The kindergarten-to-eighth-grade program at Duquesne will be unaffected.

"To know that my grandparents and a lot of other family members have graduated from this school and that I'll be the last is very, very sad," said Chastity Davidson, 18, who will attend Clarion University of Pennsylvania this fall on two academic scholarships.

Many of the students in Duquesne City School District come from low-income households, and standardized test scores in the district have been historically low; however, the majority of Duquesne High's graduates this year intend to beat the odds.

Of the 30 graduates, 80 percent have indicated they will be striving to earn advanced degrees from either colleges or trade schools.

Fourteen of them were accepted at four-year colleges where they'll pursue degrees ranging from business to education. Ten are planning to attend community colleges and trade schools to become nurses and beauticians. Two will enlist in the military, and four are still undecided on careers.

The high number of college admissions stems largely from teachers who used their influence to persuade students who didn't think they had what it takes to attend college to make the effort.

Day after day, the graduates say, these handful of devoted teachers required them to fill out financial aid forms and college admission applications and constantly preached the importance of taking the SAT and doing well on it.

"They literally pushed us until we fell into what we needed to do so we wouldn't be standing around with nothing to do," Mr. Brown said. "Some of us thought college wasn't for them and they ended up going. That was what showed us someone really cared."

Dr. Tipton did not have a tally of the postgraduation plans of those who graduated after attending alternative or special needs programs.

"Out of the ones that graduated from here we tried to make sure they had direction, either for college or work," Dr. Tipton said. "I think the year went as well as could be expected."

While Duquesne struggled academically and financially, it had a winning high school sports program.

Football and basketball became the only extracurricular activities offered to Duquesne High School students. Academically, the district offered no advanced placement and honors courses and limited foreign language classes.

Still, despite its limited offerings, Duquesne's athletic program has been the ticket to college for some this year as it has been for many of its students throughout the years.

One of those, Fitzgerald Bobo, a varsity quarterback and receiver for Duquesne, will attend Miami University of Ohio this fall on a four-year athletic scholarship.

"In the future, Duquesne students might not have a fair shot at other schools for being quarterback, wide receiver or other key positions," he said. "All Duquesne had was sports. It kept kids out of the streets and kept them in school and motivated to do well in school. That's being taken away from them.

"I can tell you they will not get a fair shot at other schools because they're targeted as low-class kids. How do you think they'll treat them in the system? Kids are going to react to that negativity, and you'll have more problems with failure and dropouts."