LA Alliance for College-Ready
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Los Angeles, CA 90014
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Alliance for College-Ready
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Alliance Expands to Four Schools
Click map to enlarge. When school begins on August 29th, three more Alliance College-Ready charter schools will welcome students to the opportunities offered by their small, high-performing learning environments.
More than 500 middle and high school students from low income and underserved neighborhoods will begin the journey toward the 100% goals that make Alliance schools unique. The new schools join College-Ready Academy High School now open to summer school students and prepping for the 325 ninth and tenth grade students enrolled for the 2005-2006 school year.
Two new high schools and one middle school are expanding the Alliance. They represent a major step forward toward the Alliance’s goal of twenty high performing schools in the next five years in which 100% of graduates will continue to post-secondary education, 100% will pass the California High School Exit Exam, and 100% will meet the University of California A-G admission requirements.
Huntington Park
College-Ready Academy High School
6005 Stafford Avenue
Huntington Park, CA
At an information meeting this summer, a student asked, “Will only smart kids go here?” Principal Laura Galvan said, “Oh no! In this school, if you want to succeed, if you want to go to college, you can do it.” Nearly 200 students have chosen Huntington Park College-Ready Academy (HPCRA) as their pathway to graduation and college. Eight teachers and Ms. Galvan will spend much of August preparing for them.“This is an educator’s dream,” says Ms. Galvan, who previously worked for more than a decade in the Pasadena School District. ‘I will have such close contact with our students and our community. I want to put down roots here so that we develop real relationships.” At the recent meeting, parents questioned her about components of the Alliance College-Ready school. “They asked if the student-teacher ratio really would be 25 to one, if the school year was longer, and if special education students were eligible,” she recalls. “The answer to all those questions is yes. AT HPCRA, if the student has the willingness to work for it, we have the support to make graduation and college a reality."
Heritage College-Ready
Academy High School
603 East 115th Street
Los Angeles, CA
“It’s a perfect location for an Alliance school,” says Principal Harry Ervin. “We are between Locke High School and Gompers. The community wants the opportunity we’re offering: high expectations, rigorous college prep curriculum, tight absence policy, and a uniform dress code.” Two hundred students will compose the inaugural class. Nine highly qualified teachers will be ready for them. They might find inspiration from the benefactor of the school, the Skirball Foundation. Its founder Jack Skirball became a successful New York film producer and real estate developer who never lost sight of the importance of quality education.
Mr. Ervin smiles when he talks about opportunities: his and those of Heritage students. “They have the opportunity to be successful in an academy atmosphere. I have the opportunity to work with kids and their parents who want to be successful and are willing to work for it. It’s a win-win situation.”
College-Ready Middle Academy
5753 Rodeo Road
Los Angeles, CA
The first class of the Alliance’s first middle school will be made up of 150 sixth graders. “We will tell them from Day One that this is how you will become a successful student,” predicts Principal Donna Jacobson. “I know this age group. When you set high standards for them and provide the tools and materials they need, students will rise to the challenge.” Ms. Jacobson brings more than fifteen years experience in elementary and middle schools to her new position. “The mission of the Alliance attracted me. I know that no matter how hard teachers and administrators work in large schools, there will still be kids you aren’t able to reach. This will be a small, high performing learning environment."
Six teachers will be student-ready when College-Ready Middle Academy opens its doors on August 29th. Ms. Jacobson plans to blend rigorous programs such as nationally-known AVID (Achievement Via Individual Determination) with standards-based instruction and mentoring by college students so that “our students will be exposed to the goal of college every day.”
