Schools

Updated: Five Academies Chosen for Taylor Yard High School

Of the five schools chosen, four have been asked to revise their plans.

The Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Trustees decided on Tuesday afternoon which five learning academies will be allowed to operate in Central Region High School #13 in Elysian Valley, better known as the Taylor Yard School.

update: According to the Los Angeles Times mapping project, the school is actually located at the border of Cypress Park and Glassell Park.

The school will enroll students from across Northeast Los Angeles communities, including Mount Washington Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Echo Park.

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Those five academies include Technology and Math and Science High School Alliance College -Ready Public Schools, ArtLab: Arts and Community Empowerment, the Los Angeles River School, Partnership to Uplift Communities (PUC) LA and the School of History and Dramatic Arts.

The five academies were approved by a vote of 5-2, with members Steven Zimmer, from District Four and Marguerite Lamotte, District 1, dissenting.

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The sixth applicant, the School of Business, Technology and Education, will be considered for implementation at one of LAUSD's numerous campuses that have been slated program improvement.

Of those five schools, Supt. Ramon Cortines was only able to give a recommendation to Technology Math and Science High School Alliance College Ready Public School without a single reservation.

The other four academies will be required to re-submit their plans to Supt. Cortines by April 25. for consideration before they receive his final approval.

Of the L.A. River school,  Cortines said that the instructional proposal "pays close attention to student cultures and organizes the instruction in a coherent and standards based manner."

However, Cortines said the plan needed to be revised to provide research to support some of their instructional choices.

"Plans for assessment and data analysis seem unconnected to the instructional program and finally it does not spell out clear plans for addressing needs of English learners," Cortines said.

Cortines described the Partnership to Uplift Community's plan as "visionary," and listed the plan's well developed support structures as a strength. Like the L.A. River School, though, Cortines also called upon the group to provide more insight into how they would address the needs of English learners.

The School of History and Dramatic Arts was praised by Cortines for their instructional philosophy, which is built on the idea that "students learn best through experience and performance." Cortines lauded the academies proposal to bring together "strong academics, demanding technical education and real world experience."

The weakness in the School of History and Dramatic Arts' plan, according to Cortines, was a lack of emphasis in the areas of math and sciences. He asked that their plan be revised to address those areas in greater detail.  He added that their plan for English learners was not well developed and that their professional development regiment, while exhaustive, lacked rigor.

ArtLab, the last of the five schools to receive Cortines' recommendation, was noted for its basis in state and national instructional standards as well as its "emphasis on arts and media, a well articulated learning competency and multiple modes of assessment."

The plan needed to be developed though, Cortines said, to address math, science and english language development. The superintendent also called upon ArtLab to include language about vocational education in the plan.

The School of Technology, Business and Education was the one applicant left on the outside looking in. Cortines said the plan had some strong aspects, but overall, was underdeveloped. He  encouraged those academies that did receive his recommendation to take a close look at the School of Technology, Business and Education and integrate those stronger aspects.

Trustee Steven Zimmer, who represents District 4, asked that Cortines reconsider the decision to exclude the school and asked instead that all six academies be required to resubmit their proposals.

He pointed out that, for example, the Alliance Ready Public School only had experience operating as a school of choice and had not clearly laid out in their plan how they would effectively serve students of all abilities as a neighborhood school.

"It would be good for them to address how they would be a neighborhood school," he said. "They're very explicitly a school of choice because of the leverage and empowerment that allows them. I would never say they aren't serving all kids. I just want to get more information on how they would take their model and make their model into a neighborhood boundary school model."

Yolie Flores Aguillar, who represents District 5 communities, including Mount Washington, Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Echo Park, said the Alliance school would have no choice but to serve the needs of all students.

"We have made it very clear to the charter schools that if you want to play in this game, you have to meet the needs of all students," she said.

Zimmer also said that the School of Technology, Business and Education offered a distinct approach from the other five candidates and deserved a chance to refine their plan.

"There are some real important points that this plan offers that none of the other plans offer, and there are some special skill sets that the teachers bring to the table and they should at least be able to have a chance to re-submit," he said.

Board President Monica Garcia suggested instead said than rather forcing all six schools to undergo the submittal process for a second time, that the School of Technology, Business and Education should be considered for implementation at another campus in the next round of public school choice recommendations. 

"We have an ally in the School of Technology, Business and Education that we should seek," Garcia said.


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