L.A. High Receives California State Improvement Grant

Category: Student Beat and Scholarships
Published on Friday, 13 June 2014 16:18
Written by Calvin Park L.A. High Staff Writer
The state of California has picked several schools in the Los Angeles area to receive the benefits of the School Improvement Grant (SIG); Los Angeles High School is one of them. Through SIG, which dedicates millions of dollars towards improving lower performing schools, the Federal government has taken a step to improve public schools across the nation.

The grant requires the beneficiary school to enter one of four SIG models to turn the school around. These options include the Turnaround, Transformation, Restart, and Closure models. Each of these models requires the school to make significant changes and sometimes require a change in staff. The Local Education Agencies (LEA), in this case, LAUSD, decides which schools can apply for the benefits and, ultimately, which intervention model each of those schools will adopt.

The State of California and LAUSD have officially decided that, as part of SIG, L.A. High will receive close to $2 million a year, for three years. It will undergo the Restart model, working with California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) as an Educational Management Organization (EMO).  SIG will mainly be used to raise student academic achievement, with programs such as summer credit recovery programs, summer bridge programs for incoming 9th graders, technical hardware and software, instructional coaches, additional academic courses, and more, to help the students of L.A. High.  Whether this grant will help improve the school is unclear; it is too early to tell if the SIG grant will be a massive failure or an astounding success. 

Mr. Gebhart, Assistant Principal, is hopeful for some of the opportunities that SIG will provide, “Not having been at a SIG school, I cannot comment on the efficacy of the SIG grant," said Gebhart, "[However,] I can say that the funds provided under the SIG grant do allow L.A. High to purchase personnel, resources, and time that otherwise would not have been available. From there, it is up to the L.A. High leadership and staff to utilize all of the resources and opportunities to [further] build a positive educational environment for students and staff alike.”