Model of Success

Animo Inglewood dedicates new campus and demonstrates winning educational approach.

By Cynthia E. Griffin
OW Staff Writer

INGLEWOOD – Green Dot Public Schools has just officially dedicated the new campus for Animo Inglewood Charter High School, and although the 525 students who attend the school probably don’t know it, company founder Steve Barr said they are establishing a legacy and model he believes could radically alter public education in Los Angeles.

The new ninth- through 12th-grade campus is located on Manchester Avenue at the site of the old Kaiser Permanente building, and contains a state-of-the art science lab, dance studio and gymnasium.

Inglewood is one of five Green Dot high schools currently operating in Los Angeles. The others are Animo South Los Angeles on Western Avenue, Animo Leadership on Aviation at Arbor Vita, Animo Venice and Oscar De la Hoya Animo Charter High School in Boyle Heights.

What makes these schools different from other charters, believes Barr, is that in addition to talking the talk, they are able to walk the walk by taking students similar to those who attend Inglewood Unified high schools and turning them into high achievers. Animo scored 703 on the state Academic Performance Index testing, almost 200 points more than both of Inglewood’s public high schools.

“Our schools are small and have high expectations. They are decentralized, and the people at the school site really run the school,” said Barr about why Green Dot schools, particularly Inglewood, do so well with the same students.

“We face the same challenges as all the other high schools do–one-fourth of our incoming (ninth-graders) are reading at under the fourth-grade level. So, what we do the first year is we’ve developed a teacher-led intervention reading project. Students read three to four hours a day, and about 90 percent are up to grade level by the end of their freshman year. Then, we can do college prep work for the next three years.”

Barr is in the process of putting his formula of small schools, high expectations, strong parental involvement and local school-site control to work in one of the toughest parts of the Los Angeles Unified School Districts–Jefferson High.

“On Nov. 1, we are going to submit charter applications for six schools around Jefferson High School (to the LAUSD), and we plan to open the schools August 2006,” Barr said.

The six schools are being organized in locations around Jefferson High, and will focus on enrolling ninth-graders. Barr, who said the LAUSD views Green Dot’s efforts as a hostile takeover, is confident that by empowering the 5,000 to 10,000 parents and students in the area, they will be successful at either creating the new schools or forging a partnership with LAUSD.

“If we get it right at Jefferson, one of the lowest-performing high schools in Los Angeles, and start to turn it around, then families and parents at Crenshaw, Roosevelt, Garfield and other schools will realize they have the power to change schools and demand that they are better. If we do it right at Jefferson, it could spark a city-wide movement,” said Barr.