LA Watts Times
August 16, 2007
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LOS ANGELES—Here are some statistics virtually unheard of in any Los Angeles-based high school, be they public or charter schools.
View Park Preparatory Charter High School, the flagship school for Inner City Education Foundation (ICEF), graduated its first class in June of this year. Of the 71 graduates, all of them African American, 65 of them are matriculating to four-year universities this fall. The remaining six are headed to junior colleges.
Since opening in 2003, View Park Prep has been ranked as high as eighth out of the 118 public high schools in Los Angeles when it comes to student performances and in 2005, was ranked No. 1 for educating African American students in the state of California.
On Aug. 16, ICEF officials expect to announce the receipt of a grant for $4.2 million to open four more charter schools in September: the Lou Dantzler Charter middle and high schools as well as the Thurgood Marshall Charter middle and high schools. A majority of those funds were secured from the Michael and Susan Dell and Walton family foundations.
ICEF has had to rely on alternative funding since to date, ICEF and Green Dot, two of the most prominent charter school providers in Los Angeles, have received only a small percentage of an estimated $19 billion allocated through bond initiatives for charter schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District controls those funds.
“There should be a wide playing field for all schools in Los Angeles and those funds should be made available, but they haven’t … we have done our best to raise funds to serve the community despite the delays,” said Michael Piscal, ICEF Head of Schools and chief executive officer. “With all the challenges LAUSD has had, and the statistics show they have not served the minority community well, you would think they would see us as a solution.”
“We believe we have the correct model in educating our students,” Piscal said. “It costs the LAUSD $80,000 per seat to educate one child and it only costs [us] $14,000 per seat … that’s a significant difference.”
Piscal said the biggest difference in ICEF’s approach is that they re-invest back into the black community.
“If you really look closely, administrators in the LAUSD will contract work to friends and family…nepotism is big within that system,” Piscal said. “Since we’ve started we’ve contracted out almost $7 million in business to black owned companies and businesses in the Crenshaw district. We have close to $9 million in Broadway Federal Bank which is black-owned and we constantly look for ways to re-invest in the black community.”
Thurgood Marshall Charter High School founding Principal David Morrow is no stranger to high academic standards in the Los Angeles school systems. For the school year 2006-2007, Morrow was awarded the Administrative Leadership Award for his work as founding principal of the Hawthorne Mathematics and Science Academy. The Math and Science Academy was awarded the Title-1 High Achievement Award from state superintendent Jack O’Connell. The academy finished with an Academic Performance Index (API) of 849.
“I’m pleased to have the opportunity again to show my passion to work for and with the minority communities in an effort to help empower and transcend the students from where they are to a level where they can articulate and be productive in an academic setting and most of all contribute to their communities,” Morrow said. “I found that I have a shared vision for the students and parents of Los Angeles … Thurgood Marshall will provide students with a rigorous curriculum, strict behavior guidelines, and an opportunity to excel in math, science and leadership.”
Aside from the four new schools to open in September and the strong academic presence of the View Park Prep, ICEF also operates the View Park Preparatory Elementary School, the View Park Preparatory Middle School, the Frederick Douglass Academy Middle School and the Frederick Douglass Academy Charter High School.
View Park Prep Charter Middle School opened in September 2001 and 96 percent of its students are African American. It is ranked fourth out of 89 public middle schools in Los Angeles and was ranked first in 2002 for Math standardized test scores.
View Park Prep Elementary School opened in September 1999 and has a 97 percent African American enrollment. Its students’ performances have been so strong they have been ranked in the top 10 of all elementary schools in Los Angeles.
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