USC Rossier’s Innovative Charter High School Model Coming to Lincoln Heights

Contact: Merrill Balassone at (213) 509-7805 or balasson@usc.edu

USC East College Prep, a second charter high school developed and designed by the USC Rossier School of Education, will open in August, serving students in Lincoln Heights, the neighborhood of USC’s Health Sciences Campus.

USC Hybrid High, the predecessor of USC East College Prep, will expand to full capacity next year to serve about 450 students in downtown Los Angeles. Hybrid High’s first class of seniors will graduate in June 2016.

Ednovate, the charter management organization of which USC is a fiscal and operating partner, operates both schools, which are chartered through the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“USC Hybrid High and Ednovate are committed to making a positive multigenerational change not only in the lives of students, families, and communities, but also in the profession of teaching,” said Karen Symms Gallagher, dean of the USC Rossier School. “USC Rossier built these schools with the intention of not only learning what works and what doesn’t in personalized learning, but also sharing that information widely to impact the work of teachers and administrators, and therefore the success of students.”

USC East College Prep students will benefit from the same personalized learning program developed at USC Hybrid High, which blends online curriculum that the students use in class at their own pace with one-on-one instruction from teachers, group work, community projects and internships.

The school’s primary goal is to ensure that 100 percent of graduates will be accepted into a selective four-year university, with 90 percent continuing after the first year.

Its mission is to create positive multigenerational change, enabling students to go on to use their college degrees and careers to impact their families, their community, their nation and the world.

USC East College Prep plans to welcome 130 ninth-graders this fall, building up to a total of 450 students within four years. Interest in both Ednovate schools has been high, with 617 applications total, a ratio of more than two applicants for every seat available. Because the schools are public charter schools with no prerequisites for entry, admission is determined by a random lottery system.

The school has hired 12 teachers, administrators and support staff members, including four who have roots on the east side of Los Angeles.

“I’d like to commend USC for helping improve the communities of the First Council District with the establishment of the USC East College Prep school in Lincoln Heights,” said Councilmember Gil Cedillo. “Some of the communities in my district have been challenged with access to college, either because no one in their family has ever attended college, or because they frankly don’t see it as an option. With the establishment of this new school, I hope the pipeline to college will be established for residents in the surrounding communities, creating more access and opportunities for our bright students.”

Like its predecessor, USC East College Prep is expected to serve first generation college-going students. Based on initial data, the incoming class is expected to be primarily Latino, with more than 90 percent of its students coming from low-income families. Approximately 15 percent of the incoming class has special needs.

“Opening a second innovative Ednovate campus will not only allow us to serve more Los Angeles families, it will also allow both of our schools to improve more rapidly as they collaborate and compete with one another to find better ways to personalize learning for students,” said Oliver Sicat, the CEO of Ednovate and a nationally known charter school leader and graduate of USC Rossier.

USC Hybrid High Boasts Exceptional Rise in Academic Achievement

USC Hybrid High School has released impressive new performance data:

• The school’s most recent 10th-grade pass rates on the California High School Exit Examination are high: a 90 percent pass rate in English and 93 percent in math, with an 89 percent overall pass rate, compared to LAUSD’s average 10th-grade overall pass rate of 69 percent in the 2013-14 school year. Additionally, the school has nationally competitive growth on the nationally normed ACT assessment.
• Quarterly surveys have shown over 90 percent satisfaction among parents and students.

Both campuses provide a laptop for each student, allowing for greater personalization of students’ learning experiences. Students use individual Google Chromebooks to progress through an online curriculum at their own pace, with the ability to move ahead or repeat work depending on the level of subject mastery.

As students work independently or in groups, teachers track student progress in real time through a data platform and provide one-on-one or small group attention and support targeted at each student’s level.

Ednovate plans to grow to five high schools in the Southern California region by 2017, serving more than 2,000 students in high-need communities.

For more information about Ednovate, visit http://www.ednovate.org or email info@ednovate.org. To enroll a student at USC East College Prep, please call the school at (323) 285-1441.