Hope. Change. Choices.

A few days ago, the Los Angeles Times published a table that listed all the recently collected test score data from the district’s magnet schools.

We decided that we would go ahead and update our Magnet Map with the test score data! Now, if you look at the map, you will notice two brand new features.

First, the schools are now color coded by type (Elementary schools, Middle Schools, and High Schools), as well as include the recently released test score data!

Remember, the deadline for applying is December 18th at 5pm!

Click this text or the image below to view the map!

“How do magnet schools actually perform?” is a question I get with much regularity. Until now, the data for magnet school performance has been co-mingled with the data from the regular school it adjoins, leaving us with much confusion.

However, today the Los Angeles Times has released a table of test scores from all the different magnet schools in the district. You can see this table by clicking here.

Hope Change Choices is hoping to at some future date include this data in our Magnet Map.

Magnet Map Beta 0.9.1

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How to use this:
Click on a Point to get more information about each school.

View the Larger Map for more navigation options.

notes:
Data included in the map is from the 2009-10 Choices Brochure.
We expect to soon offer a map with revised data, including the new enrollment figures and the new Magnet schools added for 2010-11.

Version 0.9.5 corrects an issue where some school success statements were not being attributed to the correct school. Also it is noted, but not resolved that some Spanish success statements are incomplete.

LAUSD has gone ahead and released the Magnet application brochure for the coming year! It is the ONLY place where you can apply to a magnet school (copies of applications are not accepted)!

Be on the lookout for your copy, or check out some extras that may be available at local libraries!

IMPORTANT: This year’s application deadline is MUCH EARLIER than previous year’s deadlines. This year’s application deadline is Friday, December 18th!

For more information, check out the videos here, or check out the LAUSD echoices website.

Or even better still, attend a Magnet Faire, on Saturday, November 21st, from 9am until noon, at Cochran Middle School.

LAUSD echoices.lausd.net is down until Sunday.  Expect to see the new choice’s brochure and additional information when they come back online.

In other news:

Rumor has it that Local District 3 in LAUSD is going to be hosting a Choice’s Faire at Cochran Middle School. The event will host Magnets from LD3 for all grade levels as well as some high schools from out side Local District 3 that are in proximity to Mid-City.  Not sure about the district maps check it our here.

Its been a long summer with some significant pick-ups. Earlier this month HCC picked up its newest member, Don Luong. Soon after adding Don we picked up a CEO named Elliot, who coincidently, is my newborn son. Kyle and I spent our summer working on a separate project called Kids Mastering Math (KMM) which is providing targeted skills based intervention to our incoming 6th graders. KMM deserves its own blog for how to create a program at a public school with teacher and administrative buy-in, not to mention being effective at meeting student needs.

What does HCC have planed for the fall? Magnets is our priority this fall, the HCC team met some members of the Student Integration Services to go over issues affecting our students and the broader LAUSD community. First we wanted to secure individual applications independent of the Choices brochure, which helps when we are holding inservice with parents. Student Integration Services made the good point that there is the potential for unequal access so we will continue to encourage students to keep their Choices brochure this year.

Charters are going to be on the back burner until we complete getting our Magnet eggs in a row. For right now as a parent I would start asking around and using our map to find schools. Some charter schools have application deadlines or obligatory meetings coming up in the month of October. We look forward to actively pursuing an updated charter map and a preliminary universal application for charters

One small step forward:  On Wednesday June 10th Kyle and I headed to Beaudry to meet with Mr. Cole-Gutierez  and Mr. Bravo to talk about some of our concerns with Charters and school choice.  We had a great time, it was amazing to work with the existing LAUSD structure to make substantive change in school access (more conceptual, but moving tangible).  We learned a few new things at our meeting.    1. We have incredible support from the Charter office in our mapping endeavor and our indexing of Charter school information, including admission information and the Charter School Petitions.   2.  Change will happen, it will not happen tomorrow, but it will happen within a few months.  3.  Change will be collaborative, both HCC and Charter Office leaders will be working together to compile Charter School profiles and making that information available to the public using open formats.  We hope to this process next with Magnet schools and eventually all LAUSD schools will be easier to locate and compare.

What do you think are important bits of Charter data that you would like to see in our next map.  We plan to add links to API data, LAUSD report card, and the full charter school petition.  Leave a comment and we will take your input.

We are now at the end of the first year of HCC’s existence. Reflecting on the year’s events and our creed, we have made amazing progress.

Choices we made:

We met our initial goal to promote magnet schools with students at Cochran MS. We are specifically preparing 6th graders to be ready to apply to the most competitive Magnet High Schools as 8th graders. We promoted magnet schools by making videos to explain how to apply and clear up many misconceptions about Magnet Schools. For Charter schools we recognized the problem of simply locating where these schools are and how to apply, we responded with a detailed map that included application information for as many schools as we could find. We replicated our map solution for Charter school with Open Enrollment by listing each school on a map with enrollment information.

Change we saw:

We accomplished great participation with Magnets for our school, we accomplished modest success charter schools and open enrollment.
We saw a change in the organization, our initial success brought us to grow our scope to now include charter schools and open enrollment.
We saw a steady increase in participation from the community and private sector to support HCC and its growing mission.

Hope for the future:

Magnet
The Magnet videos are effective at showing how to navigate the Magnet application process. Even better we can simplify the Magnet application process by creating an online form to match the current Magnet application. Currently only Magnet applications submitted on the official form included in the Choice’s brochure is accepted, no copies, no online method. LAUSD already acknowledges the market for an online magnet form, but is struggling with integrating it with the current Student Information System. Our hope is to create an online form that includes some simple checks and returns a PDF file for prospective parents to print. While we lack the resources to provide parents a direct online enrollment process, parents would be given a pre-checked form. We might also be able to store information submitted by parents and allow LAUSD access to that information when a printed application is submitted.

Charters
Students applying to charter schools continue to struggle with the variety of application dates and processes. We are meeting with the LAUSD Executive officer of Charters to discuss our concerns and hopefully get LAUSD support student access by adding a bit of uniformity to the publication and availability of applications. Think of it as instead of having HCC contact every charter to find out when applications are due, LAUSD will maintain this common public information and we can pull it out to add to our map.

An alternative single application to charter schools similar to the single application used by private colleges, is our second goal for charters. Obviously this is a much more involved effort and will require the cooperation of every charter that chooses to participate. We can reasonably expect to execute on this in the fall of this year after meeting with different charter officials.

Outreach
Promotion of HCC is a big part of our future, while our school enjoyed success, we have yet to reach other schools. Our greatest success, with Magnet schools, corresponded to HCC hosting social gatherings to promote the Magnet Videos and a survey. Our current method of outreach is not sustainable beyond perhaps a few more schools. We need to evaluate how to reach more families.

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The Green dots represent High Schools in LAUSD accepting open enrollment. The API number is like a grade for a school, anything over 700 is very good, above 600 is average for LAUSD. The CASHEE pass rate is a combined average of both math and english passing rates for the High School.

Hope.Change.Choices is pleased to release a map with what we believe to be the most complete list of Charter Schools in Los Angeles. Elementary Schools are in Red. High Schools are in Green. Middle Schools are in Blue. Click on a place mark for more information on the school. If you see any errors or omissions, please let us know. The map is best viewed in its own window by selecting the link at the bottom of the map.

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For more information on how we plan to expand our map project visit the support tab.