A small Southern California charter high school has a fighting chance to snag the biggest graduation speaker of them all: the leader of the free world.
Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale has been selected as one of six finalists in the White House’s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. The winner will receive the honor of President Obama speaking at its graduation ceremony.
More than 1,000 schools nationwide entered the contest, meant to reward a top public school based on performance data and student-written essays about how their school has helped them prepare for college.
Principal Jenni Taylor said students and teachers were overwhelmed when they received a phone call last week from the White House.
The public charter school of about 460 students was founded in 2000 with a focus on environmental
stewardship and community service. Students must complete a senior
thesis project that challenges a social inequity in Los Angeles and
apply to a four-year university to graduate.
The school serves a mostly low-income population in and around
Lawndale and boasts a graduation rate of more than 86%. Of those
graduates, about 92% are accepted into four-year universities,
administrators said.
Taylor credits a group of student leaders — four seniors and one junior — with spearheading the application, which was submitted along with a rhyming YouTube video that begins with these verses:
We will not accept the status quo,
Which leaves our habitat in a state of woe.
We are not taught to memorize information.
Instead we learn by doing, sharing inspiration.
Later this week, a film crew will visit the school to produce a video that will be posted on the White House website on the competition.
The public will be able view videos for each of the finalists in the next few weeks and vote online for their three favorite schools. The short list will be sent to the president’s desk for a final decision.
Taylor said that clinching Obama as commencement speaker when some 76 seniors graduate in June would spotlight the school’s nontraditional approach to education and “show the nation there are new ways to do things.”
“We feel like what we’re doing can be a model for education reform, so it’s about making a point about educational reform and what it takes to inspire kids and get kids into college,” she said.
The other finalists are:
Blue Valley Northwest High School (Overland Park, Kan.)
Clark Montessori Junior High and High School (Cincinnati)
Denver School of Science and Technology (Denver)
Kalamazoo Central High School (Kalamazoo, Mich.)
MAST Academy (Miami)
— Tony Barboza
Photo: Student Gabriel Avenna demonstrates vermiculture, a form of using earthworms to compost food scraps. Credit: Environmental Charter High School