{"id":526445,"date":"2010-04-13T13:26:47","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T17:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01347fd8f42f970c"},"modified":"2010-04-13T14:55:39","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T18:55:39","slug":"lawndale-charter-school-is-in-the-running-for-obama-graduation-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/526445","title":{"rendered":"Lawndale charter school is in the running for Obama graduation speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script src=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/includes\/projects\/js\/schools\/sidebars\/v1\/5928.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale has been selected as one of six finalists in the White House\u2019s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. The winner will receive the honor of President Obama speaking at its graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"float: right;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image002\" border=\"0\" class=\"asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c630a53ef01347fd99bbe970c image-full \" src=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/.a\/6a00d8341c630a53ef01347fd99bbe970c-pi\" style=\"margin: 0px;\" title=\"Image002\"><\/img><\/p>\n<p>Principal Jenni Taylor said students and teachers were overwhelmed when they received a phone call last week from the White House.<\/p>\n<p> The public charter school of about 460 students was founded in 2000 with a focus on environmental<br \/>\nstewardship and community service. Students must complete a senior<br \/>\nthesis project that challenges a social inequity in Los Angeles and<br \/>\napply to a four-year university to graduate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The school serves a mostly low-income population in and around<br \/>\nLawndale and boasts a graduation rate of more than 86%. Of those<br \/>\ngraduates, about 92% are accepted into four-year universities,<br \/>\nadministrators said.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor credits a group of student leaders &#8212; four seniors and one junior &#8212; with spearheading the application, which was submitted along with a rhyming <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=u5Jllh0JAi4\">YouTube video<\/a> that begins with these verses:<\/p>\n<p><em>We will not accept the status quo,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Which leaves our habitat in a state of woe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We are not taught to memorize information.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Instead we learn by doing, sharing inspiration.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Later this week, a film crew will visit the school to produce a video that will be posted on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/Commencement\">White House website on the competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s desk for a final decision.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor said that clinching Obama as commencement speaker when some 76 seniors graduate in June would spotlight the school&#8217;s nontraditional approach to education and \u201cshow the nation there are new ways to do things.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel like what we&#8217;re doing can be a model for education reform, so it&#8217;s about making a point about educational reform and what it takes to inspire kids and get kids into college,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>The other finalists are: <\/p>\n<p>Blue Valley Northwest High School (Overland Park, Kan.) <\/p>\n<p>Clark Montessori Junior High and High School (Cincinnati) <\/p>\n<p>Denver School of Science and Technology (Denver)<\/p>\n<p>Kalamazoo Central High School (Kalamazoo, Mich.) <\/p>\n<p>MAST Academy (Miami)<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Tony Barboza<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: Student Gabriel Avenna demonstrates vermiculture, a form of using earthworms to compost food scraps. Credit: Environmental Charter High School<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. The winner will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}