Endorsement : South MS #6 (Barack Obama MS)
ICEF Public Schools, a charter operator with over 10 years experience running successful schools in South LA, is clearly the best choice to operate the new middle school opening in September on 47th and Western. In a community filled with struggling and underperforming middle schools, ICEF presents the best opportunity to create a high-achieving, model middle school in a neighborhood that desperately needs it.
The case for ICEF is relatively straightforward. They currently run 13 schools throughout South LA, all of which are significantly outperforming nearby schools. Of their 2007 graduating high school class, 100% of their graduates were accepted to college, and 86% of them remain in enrolled to this day. Although their current student population is predominantly African-American, their successful ICEF Vista Elementary and Middle Schools prove they are capable of achieving their impressive results with significant populations of Latinos and English Language Learners. Vista Elementary is 44% ELL with an API score of 767, and Vista Middle is 83% Latino with 39% of students proficient in English – more than double that of Muir.
For this particular campus, they have a well developed plan to split the campus up into four, autonomous, small schools, focused on law, engineering, performing arts and design, and medicine, respectively. This will give students a safe, personalized learning environment, and give parents increased choice in their child’s education. Unlike many of the District’s small learning communities, these will actually be fully autonomous schools, each with their own principal, which is a key element of almost every successful, high-quality charter school. Additionally, ICEF has the support and partnership of USC for their operation of the school.
There are three other applicants for the school, yet none provide any significant reason they would be superior to ICEF. The Local District’s record at the surrounding middle schools is abysmal – Foshay, Muir, and Audobon have API scores of 650, 578, and 594, respectively. The current principal of Foshay, Veronique Wills, has already been anointed the principal of South MS #6 should the District win, despite a less than impressive track record at Foshay. Not only have academic results been disappointing at Foshay (including an African-American subgroup API score of 584), and conversations with local community members reveal significant concerns about other facets of her leadership. The two other charters, Celerity and Crescendo, have both done great work with underserved students, but neither can measure up to ICEF. Crescendo currently runs only small K-5 schools (under 230 students each), without significant populations of English Language Learners (their population is 90% African-American), and we have concerns about their ability to handle a 1400 student middle school. Celerity is a strong runner up to ICEF, with considerable strengths we have already discussed in a previous endorsement of them, but for a school of this size, we believe a more established school operator is likely a better choice.
