Hard Work And Accountability Pay Off For Low Income Students At Bright Star Schools In Mid-City Los Angeles

Stella Middle Charter Academy Surpasses All Expectations with their new API Scores

Stella Middle Charter Academy serves 240 low-income, predominantly Latino students in mid-city Los Angeles. Almost all of the students came from schools with extremely low API scores and chose Stella Academy because they and their parents wanted a better shot at getting themselves on the road to college.

At the school, kids who don't finish their homework or don't pass their tests are required to stay after school and work until they get assignments finished and topics understood. There is also no social promotion, as kids who have not mastered standards do not move on to the next grade level until they are ready.

After its first year of operation, Stella achieved an API score of 679. After its second year of operation, its API jumped to 743. Based on the new scores released today, its new API is now 792. The state's growth goal for the school was three points; Stella Academy surpassed that goal by improving 49 points in its API score.

Its new API score ranks Stella Academy as the sixth highest performing middle school in all schools (charter and non-charter) associated with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Among schools with more than 60 percent low income students (Stella has 90 percent), Stella ranks as the number two middle school in the city.

Jeff Hilger, the founding school principal, commented, "We're so proud of our kids and our teachers. In our first year, we ranked as the #19 middle school in Los Angeles. Last year, we moved up to the #14 school, and now we're #6. We're showing that high expectations and holding kids accountable pays off. We're showing low-income kids that they can achieve alongside kids throughout the city, regardless of the income level of their families."

Last year was Stella's first year with a class of 8th graders. These students came to Stella two to three years behind grade level but after three years of high expectations, rigorous academics and enforced accountability, every student in its first graduating class was on grade level as measured by the state standards and the majority of them were scoring proficient on their state exams.

The question loomed over where these graduating students would attend high school. If they returned to their local home schools, they would be going back to schools with API scores (and presumably academic achievement levels) far below what they had grown accustomed to.

The leadership team behind Stella Academy (Bright Star Schools) decided several years ago to meet this problem by seeking a charter for a high school. A charter was granted earlier this year but the leadership team has so far been unable to find a permanent home for the school.

The LAUSD has been working diligently with Bright Star Schools to help them to find a temporary home. At best, it will be a year-to-year facility and the proposed site is far enough away from where the students live that the school and the parents will need to find money to pay for bus service so that the students can get to the new facility.

If a permanent home is not found within the next year, the wonderful achievement gains and school community that has been formed over the past three years may be lost and they will need to return to their home schools. The Bright Star Schools leadership will continue to pursue all public and private resources to enable them to provide a permanent home for its high school students.

Please contact Jeff Hilger at jhilger@brightstarschools.org or AnneStickley@aol.com for further information about Stella Academy or Bright Star Schools.

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   Executive Director
   Bright Star Schools
   Los Angeles,    AL,    90016
   USA
   310-729-7964 (phone)
   310-954-6415 (fax)
   jhilger@brightstarschools.org
  

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