High School Math, Science Majors May Get to Attend Dominguez Hills

In what may be a developing trend in education, California State University is offering to open the Dominguez Hills campus in Carson to full-time high school students majoring in math and the sciences.

In California, the concept began to take shape two years ago with the founding of Los Angeles County’s High School of the Arts at California State University, Los Angeles, believed to be one of the first secondary schools in the nation to be permanently located on a four-year college campus.

Education officials backing the Dominguez Hills proposal say it could lead to a blurring of the traditional division between secondary and university education, and provide a powerful recruiting tool for the college. High school students given an early exposure to a college environment, the officials say, are more highly motivated to continue their education--particularly at the institution that supplied a home for them in their final pre-college years.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Community College District, which has been plagued by falling enrollment in recent years, is pushing ahead with rival plans to join what one official called “a revolution in the making.” Spokesman Norm Schneider said Chancellor Leslie Koltai is putting the finishing touches on a “middle college” concept, based on a New York City program aimed primarily at reducing the dropout rate in schools there. He said the concept will be a “major thrust” of Koltai’s state-of-the-district address this fall.

Schneider said New York started with a high school at La Guardia Community College about a decade ago, then gradually expanded the program to other two-year colleges and recently installed a high school at Brooklyn College, a four-year institution.

“They’ve had some very impressive results,” he said. “About 85% of the high school students graduate and 90% of that group continue into college, with more than 50% electing to stay with the host college. That’s exciting.”

He said competition may develop between community and four-year colleges, “but there are enough high school students to go around.” Two-year colleges have an edge in several respects, he said, including shorter commuting distances “since we are spotted all over the map” and an easier transition between high school and college.

In the short term, the factor of under-enrollment at community colleges becomes an advantage in terms of more classroom space available for high school programs, Schneider said.

Under the new Cal State system proposal, which officials said is still in the discussion stage, the Dominguez Hills center for high school students would be set up in existing buildings on the campus. Classroom space is available during the morning and early afternoon, a spokesman said, because many of the 7,400 students attend late-afternoon and evening classes.

Several hundred gifted high school students would receive advanced courses in science and math, in addition to their regular academic classes, and they would be able to pick up early college credits by taking university courses. Subjects at the secondary level would be taught primarily by high school teachers, and the students would receive additional instruction from university professors and have access to college facilities, such as the library and science labs.

“I think we’re looking at a pioneering effort to close the gap between high schools and colleges,” said Sidney Thompson, deputy superintendent for school operations in the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is expected to operate the high school.

“A K-12 structure just doesn’t make sense in this day and age,” he said. “We should be talking about K-14 and K-16 programs that do away with artificial barriers and encourage youngsters to keep right on going, up to the highest level they can achieve.”

Many young people with college potential, particularly among minorities and women, “don’t have the foggiest notion of what it’s like to attend a university,” Thompson said. “By giving them that experience in their high school years, I think a lot more youngsters will be saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have to stop with a high school diploma.’ ”

He said the Dominguez Hills center would be racially integrated, but the district would focus its efforts on recruiting minority and female students “because there are far too few of them in math and science now.”

In recent years, Thompson said, the Los Angeles district has been sending thousands of students to Cal State campuses, community colleges and vocational schools for a few hours on several school days, primarily to relieve overcrowding in the 590,000-student system. Those visits provide some exposure to a college environment, but the High School for the Arts and the Dominguez Hills proposal “are much bigger steps in the direction we need to go,” he said.

Bob Grossman, a spokesman for the county Office of Education, said the “extraordinary success” of the arts school, in terms of student achievement, helped generate interest in a similar arrangement emphasizing math and science.

About 300 students there begin at the sophomore level on the theory that most ninth-graders are not mature enough to take on the academic and social challenges of a university campus, he said. The county agency operates the arts school, but would not take on the Dominguez Hills center, Grossman said, because its primary role is to provide services to districts. “We’re not in the business of running schools.”

Arts Center an Exception

“We made an exception in the case of the arts center, because individual districts can’t duplicate the kind of facilities and programs we have there. Most districts, however, can provide suitable programs in math and science.”

Thompson said L.A. Unified is the likely agency to run the Dominguez Hills school if it is established. Other public schools in the county could send students through interdistrict transfers, he said. Long Beach Unified is among districts that have indicated an interest in the Dominguez Hills proposal.

Cal State board Chairman Dale Ride said the concept of combining high school and college students on the same campus could be expanded to other locations in the 19-campus system where space is available. “It’s an exciting idea with all kinds of potential for greater cooperation between these two levels of education,” he said. “Everybody can win.”

Ride said all but two Cal State campuses--Dominguez Hills and Humboldt in northern California--are doing well on the enrollment front, but he agreed with many other educators who say the middle-college concept could fulfill the dreams of college recruiters. “In the long term, I think our image and prestige would be enhanced and we would gain more visibility for our programs,” he said.

Presented in May

Ride said Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds presented the Dominguez Hills proposal to the trustees in May and he expects the board to take up the idea formally in the “near future.”

Sam Wiley, dean of science, math and technology at Dominguez Hills, said the Carson campus would welcome any increase in enrollment that might come from hosting talented high school students. Enrollment there has dropped by about 1,000 since 1983, he said, leading to cutbacks in state aid based on attendance.

Other sources said the university’s image, battered in recent years by low scores on tests given to teacher candidates, could be improved by a successful program involving high-achieving students.

Dominguez Hills may be able to provide classrooms for up to 400 high school students, Wiley said. About 10,000 more, at both the college and high school levels, could be accommodated on the 385-acre campus if additional buildings were constructed. Planners in the early 1960s envisioned an enrollment of 20,000 by the end of the century, a projection that appears far off the mark.

High-Tech Industries

Wiley said the Carson campus is an ideal location for the proposed science center because of the heavy concentration of high-technology industries in the area. “There is a critical shortage of young people who are planning careers in math and science,” he said. “We believe these industries will support a program that reaches gifted students when many are still making career decisions.”

Contacts have been made with a number of aerospace firms, Wiley said, and the initial reaction has been “very favorable.”

Richard Esposito, a spokesman for El Camino College near Torrance, the largest single-campus community college in the nation, said administrators there have not yet been fully informed of the Cal State proposal, but they believe the general concept “could work anywhere.” Esposito said El Camino is receiving a “good flow” of graduates from South Bay high schools and does not need such a program.

No State Aid

Grossman, the spokesman for the county education department, said normal state aid for high school education does not cover the extra costs of operating a specialized school, such as the one proposed for Dominguez Hills.

He said the arts center--which offers eight periods instead of the standard six-period curriculum--is running a deficit of about a half-million dollars a year in a $2-million budget. Grants are being sought to cover the deficit.

Thompson of L.A. Unified said his district would go to the state Legislature to seek extra funding, if the proposed high school is established. Transportation costs would be a major factor if students were brought in from a wide area, he said.