L.A. Unified to Expand High-Tech Academies

Los Angeles school officials were awarded a $2.6-million federal grant Monday that will allow them to double the number of academies offering high-tech skills to students interested in joining Southern California’s booming entertainment and commercial industries.

Through an alliance with Hollywood powerhouses such as DreamWorks SKG, Universal Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Los Angeles Unified School District is expanding its New Media academies, where students learn to produce CD-ROMs, computer-animated videos, World Wide Web sites and a host of other high-tech creations.

The district now operates five academies on high school campuses. With the grant money, to be paid over five years, it plans to open five more.

School officials and entertainment executives said the grant is good news, both for students and for employers increasingly desperate to fill skilled positions.

“These students possess skills that are worth money,” said Barbara Gordon, coordinator of the New Media academy at Hollywood High School, which began last year. “Employers want workers who can think, who can work together as a team.”

For years, educators have preached that such technical academies are crucial to the economic future of the large proportion of youths who will not attend four-year colleges. They advocate more emphasis on “school-to-work transition” programs that tie high school academic lessons to the demands of particular industries or professions.

The Los Angeles district is one of four California school systems awarded a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant by the federal Department of Education. School districts in Fresno and San Diego counties were among 19 selected nationwide from 675 applicants.

“These grants will make available to our students first-class learning resources across the country and around the world,” U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said in a prepared statement.

The joint entertainment and school district effort is coordinated by Work Force L.A., a nonprofit organization that links school and businesses to develop workplace transition programs.

The Los Angeles school system will receive $734,572 for the first year. The funds will pay to open the new academies, train teachers and buy equipment.

Academy teachers at Hollywood High School say the academy curriculum is a mix of high-tech skills and traditional academics.

For example, students in English, social studies and computer graphics classes are now completing videos about the 1920s. One group focused on the 1924 winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, conducting research from encyclopedias and magazines, then writing scripts, scanning photographs into a computer and adding music for a three-minute video.

“This program helps make education more relevant to the students’ lives beyond high school,” said Gordon, the program coordinator.

At Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, which opened its own academy three weeks ago, some students are already producing computer-animated videos and short documentaries. Others are using computers to design film sets.

“This is the first program that involves technology and advanced academic work that could prepare students for jobs well above entry-level, minimum-wage work,” said Assistant Principal Cheryl Dellepiane.

The Los Angeles school district launched the first three academies--including one at Palisades Charter High School and the Abram Friedman Occupational Center in downtown--with $100,000 and funding and expertise from several entertainment firms.

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DreamWorks SKG gave money and provided its own media experts to train teachers.

The company is one of at least 50 entertainment businesses assisting the program by offering internships, donating equipment and evaluating student work.

“Our role is enlightened self interest--creating our own work force--and recognizing the need to engage students and teachers alike,” said Kathleen Milnes, incoming senior vice president of the Los Angeles-based Entertainment Industry Development Corp. “I’m ecstatic. We’re already doing the work. We just needed money to make it better.”