California Academic Decathlon gets underway today in Sacramento
Teams from 22 Los Angeles-area high schools — including reigning national champion Granada Hills Charter High — will begin competition Friday in the California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento.
Granada Hills, despite winning the state and national competition six of the last seven years, enters the California contest as a slight underdog this year. It placed second in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Academic Decathlon in February, behind El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills.
El Camino was national Academic Decathlon champion in 2014.
Other LAUSD schools that qualified for the state competition are Bell, Chatsworth Charter, Grover Cleveland Charter, Benjamin Franklin, James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Alexander Hamilton, Nathaniel Narbonne, North Hollywood, Palisades Charter and Van Nuys high schools, along with Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences.
South Pasadena High School, meanwhile, will lead a contingent of eight teams representing the Los Angeles County Department of Education — schools outside the LAUSD. South Pasadena won the county Academic Decathlon for the fourth consecutive year in February.
Other county schools qualifying for the statewide competition are Mark Keppel, West, Rosemead, Alhambra, Redondo Union, South and Edgewood.
The state competition winner, which will be crowned Sunday, will advance to the U.S. Academic Decathlon in Frisco, Texas, in April. This year’s competition is centered on the theme of Africa.
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