KIPP LA Prep School Leader Carlos Lanuza and some of his students. (Courtesy: KIPP)

KIPP Los Angeles College Preparatory School in Boyle Heights has been named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. The designation was given Wednesday to 279 public schools across the country and is considered the highest honor the federal government can bestow on a school.

KIPP LA Prep is an independent public charter middle school that serves a primarily Latino student body and was one of only two schools from LA Unified to receive the honor, along with Wonderland Elementary, a traditional district school. Last year KIPP Raíces, an elementary school, was the only LA Unified school, charter or traditional, to receive the honor and was the first school from the KIPP LA Schools organization to receive the Blue Ribbon.

Ninety-four percent of KIPP LA Prep’s students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, but the Blue Ribbon award names it an “exemplary high-performing school,” meaning it is recognized as a top school in the nation, not just a top school for low-income students.

“That’s the thing that we constantly tell our students, which is that we are not just competing against the neighborhood schools, we are competing with the rest of the world, with the rest of the population, and that has always been our focus,” School Leader Carlos Lanuza said Thursday.

KIPP LA Prep is one of 33 schools in California to receive a National Blue Ribbon Award and one of 29 public schools in California.

“We got nominated last year and then we did all the work that we needed to do on the application and the calls and the scores, and then this year we got the call that, ‘Hey, you got the Blue Ribbon award,'” Lanuza said. “I want to say it was vindication for our community. This is such a good feeling for Boyle Heights, that they deserve a quality school. And I think that our community knows that we are a quality school, but this award puts the stamp on it.”

The school began in 2003 in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood and moved locations several times before signing a 25-year lease eight years ago at its current location, which used to be a tortilla factory. Lanuza, who also started working at the school eight years ago and has been school leader for five, said a permanent facility allowed the school to expand its approach.

“We created this beautiful school and then our whole focus changed from just academics, where it was academics, academics, academics, to really a whole-child approach and making sure students are not just getting the high academic opportunities, but music, art, dance, electives and enrichment programs,” he said.

Steven Almazan is a graduate student at UC Berkeley and taught special education for several years at KIPP Sol Academy in East LA. Almazan grew up near KIPP LA Prep’s current location and reminisced in a recent blog post about smelling the tortillas from the factory as he walked past it on the way to his school. He didn’t realize the factory had become a school until he saw KIPP LA Prep featured in the 2010 documentary “Waiting for Superman” when he was in college. Seeing the work that was being done at KIPP, he said, “propelled him to want to work for KIPP.”

“It is really hard to find schools that can provide an excellent education in Boyle Heights. Typically we hear if you want a good education you should go outside of the neighborhood,” Almazan told LA School Report. “The fact that one of the best schools in the nation now is in Boyle Heights is just a huge testament to the work that has been done at KIPP.”

Almazan added, “KIPP LA Prep, I feel out of all the KIPP schools in LA, they have a lot of teachers who have been there since the beginning and a lot of teachers who essentially mastered their content.”

Lanuza said even when the school started adding more electives, the school’s API scores continued to rise, and the school has scored extremely well on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests, which began last year. On the 2016 tests, 72 percent of KIPP LA Prep’s students met or exceeded the standard of the English language arts test, and 74 percent met or exceeded the math standard. On the same test, 39 percent of LA Unified’s students at traditional schools met or exceeded the English standard and 28 percent met or exceeded the math standard.

Catching students up their first year and then keeping the bar at a high level is an important cornerstone of why his students are achieving so much, Lanuza said.

“We usually get students who are reading two or three grade levels behind, so we are making sure that we are doing the interventions, doing the tutoring and doing the re-teaching to get kids up to grade level,” Lanuza said. “And then once they get up to 6th grade to actually access the material, just exploding from there. We make sure we have a high level of mathematics. We actually teach geometry and Algebra II, which is not common for middle schools.”

Lanuza also said that while his students seem pleased that the school has received the award, they may not be grasping how big a deal it is.

“They are happy and they are proud and there is part of me that thinks they don’t know the magnitude of this,” he said. “We tell them every day that they are proving what’s possible, that Latino children in Boyle Heights can achieve. And they take our word for it, but I don’t think they have gotten down to the magnitude of what this award really means.”

Wonderland Elementary, a 500-student campus in the Hollywood Hills, has been named a National Blue Ribbon School in recognition of its outstanding academic performance.

Home to both a traditional school and a gifted/high-ability magnet, Wonderland is one of 279 public and 50 private elementary schools to receive the prestigious honor from the U.S. Department of Education.

“Great things happen at schools when theory and practice intersect,” Principal Sean Teer said. “Our school has chosen many high-impact and research-based practices that help us meet the needs of our students. I am so proud of the hard work of our students, staff and parents.”

Wonderland Elementary has implemented a new math program called Cognitively Guided Instruction that encourages students to create their own problem-solving strategies. They also participate in a Reading and Writing Workshop, which supports the development of literacy and language. In addition, a “Way of Council” program weaves social and emotional development into all aspects of the curriculum.

Click here for the full story from LAUSDDaily.net.

Amber Young Medina

KIPP Raíces Academy School in East Los Angeles celebrated its National Blue Ribbon Schools award on Tuesday. After the ceremony, LA School Report caught up with the school’s founding principal, Amber Young Medina, who opened Raíces in 2008 and is now the managing director of KIPP LA Schools. This is an edited transcript of the conversation.

LA School Report: Tell me about your background, where you grew up and how you got into education.

Amber Young Medina: I was born and raised in Los Angeles and I went to college at Amherst in Massachusetts. I grew up in Agoura. I knew my parents had sacrificed a ton for my sister and me to go to private school, but I never knew why. And then when I went to Amherst I took a class where I had to teach in a local high school, and it was the first time I had actually been in a public school, I realized. I was infuriated by what I was seeing, that students of color were making up the mainstream classrooms and Caucasian students were making up the AP classes, and I was outraged. I called up my mom to talk about what I was seeing and experiencing, and she said, ‘Why do you think your father and I sacrificed so much?’ Because my mother is Mexican-American, and based on her educational experiences in Los Angeles, she wanted to pay to have a voice, so that no one would look at my sister and me and not believe anything less than what she was believing. And so I felt that parents absolutely need to believe in the schools in their community and not have to question whether or not the teachers and the staff believe in the families.

At that point I knew I was committed to education, I knew that’s exactly what I was going to be doing in my life, and so when I graduated from Amherst I did Teach For America at Compton Unified and I was part of a change of what was happening there. We had an incredibly dynamic principal that was leading a team and we were making incredible growth at the school and we became Compton’s first California Distinguished School. So I was part of that, and then my principal went on maternity leave, so at the age of 26 I stepped in as the interim principal.

LA School Report: Were you the youngest principal in Compton Unified?

Young Medina: I don’t know the exact statistics. It was meant to be three months and it turned into two years. And so it was an incredible experience. I absolutely loved my time in Compton. And then I found out there was an opportunity to found the first KIPP elementary school in California. And it is funny because when I had been at Compton my friend’s father had sent me a news article about KIPP and wrote a note on it that said, ‘You need to work for KIPP.’ But KIPP was only middle schools at the time.

LA School Report: There were no elementary schools in LA?

Young Medina: Yeah, no elementary schools, and when KIPP was founded there were only a few elementary schools. It was a very new part of KIPP and so when I found out about the opportunity, leaving Compton was a tough decision, but I knew it was the right thing. I really wanted to be a part of KIPP where it is all about the students first. So I applied for the Fisher Fellowship, was awarded the Fisher Fellowship and spent a year planning.

LA School Report: What is the Fisher Fellowship?

Young Medina: The Fisher Fellowship is, you spend a year planning and designing the school. It’s a KIPP national fellowship … you go through selection and then you spend a year in leadership training with them, visiting schools across the country, writing your school design plan, and writing your charter. And then it happened, August 11, 2008, we opened.

LA School Report: I would imagine that time at Compton was like spring training. Because Compton is a district that has challenges but you got to see how a school can do well within that, since it was a California Distinguished School. Tell me more about that time. It must have been crucial for everything going forward.

Young Medina: It absolutely was. So much that I learned there I brought here. And over time, the beautiful thing is when you create a new iteration you can make it better. So people that have taught at Raíces and now they are founders, I see what they take and how they make it their own. Many of the practices that I started in Compton still exist here.

LA School Report: And then when school started here, you were the principal?

Young Medina: I was the founding principal. So I was the principal here for six years. And then Chelsea [Zegarski] took over. She was one of the founding teachers and then assistant principal. So I transitioned to KIPP LA as managing director of schools.

LA School Report: What do you think it is that has made this school special, and above and beyond so many other schools?

Young Medina: I think it starts with our values. It’s a really loving place, but it is also coupled with high expectations and a focus on results. It’s about having an incredible team truly committed to our mission. And working in partnership with our families. It’s truly a family. Like today, one of the most beautiful moments was [parent Mirna Cardenas] saying [about Young Medina], ‘She came into my home and made me feel like I was joining a family.’ And I think that’s incredibly powerful. Those relationships and that partnership we have with our families from the beginning is really a beautiful thing.

LA School Report: Have any KIPP LA schools been a Blue Ribbon winner before?

Young Medina: We are the first.

LA School Report: So what does today feel like for you? On stage you were talking about running booths at farmers markets to recruit kids. What a journey from there to here.

Young Medina: It is. Because when, at that time, I literally roamed throughout the parks, and if I saw a child that looked like they were 4, I would go up to them and say, ‘Are you 4?’ It’s amazing people didn’t call the police on me. But I would essentially approach families, and I was a stranger to them. And I started talking to them about this idea of what we were creating and this promise of what we were going to deliver. And I think promises to families and kids are sacred, and to see that the promise is being upheld and honored is incredibly powerful.

LA Unified school board member Monica Garcia with two students from KIPP Raíces Academy School.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools award given out each year by the federal government is considered among the highest honors a school can achieve, and of the 335 Blue Ribbon schools in 2015, only one was from LA Unified.

That school, KIPP Raíces Academy School in East Los Angeles, celebrated the award today in a special ceremony that was attended by numerous local politicians and LA Unified administrators, including school board member Monica Garcia, who was the event’s keynote speaker.

“America is better and safer and stronger because KIPP Raíces is in East LA,” Garcia, who grew up just a few blocks from where the school is located, told the crowd.

The elementary school received the award in October but formally celebrated it today. The KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) network operates 13 LA Unified independent charter schools in South and East Los Angeles. The school is 96 percent Latino, and 90 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced price lunch.

The Blue Ribbon award is given to both public and private schools, from elementary through high school levels, and KIPP Raíces was honored as an Exemplary High Performing School, essentially marking it as one of the top schools overall in the nation.

KIPP Raíces poverty and English learner levels are higher than the LA Unified average, but its 2015 Smarter Balanced standardized test scores were far above the average for traditional LA Unified district schools. Seventy-four percent of its students met or exceeded the standards in English language arts, and 79 percent met or exceeded standards in math, compared with a 33 percent average in English and 25 percent in math for LA Unified traditional schools.

The school opened in 2008, and its founding principal, Amber Young Medina, recalled the challenge she faced when trying to recruit students for a school that at the time did not yet have a physical location.

“When I first started recruiting students, I and other founding team members roamed through local parks, went to head starts, had a booth at the farmers market and went out into the community to find our first families,” said Young Medina, who is now the managing director of KIPP LA Schools. “I marvel at the tremendous leap of faith our first families, our pioneers, took when at that point there was no school to go see. It was just an idea.”

Young Medina, fighting back tears through her speech, said that all along the Blue Ribbon award was her true goal.

KIPP Raíces parent Mirna Cardenas

“My goal was for [KIPP] to be a model of excellence and ensure its students were achievers and were on the path to college from the beginning. My secret goal, if I’m being honest, was for it to be a Blue Ribbon school, because that is the highest honor. And here we are,” she said.

A podium and microphone had been set up for all of the guest speakers, but Garcia — well-known for her enthusiasm and strong projection when speaking in public — went nowhere near it, and it is doubtful any of the 75 or so invited guests had any trouble hearing her.

“It’s completely OK to cry, because as a daughter of East LA I feel extremely proud to stand with President Obama and Gov. Jerry Brown and [former] Supervisor Gloria Molina and say that the best is in East LA. And today when we celebrate our achievers, we are celebrating this amazing community that wants every child to get to graduation and wants every family to feel connected and that they belong. So, well done KIPP!” Garcia said.

Other guests in attendance included Molina, board member Ref Rodriguez, LAUSD Charter Schools Division Director Jose Cole-Gutierrez, InnerCity Struggle Executive Director Maria Brenes, Families in Schools President and CEO Oscar Cruz and Teach For America Los Angeles Executive Director Lida Jennings.

Mirna Cardenas, a parent of one current and one former student at KIPP Raíces, spoke about how much the school has meant to her family and how it stretches her to keep up on current affairs.

“I have to keep up with [my daughter] by watching CNN and listening to NPR because what she’s learning in her class I’m watching on TV that same day, and she’s wanting to know what I have to say about that topic. So she kind of keeps us on our toes,” Cardenas said.

After the ceremony, Garcia could only recall one other school — Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet — from her East LA district having won a Blue Ribbon award since she was elected to the board in 2006.

“There is an amazing thing happening here, and we just have to fan that fire and keep it going,” Garcia told LA School Report. “In East LA, to have Raíces recognized as one of the Blue Ribbon Schools is a great validation of the desire of our families and the talent of our students, and a real incentive that we have to create that relationship and maximize the strengths to have that academic achievement.”

Jessica Moy teaches her second grade class at Kipp Raíces Academy School.

There is something special happening at Kipp Raíces Academy School in East LA, an independent charter school which recently became LA Unified’s only National Blue Ribbon School for 2015.

While 90 percent of the students at KIPP Raíces are from low-income families and 96 percent are Latino and more than half of all students are English learners, the school vastly outperformed district averages in the recent statewide English and math: 74 percent of its students met or exceeded the standards in English language arts, and 79 percent met or exceeded in math, compared with 33 percent in English and 25 percent in math for LA Unified schools.

Further, economically disadvantaged students at the school far outperformed the non-economically disadvantaged students across the district and the state, and the school’s English learners far outpaced the district and state average for fluent English speakers — on the English language arts test.

These performance levels at KIPP Raíces, a K-4th grade elementary school founded in 2008, raise two important policy questions for LA Unified at a time charter schools are poised to become a greater presence within the district: One, to what degree are district officials trying to replicate the successful approach at Raíces and other high-performing charters? And, two, with the Broad Foundation’s plan to expand charter schools in low-income areas at LA Unified, how will they approximate what Raíces is doing?

With those questions in mind, LA School Report visited Raíces for a first-hand look at its approach to education and to ask its leaders how they have attained well-above average success. Here are a few key findings:

High expectations

Principal Chelsea Zegarski, a teacher at Raíces before becoming principal in 2014, said the school’s success begins with setting high expectations. For one, the academic day runs from 7:45 a.m to 4 p.m., longer than in most schools.

“I would say high expectations is a huge focus for us. It’s one of our pillars — KIPP has five pillars,” Zegarski said. “That means high expectations for students as far as their learning and their academics, but also high expectations for ourselves and our staff and what high quality teaching looks like.”

These high exceptions are front and center each time a student enters a classroom, as every doorway is decorated with the specific name, colors and logo of a major college. Every year, students take a field trip to a college campus in Southern California.

“We know that our kids are going to be going out into the world and competing with everybody, with people who went to Harvard-Westlake where those Ivy League schools are more of a household name,” Zegarski said, explaining the big focus on students understanding the college experience at such an early age.

It’s all about the teachers

Zegarski stressed how much focus the school puts on hiring and retaining teachers who can work in a collaborative environment.

“Whenever people ask what is your most effective strategy for this test or what’s your most effective strategy for this particular thing, the answer always is strong hiring practices to get the right people in the door,” Zegarski said.

Second grade teacher Jessica Moy said she feels more as part of a collaborative team at KIPP than she did previously at a private school and a different charter school.

“I do feel more free to teach, but I feel more free in a way that’s also supported by other strong teachers. I’m not doing my own thing and figuring out my own way, but because we colaborate so much we can be sharing the best practices,” Moy said.

A number of studies have shown that charter school teachers are asked, on average, to work longer hours than traditional school teachers do, which has also led to a higher burnout rate. At KIPP, long hours do appear to be the norm.

Moy, who is in her fourth year at the school, said her teacher friends at other schools, often ask, “‘Aren’t you giving up a lot of your free time to invest in all these extra hours of work?’ And I think we are trying to find that balance. I think in the beginning it was a lot more work than free time and space at home, but we are trying to strike that balance.”

Strong relationships with students and families

During the summer, all KIPP Raíces teachers visit the homes of their upcoming students. And KIPP students also spend two full weeks in summer school before academic lessons begin when the entire focus is on classroom procedures, expectations, values and rules.

“Building those relationships those first couple weeks of summer school and establishing those rules and procedures set them up for success for the rest of the year, and we have to spend less instructional time fixing these little behavioral and cultural mishaps during the regular school year,” Moy said.

Lots of extras

With the same level of per-pupil spending, the school has managed to budget for and prioritize things that been problems in traditional schools. Every student receives arts education, every student has a laptop computer and every student is provided an organic meal at lunchtime. When asked how the organic food is afforded, Zegarski shrugged and said, “It’s not that much more expensive, and it has always just been a priority.”

Every student also receives Spanish lessons, even though many of the students speak Spanish in the home. Zegarski said the goal is to create not just bilingual students, but bi-literate ones.

Using freedom wisely

Despite the common perception that charters are free of the “red tape” that slows down traditional schools, Zegarski was quick to say freedom isn’t the sliver bullet solution unless you know how to aim properly.

“The freedom doesn’t necessary always equate to success. It’s not just the freedom, it’s an issue of prioritization and really focusing in what are those decisions that we can make that most impact student learning,” she said.

To what extent can the school’s success be easily replicated? It’s not that simple, Zegarski said.

“A school is such a vibrant organism and there are so many parts that make it work on a daily basis,” she said.

Zegarski also said that more important than the freedom to choose its particular approach is the process a dedicated staff and faculty goes through developing it.

“I don’t think it’s, ‘Lets find the golden curriculum and then share it widely,'” she said. “I think really the process of creating curriculum and planning and digging and unpacking the standards in those conversations that come with it with the teacher who is doing the planning, those are the intangibles.”

Click here to sign up for the LA School Report newsletter, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Kipp is one of 33 schools from California to receive the honor, which recognizes both public and private elementary, middle, and high schools in which “students either achieve very high learning standards or are making notable improvements in closing the achievement gap.” It is also the only charter among the California schools honored.

The KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) network operates 13 LA Unified independent charter schools in South and East Los Angeles. The Raíces Academy is an elementary school that was founded in 2008, with a student population that is 96 percent Latino and 90 percent of students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch, according to its website.

“This honor recognizes your students’ accomplishments and the hard work and dedication that went into their success,” Duncan said in a video message to the awardees. “Your journey has taught you collaboration, intentional instruction, and strong relationships in school and with your community. You represent excellence—in vision, in implementation, and in results—and we want to learn as much as we can from you.”

One the recent Smarter Balanced standardized test, KIPP Raíces had 74 percent of its students meet or exceed the standards in English language arts and 79 percent meet or exceed the math standards, far outpacing the state and district averages.