Middle school science teacher Tunji Adebayo was honored by Teach For America at Monday night’s benefit.

Science lessons set to rap music. Aspirations in envelopes pinned to the ceiling. And a commitment to live alongside students.

Tunji Adebayo, who teaches 7th and 8th grade science at Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter Middle School, was honored Monday night for his innovation and dedication at Teach For America’s “Celebrating Changemakers in Education.”

“Tunji’s dedication to his students is limitless, especially to young black males,” Lida Jennings, executive director of TFA LA, told the 350 guests at the Petersen Automotive Museum gathered for the group’s third annual benefit dinner.

Adebayo, 25, who was born in Nigeria one month before TFA was launched, is in his third year of a profession he hadn’t planned on. A TFA representative reached out to him while he was studying dietetics and nutrition science at the University of Georgia, and he’s never looked back.

“I’m staying in education no matter what,” he told LA School Report before receiving his award Monday night.

After his first year teaching and commuting into South LA from Long Beach, Adebayo moved to the neighborhood, around 51st and Vermont. For him, “It’s essential to live in the community,” he said.

He often sees his students in the area, particularly on weekends when he is at the farmers market, which is near a mall with a movie theater.

“It’s a blessing to live and understand some of their struggles on a daily basis. It makes it more real, to become a part of the community.”

The middle school, one of 12 operated by the Inner City Education Foundation, serves 264 students in grades 6-8, and 74 percent are African Americans, compared to 8.4 percent in LA Unified. The school’s student population identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged stands at 77 percent, the same percentage as LA Unified students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals. And 13 percent have disabilities.

His commitment to helping other African Americans started in college, where he noticed that other “young black males didn’t accomplish what I did because the expectations and support weren’t there.”

His parents, who both have masters degrees, brought him to the United States at age 5 and always stressed education.

“It’s not that Nigeria doesn’t have great schools, but a college degree from the U.S. has respect,” said Adebayo, the youngest of nine who grew up inspired by motivational speakers. “I was expected to achieve greatness, so that’s what I did.” The other young men he saw, “They weren’t pushed.”

Pushing for greatness is part of his mission as he teaches biology, chemistry and physics at the charter school to about 35 kids at a time using a blended learning model. He has his students set goals monthly, holds “Motivational Mondays,” goes over assignment grades as a class and notes when students have gone the extra mile.

“I let them know I appreciate them when they go out of their way” in their work. The key is love, and caring. “Most are deprived at home.”

But when he knows they can do more, he calls them on it. A notation he uses to challenge students is “DCE,” for “didn’t care enough” to get an assignment done on time. “My students can make up everything,” he said. “I want them to have a work ethic. If you work hard enough, be creative enough, you can aspire” to greatness.

Another motivation are the lyrics he sets to popular songs and records for his students. He calls them “lyrical dissections.” The lyrics include science definitions and lesson content. “They ask, what does this mean, and it clicks in their minds” when it’s set to music.

At first he wrote all the lyrics, but now, “I write the hook but make them write the verse.” It’s an alternative assignment; other students might choose drawing or making something. “Do whatever you can to make them engaged.”

• Listen to Tunji Adebayo’s science-driven rap lyrics, including “Who Do You Love” and “Get Your Force Up.”

Some of his students don’t have computers at home, so he makes his classroom and technology available to students before and after school and during lunch.

“But I don’t baby them, because in high school no one cares about your excuse, they care about results.”

Pinned to the ceiling in his classroom are envelopes, Jennings said, containing the students’ goals. “They only need to look up to see their visions and ambitions,” she said.

“Tunji has a lot of tricks up his sleeves,” she added, describing how he once “gave himself a time out, and the class respectfully waited for him to collect himself and get back on track.”

“I never would have been a teacher without Teach For America,” Adebayo said.

What makes him stick with it? “Prayer,” he said. “God told me I have a lot more to learn and give. So here I am because I am still learning and still giving.”

His advice to new teachers: “Be creative. There’s always a way.”

Other “Changemakers” honored at the event included LA Unified school board president Steve Zimmer, who joined TFA in 1992 working as an ESL teacher at Marshall High School in Silver Lake. Jennings said she has met monthly with Zimmer in her three years as executive director. She said they don’t always agree, but “Steve has welcomed me into this community.”

The leadership team of KIPP Raíces Academy, which last year was the only LA Unified school to win a National Blue Ribbon award, received the “School Changemakers” awards: founding principal Amber Young Medina, principal Chelsea Zegarski and assistant principal Yesenia Castro.

Alissa Changala, who teaches at USC Hybrid High, received a “Classroom Changemaker” award alongside Adebayo, and Karen Heilman, TFA LA’s advisory board chair, received the top honor of the night, the “Regional Changemaker” award.

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.”

Several of the brightest, including the highest score for any school in the district as well as the highest scoring middle school, belonged to KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter schools.

It’s welcome news for the San Francisco-based network of schools which is celebrating 10 years of operating campuses in south and east Los Angeles and is expanding to nine campuses this year from seven.

“We’re thrilled about the (API) scores and especially proud of all of our students and teachers,” Marcia Aaron, Education Director for Los Angeles’ KIPP network of schools said. “But we still have some that we’re working on.”

Four of KIPP’s seven schools operating in 2012-13 academic year scored above 900 — that’s well over the state’s 800 API target.  The other three schools scored between 717 and 789:

• The KIPP Empower Academy in south LA, earned a score of 991, making it the highest performing school in LAUSD and the 10th-highest performing school in California.

• KIPP Comienza Community Prep in Huntington Park, scored 979, making it the third highest performing school in LAUSD.

• KIPP Raices Academy in East LA earned an API score of 969, the 6th highest performing school in LAUSD.

• KIPP LA College Prep in Boyle Heights earned a score of 916, down from 925 last year. Still, it was the highest performing middle school in LAUSD for the third year in a row.

While only about half of LA Unified 228 charters met the 800 standard, several factors contribute to the high scores for KIPP. For starters, the charter schools are very small compared with traditional district schools, each founded with only two grades at a time, adding a new grade level each year.

Empower Academy, for example, served only K-2 students.

KIPP schools also practice extended learning days. The average school day lasts nine hours, and students attend two-weeks of summer school every year.

For the KIPP schools that didn’t reach 800, Aaron says the staff is “doubling down” on providing teachers with extra professional development support. They’re also planning for more academic intervention for 5th graders across all campuses.

“The concepts that are taught in higher grades are far more complex and they require more complex teaching,” she said.

As children get older the differential between students at the low end and the high end increases.

“In middle school we will have students whose scores will range from Kindergarten to 8th or 9th grade in different subjects,” Aaron said. “Our typical incoming 5th grader is performing below our exiting 2nd graders.”

But as KIPP elementary schools matriculate 4th graders, whose average API scores is a 983, and funnel them into network middle schools, Aaron says she expects to see more gains.

Still, API scores are not the endgame, she said.

“At KIPP we’re all about college so it’s a long way before they receive their college degree,” she said. “There’s still lots of work left to do.”

Previous Posts: API Tests for LA Unified Improve Slightly, State Scores Fall, LA Unified Schools Top Lists of California’s Best Charters, By the Numbers: Charter School Waitlist Exceeds 15,000