New charter school in East L.A. is a space for students from underserved educational communities

The enrollment numbers in traditional public schools have been dropping consistently in the last few years. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the largest school districts in the country, enrollment numbers in the 2022-2023 school year hit only 538,295, representing more than a 15% decline and a loss of about 100,000 students from their 2015-2016 school year, as reported by The 74. But with the decrease in student numbers among traditional public schools, where are students going? 

Latinos in neighborhoods throughout L.A. are part of the growing number of parents choosing independent charter schools for their children, including Encore Arts and Media College Prep High School, located in East Los Angeles.  

Encore Arts and Media College Prep High School is the seventh college prep high school established by Ednovate Charter Schools, a network of public, tuition-free college prep high schools in Los Angeles and Orange County. 

Encore Arts and Media College Prep High School opened this month, welcoming its first class of ninth grade students, with the majority of students being Latinos, first-generation students from East L.A. and other neighboring communities. 

“As a mother, you always want the best for your kids,” Linda Rosales, a parent volunteer at the high school said. “There is a LAUSD school across the street from where I live; it would be so much easier to just send my kid there, but that’s not what he wants. He tells me how much he likes smaller classrooms, how much he connects with his professors and how included he feels when coming to school, and that makes it all worth it.” 

Rosales says what caught her and her son's attention was the fact that the school had arts and media in its name. “I always feel welcomed here. I know all his teachers and their teachers know me,” she said. “But I’ve also seen how much interest he takes in his studies and his passion. He sometimes tells me he wants to be an actor, and I tell him, ‘Ok, let's see. Echale ganas.’” 

Encore prides itself on its small class sizes, arts-driven approach and dedicated staff. For the East L.A. high school, being a place where arts and media are celebrated and uplifted is vital.

“Having a school that focuses on the arts is so empowering,” Steven Sanders, a music production, technology and performance teacher at Encore l, told CALÒ News. “Things like art, music, theaters or writing are often things that are viewed [as] extracurricular, as a second, and something that comes after... Those things take center stage here.”

Sanders, who moved from Chicago to teach at Encore, teaches his students how to read and play music, produce their own musical beats and perform with their respective instruments. “Many students have never taken any type of these classes before, but it's amazing what they can come up with just a bit of help, creativity and the right resources,” he said. “Making art, any type of art can be so healing in expressing, in things like coping with stress [or] problems, and I’ve seen that in many of my students.”

For other parents, it is the school’s college preparation mission that drew their interest. Adalid Gonzalez has a 14-year-old boy who is passionate about music and is in a wheelchair. Gonzalez said she once told his son he did not have to attend college, as she was afraid that his disability would make this journey difficult to navigate. “I wanted to protect him, not knowing that I was doing the opposite; I was restraining him from a future that he wanted. I regret ever telling him that,” she said. “He's the one who said, ‘No, mom, I want to attend college; I can go.’” 

The California School Dashboard’s 2023 College/Career Indicator (CCI) reported that East College Prep, one of  Ednovate’s charter schools, had a status level of “low,”  in relation to its students being college and career-prepared. The report stated that according to the school performance overview, only 34.3% of the students were “college/career” prepared. Despite that, the report also showed the school had a 96.2% graduation rate, higher than the LAUSD overall graduation rate, which according to the most recent data is 84.%.

Despite these numbers, Ednovate Charter Schools claim that 97% of their school’s population is accepted into a four-year university, including Yale, USC, Notre Dame, UCLA, Stanford, Northwestern and UC Berkeley, according to their 2023 annual report. The report also stated that the class of 2023 earned a remarkable $42 million in scholarships, a 110% growth from 2022.

Charter schools have continued to excel and gain popularity among L.A. neighborhoods with their promise of raising student achievement. In the last couple of years, a growing number of parents have picked charter schools over district schools, claiming they significantly outperformed other schools. 

A 2023 report by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University showed that the typical charter school student had reading and math gains that outpaced their peers in the traditional public schools they otherwise would have attended. The report, titled “As a Matter of Fact: The National Charter School Study,” stated that Black and Latino students in charter schools advance more than their traditional public school peers by large margins in both math and reading.

Jerek Brown, Encore’s principal, said many of the students come from schools in traditionally underserved communities. Brown, 31, who has been an educator for nine years and comes from a family of educators, said he is proud to serve the majority Latino class of ninth graders. 

“It’s a job that comes with a lot of responsibility and pride,” he said. “It’s my job that every kid feels welcome and safe here. The school is in a community that is rich in culture, that has many small family businesses and that has everything needed for kids to succeed.”

Before becoming Encore’s leader, he was principal-in-residence at other Ednovate schools, including Esperanza College Prep and South L.A. College Prep. He also worked on talent acquisition projects at the Ednovate network level. Before that, he was assistant principal at Dr. Olga Mohan High School, another charter school in the Alliance College-Ready Public School network.

Apart from passing their class, students are also expected to serve community service hours in different local organizations. “We don’t only focus on academic achievements,” Brown said. “We also want our students to be active people in their communities—we want to create leaders and decision-makers among their communities.” 

Brown also has monthly cafecitos with parents, where, apart from enjoying breakfast, parents get to talk to andget to know him and bring up any feedback or concerns to him. 

“He’s always outside, welcoming kids to school, and due to the cafecitos, I feel like I already know him,” Rosales said.  

Because of their small campuses and spaces, on many occasions\ charter schools use public school campuses for recreational activities, hosting larger events and other activities. Encore remains spacious but that could soon change as they will open its doors to the second class of ninth graders at the beginning of the new school year.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles school board majority passed a policy that will limit when and how charter schools can operate on district-owned campuses. 

As reported by the L.A. Times, under the policy, district-operated campuses are exempt from new space-sharing arrangements when a school has a designatedprogram to help Black students or when a school is among the most “fragile” because of low student achievement. 

Having limited space or having to split the kids between campuses is a worry that many parents like Gonzalez share. “In the future, I hope [Encore] has all the space it needs,” Gonzalez said. “The school just opened so it is not a big class, but when 9-12 graders are here, the space will be limited and I worry about that.” 

Ednovate, the parent organization of schools such as Encore Arts and Media College Prep High School, is a partner with the University of Southern California (USC). Oliver Sicat is the CEO of Ednovate. 

With the goal of changing the state high school report card, Ednovate has now opened other schools in L.A. and Orange County apart from Encore, including Brío College Prep, East College Prep, Esperanza College Prep, Legacy College Prep, South LA College Prep and USC Hybrid High College Prep. 

Ednovate Charter Schools will be accepting interest forms for enrollment from September 1st, 2024, to January 31st, 2025.

For added convenience, families can also apply by calling: 213-454-0599, emailing: admissions@ednovate.org or visiting any of their campuses

Students are accepted through a lottery process, which will take place on February 12, 2025. For more details or to access the enrollment portal, please visit ednovate.org/enroll.