Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington was this week named a No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
The small Los Angeles Unified School District campus was one of 320 schools nationwide that were honored for academic excellence and progress toward closing the achievement gap.
The school has been around since fall 2002 and is housed in a bunch of bungalows on the tennis courts at Harbor College. (Here's the profile I wrote at graduation time.)
The school was designed to train teachers-to-be with the goal of bringing them back to LAUSD campuses to teach. Since the first graduating class still hasn't finished college, it remains unclear if the academy has been successful at that goal. But on my visit, the students seemed to love the family atmosphere and embrace the academic challenges.
The school is not a magnet, so students aren't admitted based on their academic record. They are interviewed individually so that Prinicipal Mattie Adams can confirm they're committed to working hard.
The academy was one of 27 public schools in California -- and the only one in the South Bay and Harbor Area -- to be given the honor, which was announced Tuesday.
Other Los Angeles schools that were honored: Albert Baxter Elementary School in Bellflower; private Heschel West Day School in Agoura; private Pinecrest Schools in Van Nuys; and Vine Elementary School in West Covina.
