School Notebook

For the second year running, Hawthorne's Hanz Legaspi, currently a sixth-grader at Hawthorne Middle School, will compete in the state spelling bee.

Hanz, who routinely wins the district's spelling bee, for the last two years has gone on to take Los Angeles County honors, thereby setting up her now multiple trips to Northern California. (The championship is held at Sonoma State University.)

This time around -- the contest is set for this Saturday -- she'll compete against 60 other elementary-aged spellers, representing 32 counties, for awards including $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third.

You go, young Hanz. Good luck!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Daily Breeze reporter Larry Altman has this post over at the Crime & Courts blog about some students from Marina del Rey winning an "anti-dui" mural contest.

Holla!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More in the recent awards category, also from late April:

Students of Mira Costa's broadcast journalism department took home several awards from the annual national student journalism competition put on by the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Association.

Mustangs Mark Duralde, Sara Baeuchler, Dustin Muenchow, Austin Siegemund-Broka, Alicia Hastey, Evan Jones, Devon Bair, Nina Chung and Kelby Vera all took home individual awards, while the department's "Mustang Morning News" snared first place in the "best newscast category."

Rock on, young journalists!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A belated and hearty congrats to the Beach Cities Robotics Team, a collaboration of Redondo Union and Mira Costa High students, which topped a total 600 such squads in the 2008 FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship held late last month in Hotlanta (that's Atlanta, Georgia, in case you're not up on the lingo).

Nice work y'all!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are some education-twinged headlines that appeared over the weekend, in case you want to start your work week with some reading:

1. My front-page story in Saturday's Daily Breeze detailed the inauguration of CSUDH President Mildred Garcia, which is historical for the fact she's the school's first female leader and the CSU system's first Latina campus chief.

2. On Sunday we ran my centerpiece on an important, impactful but sadly slow-growing school trend known as entrepreneurship education.

3. The Los Angeles Times' Steve Lopez had an interesting column Sunday about what he calls the "convoluted and costly" design of LA Unified's new "arts-oriented public high school."

4. The New York Times has a story about a growing technology sector that allows parents almost up-to-the-minute insight on how their kids are faring at school, by allowing teachers to post -- and parents to access -- daily attendance and grade reports. This will sound familiar to folks in El Segundo, Hawthorne and some others in the area that use PowerSchool (one of many companies to provide such a service).

5. Lastly (for now anyway), USA Today just today ran this piece about a downward trend in attendance resulting from text message-driven threats of impending on-campus violence. Anyone noticed this happening here?

That should get you started. Happy Monday. Hahahaha.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the eve of Earth Day -- how serendipitous is that? -- a group of eco-minded students from Torrance's South High will be honored by the local school board for the recent environmental efforts that scored them a national, $50,000 award.

The school's Landfill Improvement For the Environment, or LIFE, team, emerged from the crowd of competitors in the Lexus Environmental Challenge to become one of 14 first-place winners nationwide.

Holla!

The 10 South students, their teacher/advisor Joan Davidson and the school will all share the $50,000 prize in varying amounts, with the students each receiving $3,500 scholarships, Davidson getting a $5,000 grant and the school itself receiving a $10,000 grant. The campus reportedly plans to purchase a solar panel and attempt to become the first "renewable energy" school in the South Bay.

Making the kudo-collecting rounds this week, the students and Davidson tonight will be recognized by trustees of Torrance Unified during their regular board meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. in district headquarters at 2336 Plaza del Amo.

Tomorrow the group heads to Lexus's Torrance headquarters to receive their big, giant check and accompanying photo op with company muckety-mucks; on Wednesday they're being honored by the local PTA , as they've also won two state-level awards from that organization.

Bravo, young Spartans, bravo!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bring you this press release from Cal State Long Beach, which details the triumph of a campus math team in a national contest. One of the three-member team, grad student Joshua Lampkins, hails from Gardena and attended El Camino College before transferring to LB.

Here you go, courtesy of the CSULB communications peeps:

"A team of three students from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) turned in the campus' highest-ever finish at the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, the oldest and most prestigious math competition in North America.

Graduate student Joshua Lampkins, senior M. Tip Phaovibul and sophomore Sarav Patel teamed up to finish 42nd out of 516 college and universities in the 2007 Putnam math contest (scores were just recently release from the Dec. 1 competition). Their combined score led to CSULB's highest ranking since resuming the competition in 1999, said mathematics professor and team advisor Kent Merryfield.

In addition, Lampkins scored among the top 200 individuals out of 3,753 participating students. In fact, Lampkins, who earned his B.S. degree in mathematics from CSULB, joined three UC Berkeley students as the only four California competitors ranked in the top 200. He tied among four students for 188th place.

The Putnam competition, which began in 1938, is for undergraduate students from the United States and Canada and is sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. For the contest, campuses field teams of three students, along with alternates if desired, and the six-hour exam is administered on each participating campus under the direction of a faculty advisor. This year, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford and Duke were the top five institutions.

As for CSULB's performance in the Putnam, Patel said, "we may get counted out as a CSU, but we've shown that we can definitely compete with the more prestigious schools this year."

All three students have a clear idea of their future career paths, especially Lampkins and Phaovibul who will be moving on from CSULB after the spring semester.

"I will be entering a Ph.D. program in the fall, possibly UCLA," Lampkins said. "I would like to study number theory and/or combinatorics. The two main career options for Ph.D.s in pure mathematics are teaching and researching, and after I get my degree, I am not sure which one I will pursue."

Phaovibul has received a full doctoral fellowship from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was president of the CSULB Mathematics and Statistics Student Association and is vice president of CSULB's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Student Council.

"My current goal is to obtain the Ph.D. in mathematics, specializing in analytical number theory," with the aim of becoming a university math professor, he said. "But, during summer, I would like to go to Africa and build houses and schools for the orphans over there."

Patel, CSULB President's Scholar, has a different career path in mind after graduation. "I'm planning on attending medical school after I graduate next year, although I may end up taking a year off to travel or work," he said.

Patel has been coaching the Mathcounts program at McAuliffe Middle School in Los Alamitos. "I actually participated in Mathcounts while I was in middle school, so it definitely feels good come full circle and work with the kids."

Congrats. I stink at math personally, but I'm glad we have people out there that don't!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The city of Torrance just announced the names of local kids selected for participation in its annual "Students & Government Day," during which the students -- eighth graders, all -- shadow various city workers and officials, from the Mayor on down, then kick off the evening's City Council meeting by playing those parts and conducting a little business.

The event is set for Tuesday, May 6, with the council-meeting portion kicking off at 7 p.m.

Winning students were chosen based on essays that addressed the topic: "a new student involved project that could help the Torrance community and enable students to make a difference in their community."

Without further ado, then, the selected students:

*Alex Baumgartner, St. James School
*Will Bingmann, Richardson Middle School
*Jasmine Galvan, St. Catherine Laboure School
*Maurick Gaunt, Madrona Middle School
*Amanda Goodwin, Magruder Middle School
*Aubree Graham, Bert Lynn Middle School
*Richard Herrada, Calle Mayor Middle School
*Gina Hong, Madrona Middle School
*Grace Huang, Madrona Middle School
*Hunter Johnson, First Lutheran School
*Jonathan MacNeil, Bert Lynn Middle School
*Makeena Martin, Calle Mayor Middle School
*Rebecca Miller, First Lutheran School
*Nicholas Mata, St. Catherine Laboure School
*Amie Morales, Casimir Middle School
*Leila Northington, Hull Middle School
*Caitlyn Pacina, Jefferson Middle School
*Ashley Poh, Casimir Middle School
*Cassida Ruggeri, Calle Mayor Middle School
*Chad Simon, Calle Mayor Middle School
*Michiko Sugimoto, Bert Lynn Middle School
*Lara Windisch, St. James School

Congrats to all.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaking of the U.S. News & World Report rankings (I had a post yesterday about a possible shift in their methodology for determining said rankings): Loyola Marymount University informed me today that, for the first time, its School of Education landed on the magazine's list of, you guessed it, "Top Schools of Education."

From the press release:
The list ranks more than the 250 top Schools of Education, out of more than 800 schools around the nation. LMU placed 117th on the list. It was the fourth highest ranked Jesuit institution in the country and the 13th top ranked school in California.

“This is the first year our School of Education was eligible for consideration for the U.S. News & World Report rankings,” said Shane P. Martin, dean for the School of Education. “I’m so proud of the work our faculty, staff and students do that made this ranking possible. I know we’ll continue to work hard and move forward in the years to come.”

Graduate programs at 278 schools granting doctoral degrees in education were surveyed in fall 2007 and early 2008. Of those schools, 245 responded; 242 provided the data needed to calculate rankings based on a weighted average of the 10 quality measures. Some of the measures included a quality assessment survey given to deans; average GRE scores and acceptance rates; faculty resources and research activities among faculty.

Top ranked schools included Stanford, UCLA, Vanderbuilt and Columbia. Other Jesuit institutions included Boston College, Fordham University and Marquette University.

Visit the U.S. News website for complete rankings. To learn more about LMU's School of Education, go here.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The state Department of Education released its annual list of California Distinguished Schools yesterday and 10 South Bay sites are on the list.

Being honored this year are 343 elementary schools (middle and high schools are lauded in alternate years) deemed "exemplary" from a field of 839 eligible campuses that applied for the distinction.

Local schools on the list are:

*From El Segundo Unified, both Center Street and Richmond Street elementary schools
*From Redondo Beach Unified, Jefferson and Tulita elementary schools
*From Torrance Unified, Arnold, Edison, Riviera and Towers elementary schools
*From Wiseburn School District, Juan Cabrillo Elementary
*From LAUSD, 156th Street School (Gardena)

Congrats to all! The schools will be officially feted in May during a dinner at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know those annual rankings of college and universities printed by U.S. News & World Report, generally prestigious but more and more controversial?

Well, it appears the magazine may be on the verge of altering its methodology, and high-school counselors may be thrown into the mix.

At least that's according to the web publication Inside Higher Ed, which is reporting today that U.S. News has sent surveys to about 1,600 high school counseling offices, asking them to evaulate colleges and noting that the results may (i.e., perhaps, but not definitely -- they're taking a wait-and-see approach) be used in next year's rankings.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An academic living locally -- one who, coincidentally, has been quoted here in the Daily Breeze a time or two -- has just been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholar award.

Thanks to the honor, Torrance resident Roger G. Robins, Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, will spend the 2008-2009 school year lecturing in Japan, where he will lead courses in American history and religion at Tokyo University.

Congrats Roger, that rules!

According to flackage sent my way by the school, "the Japan Lectureship is one of the most coveted awards in the Fulbright Scholar Program, which will send approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals abroad this year."

Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the program’s purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

Award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It operates in over 150 countries worldwide.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Pulitzers were announced Monday, as you may have heard. Congrats Washington Post (the paper dominated the journalism categories, with six awards) and music legend Bob Dylan (he scored the Special Citation), the first rocker to take that prize.

Several educators were also honored, with five professors -- three from California -- also earning Pulitzers. Here's the rundown:

*From our backyard (almost), UCLA professor emeritus of history (who holds the same position at the University of Oxford) Daniel Walker Howe won the history prize for his book "What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848."

*Also from UCLA, history professor Saul Friedlander took the cake in the general nonfiction category for "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945."

*Cal Berkeley English professor Robert Haas won the poetry prize for "Time and Materials."

From outside the Golden State, MIT associate professor of writing and humanistic studies Junot Diaz won the fiction prize for "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" and John Matteson, an English professor at City University of New York's John Jay College, took biography honors for "Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father."

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The press releases keep pouring in about the various area schools that scored well in myriad recent academic competitions -- academic decathlons, science olympiads et al.

The latest concerns the performance of Pedro-based Park West Place Elementary during the latter contest; specifically, the 22nd Annual Los Angeles County Science Olympiad held March 15 at Cal State LA.

Details, courtesy of an email from one Luanne Stevens (thanks, Luanne!): A team of fifteen 4th and 5th grade students from Park Western Place Harbor Math Science Magnet took home gold medals from the the Science Olympiad. With 48 elementary schools competing, the highest-scoring teams received gold medals, while the others were awarded silver and bronze based on the team's total score. Park Western Place had the second highest total score in the competition.

Team members are as follows: Isaac Cano, Brandon Choe, Sophia Collins, Kate Finn, Celeste Goodwin, Hanethzie Granados, Zane Grissett, Austin Labador, Nicholas Martinrez, Cassidy Mernin, Amanda Perez, Evan Rezai, Gary Runnels, Yasmine Saxey-Santillo and Scott Stevens. Team leader is Susan Goldberg, the school's Magnet Coordinator.

Congrats, Park Western!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As they do each year, educators in El Segundo Unified convened recently for an in-service event that doubled as a day to celebrate the cream of its crop.

Four women this season were named "Teachers of the Year" for the small suburban district whose campuses, its high school especially, with its austere brick and lush green grass, have become a film-crew favorite.

The honorees, who were officially feted March 14 in an Embassy Suites ballroom, are: Marie Loye, a former optician-turned-teacher who mans a first-grade class at Richmond Street School; Center Street kindergarten teacher Marva Murray; 19-year special-education veteran Roberta (Bobbie) Misak; and El Segundo High social-studies teacher Sarah Briney (who, incidently, grew up in 'Gundo schools and had Murray for first grade!).

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just found a solid tidbit out of South Bay-adjacent Long Beach in my overzealous junk mail filter. (Don't you love those things? They frequently filter out what you want yet sometimes send through offers for services that should remain unspecified on a school-centered blog. Go figure.)

Anyhoo, perennial Broad Prize for Urban Education finalist Long Beach Unified is in the mix again this year, one of just five districts nationwide - and the only in California - competing for the $1-million in awards given annually to urban districts making the greatest progress in raising student achievement. The winning school system will get $500,000 for student scholarships; the four remaining finalists will each receive $125,000.

Up against Long Beach are Aldine Independent School District, near Houston; Broward County Public Schools, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Brownsville Independent School District, on the Texas-Mexico border; and Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

The awards will be announced Oct. 14 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

A finalist every year its been eligible for consideration, Long Beach actually won the kitty in 2003. Only one other California district -- Garden Grove Unified, in 2004 -- has ever won the top prize.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What follows is seemingly stale news -- the event occurred on March 15 -- but a) I just heard about it and b) it's still relevant and worth a hearty congrats to one local school.

Here goes: Redondo Beach-based St. Lawrence Martyr School landed in the top 10 -- from a total filed of 103 Catholic schools -- during the Los Angeles Archdiocesan Academic Junior High Decathlon held recently at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

The South Bay team placed 9th in the competition that includes challenges in mathematics, religion, social studies, fine arts, current events and science, as well as logic and super quizzes. In addition, several students scored well in individual categories: Molly Hunt placed 10th in religion; Kristen Lee placed 9th in fine arts, Michael Luna landed at 6th place in current events and Matthew Kurata scored a 4th place finish in science.

The team's head coach, Vivian Lee, reports that the kids worked diligently to prepare for the competition, “giving up their days off, coming in early and staying late."

Congratulating Lee and the entire team, school Principal Shannon Gomez remarked, “It just goes to show that if you put your mind to something and work hard, you can accomplish anything!”

In addition to Hunt, Lee, Luna and Kurata, the team members are: Amanda Shimizu, Devon Kent, MacKenzie von Helmolt, Luis Perez, Bryce Lomas, Lauren Jones, Kristin Lee, Matthew Petersen, Colby Smith, Dylan Biel and Shannon Martin.  

The Academic Junior High Decathlon was the brainchild of Dr. Mark Ryan in 1989.  Today the 2008 AJHD still honors his goals to: promote academic excellence; collaborative spirit and cooperative learning skills; and logical higher–order thinking while recognizing the contributions of parents, teachers, school administrators and community members in supporting high standards for all students. Above all AJHD celebrates the diversity, excellence and tradition of Catholic schools.
 

St Lawrence Martyr School is a Catholic elementary School with grades K-8, currently boasting an enrollment of some 300 students. The school has been in existence for over 50 years.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A recent Torrance High School grad and a teacher who resides here have both snared big awards from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Holla!

Local Angie Mazzotta, an educator at LA Unified's Audobon Middle School and Magnet Center, was named "Teacher of the Year," while former Tartar Daniel Uribe, 18, was one of two "Global Young Entrepreneurs of the Year” for the foundation's Southern California region.

Both will be officially honored Wednesday at a special "Salute to the Entrepreneurial Spirit" ceremony in New York City. The awards are given annually to outstanding teachers and students in 34 regions throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The NFTE is devoted to teaching entrepreneurship and business skills to low-income young people.

Mazzotta is being lauded for her comittment to increasing education and economic opportunities for low-income youth.

Uribe is being recognized for his operational business, Lazer Bearings, hereby adding to his list of accomplishments. He already placed third in the NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge and first in the NFTE Greater Los Angeles Regional Business Plan competition.

Along with the honor, both will receive a boatload of cash to put toward professional development (Mazzotta) and business capital or future education (Uribe).

Ok, they're only getting $1,000 each, but to most kids, many teachers and, dare I say, a majority of journalists, a $1,000 could qualify as a boatload.

Regardless, congrats to them both!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The state is giving out nearly $200 million in grants and loans for building or modernizing career technical education facilities at high schools across California and two local spots are on the recipient list.

The Southern California Regional Occupation Center, commonly known as SCROC although they're now asking to be referred to as SoCal ROC instead (an image thing? not sure), will receive almost $3 million from the overall pot, for upgrading its health science and medical technology facilities.

And the Centinela Valley Union High School District will get almost $2 million to be spent at Lawndale High School on a project identified by the state only as relating to "arts, media and entertainment."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That Centinela's take will go toward perhaps, hopefully, finally finishing the extremely overdue performing arts center? If so, bravo, Centinela, bravo. I'll find out for sure and report back to you all, and asap!

The money in total is coming from the State Allocation Board (SAB), which has the Office of Public School Construction under its umbrella. Funding was awarded across 15 different industry sectors for 174 projects at high schools or other local educational facilities statewide.

The SAB provides grants to school districts for new school buildings and the modernization of facilities. The agency's new CTE Facilities program is a 50-50 process that requires a school to provide a matching contribution. A school district can apply for new construction or modernization funding if its facility is a comprehensive high school. A Joint Powers Authority can also apply for modernization funding if they were operating a career technical education program. The maximum grant is $3 million per project, per school site. If a district qualifies, the SAB can also loan all or part of the matching contribution.

A total of $185 million in grants were awarded. The SAB allocated another $14 million in loans for districts that were unable to provide the required matching funds (Centinela included, according to a state-provided chart).

And now for the requisite canned quote from an official-type person: “Governor Schwarzenegger has a strong, personal commitment and belief that career tech programs are an educational alternative that many California kids need,” said SAB member and Department of General Services Director Will Bush. “The benefit of these wonderful programs is that they provide the opportunity for our young adults to join the California workforce with enhanced skills and be more productive citizens.”

For a complete list of all the projects that received funding visit, click here.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG campaign has launched a national contest for schools, challenging teachers and students to get involved in the fight against cancer.

The winner will win an in-person visit from the celebrated cyclist himself, who is a cancer survivor.

The 4-1-1, via the Lance Armstrong Foundation:

To enter, teachers must teach a lesson from the LIVESTRONG at School curriculum. LIVESTRONG at School offers free online lessons to teach K – 12 students about cancer in a way that is age-appropriate, hopeful, inspiring and empowering. Lessons include: national standards, clear learning objectives, engaging videos, extension activities, a check for understanding and ways that students can get involved in the fight against cancer.

After completing the lesson, teachers should:
*Work with their students to answer the question: “What does LIVESTRONG mean to you?”
*Create an entry. Be creative! Entries can be a picture of a class engaged in a cancer awareness activity, a letter written by students, a poster with artwork contributed by the whole class, a video of a skit or something entirely new.
*Register and submit their entry online

The winning entries will be creative and compelling and should show that students are engaged in the fight against cancer and demonstrate how people incorporate the idea of LIVESTRONG into their lives.

All entries must be received by 5:00 p.m. CST on May 1, 2008. The class that submits the winning entry will receive a visit from Lance Armstrong. Second prize is Nike gear from the LIVESTRONG Collection for the entire class, and third prize is a LIVESTRONG at School poster signed by Lance for the classroom and LIVESTRONG wristbands for the entire school.

Everyone who registers will receive a LIVESTRONG at School poster to hang in their classroom and LIVESTRONG wristbands. The winners will be announced on LIVESTRONG Day on May 13, 2008.

To register, visit www.livestrong.org/school.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two area schools fared very well in the 22nd Annual LA County Regional Science Olympiad held this past Saturday, March 15, at Cal State Los Angeles.

Palos Verdes' Cornerstone Elementary took gold in elementary division, ranking first place out of 48 schools after competing in 20 different categories, including "A is for Anatomy," "Deep Blue Sea" and "Weather or Not?" Park Western Place Elementary, of San Pedro, snared second place.

In addition, Palos Verdes High School was among the top-five scorers in the high school category, according to preliminary results. Competing in 23 categories, such as cell biology, herpetology and remote sensing, PV ranked fourth in a total field of 33 schools.

For the full list of results for participating schools, click here. (Note: Division A is elementary, B is middle schools, C is high schools.)

For more information on the Science Olympiad, a 20-plus-year tradition here, visit their website.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Giselle Serate, a 10-year-old homeschooled 4th-grade student from Rancho Palos Verdes, beat out more than 90 contestants in the "7th Annual $1,000 National Elementary School Spelling Bee" on March 9 in Long Beach.

She correctly spelled pharaoh and surveillance to win the $1,000 prize.

If you think you can spell, sign up for Justin's "Third Annual National Adult Spelling Bee" on Sunday, May 4, in Long Beach at www.AdultSpellingBee.com.

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Three South Bay robotics teams participated in this past weekend’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) San Diego Regional, earning gold and silver at the event.

Beach Cities Robotics (Mira Costa and Redondo Union High Schools, the BeachBots (Hope Chapel Academy of Hermosa Beach), and the TorrBots (Torrance's North, West, South and Torrance High schools, combined) demonstrated their design and driving skills in the two-day competition.

A total 49 high-school robotics teams, representing schools in California, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Idaho and Canada met at the event to demonstrate their mastery of this year’s FRC game.

Beach Cities Robotics and BeachBots faced one another on opposing alliances in three exciting final matches at the San Diego Regional, earning gold and silver medals, respectively.

Next stop for all three South Bay teams is the Los Angeles Regional on March 21 and 22 at the L.A. Sports Arena. The event is free and open to the public. More information is available at www.usfirst.org.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While perusing the local blogs this morning, I found some info on the POWWOW blog about a scholarship opportunity. To apply, students write an essay about what the next president should focus on. They could win $4400.

Here's the link for more details.

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The California Student Aid Commission is bringing a workshop to Westchester High School later this month to teach students how to apply for $1,000 Cal Grants for college. The grants are available to mid- and low-income 12th-graders graduating in the spring.

As part of the 2008 campaign, the commission has formed the Cal Grant College Cash Crew, a group of current and recent Cal Grant recipients that will encourage California students to apply for Cal Grants throughout January and February. Additionally, informational workshops will be held throughout the state to help students fill out forms and apply for Cal Grant money.

The workshop is from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 29) at Westchester High, 7400 W. Manchester Ave. For more information, contact Shanell Leggins at 310-338-2406 or via e-mail at lsl3557@lausd.net.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wiseburn area’s Dana Middle School was one of six statewide recently honored for its civic-education efforts.

Named a “School of Merit” by the California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the campus was lauded for offering such programs as “Courtroom to Classroom,” during which two attorneys and a California Superior Court judge led Dana students in a debate of First Amendment rights.

The award was presented prior to winter break by Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Darline Robles, who also co-chairs of the state campaign.

“Civic education is important for the future of democracy in our country,” Robles said in honoring Dana, noting that the award is the result of a “great team effort of school leadership, district administrators and board members.”

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The California Business for Education Excellence Foundation and Just for Kids-California singled out four local elementary schools for rasing the scores of African-American and Latino students to close the so-called "achievement gap" between those students and their Caucasian and Asian peers.

The two groups credited Bandini Street Elementary in San Pedro, Leapwood Avenue Elementary in Carson, 156th Street Elementary in Gardena and 186th Street Elementary in Harbor Gateway among 31 2007 Honor Roll schools.

"Each school demonstrated consistently high student academic achievement and made significant progress toward closing achievement gaps among all student groups," the group stated.

The groups said the schools are on track to meet the federal goal of 100 percent grade-level proficiency by the 2013-14 school year as required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Four 12th-graders at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School have been singled out as scholars in the National Hispanic Recognition Program from the College Board.

Adrian Castillo, Ian Counts, Nicholas Mauricio and Colette Posse had a GPA of 3.5 or higher, identified themselves as one-quarter Hispanic and took the PSAT in 2006.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Daniel Urribe, a Torrance teenager, has won third-place in a national youth entrepreneur program.

Daniel won recognition in the Smith Barney/NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge by writing a business plan for selling ceramic ball bearings for skateboards. NFTE is the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Daniel beat out 30 other high school students from around the country to win $2,500 to invest in his business or education. More than 21,000 students participated in the contest.

He also negotiated with overseas manufacturers to produce his product.

Daniel has graduated from the International Social Entrepreneurship Academy, a nonprofit group that operates programs at West High in Torrance and Narbonne High in Harbor City.

"Urribe shows the type of dedication and innovation that young people deliver when they are given the tools," said Phyllis Rawley, executive director for the Los Angeles chapter of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two area students were among 18 winners of the 2007 Latino Heritage Month poster contest honored by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Viviana Vela, from Wilmington Middle School, and Ana Vargas, from Carnegie Middle School in Carson, created the winning posters at the Banning Recreation Center.
Villaraigosa announced the winners Sept. 22 during an event at the Pico House Monument at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park in Los Angeles.
The 18 Los Angeles Unified students were presented scholarships.

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gardena police selected poster artwork from nine elementary students to reproduce and post around town. The winning posters were picked from 250 entries of students illustrating a pedestrian-safety theme. Here are the winners...

* Emani Mack, fourth-grade, Purche Avenue Elementary School
* Ashley Randolph, fifth-grade, Maria Regina School
* Jazmin Paminpuan, fourth-grader, Chapman Elementary School
* Ian May, fifth-grade, 156th Street Elementary School
* Lani Matsumura, fourth-grade, Denker Avenue Elementary School
* Sierra Reynolds, fourth-grade, St. Anthony of Padua School
* Milan Garbutt, fourth-grade, Crossroad Christian Academy
* Isaac Green, fourth-grade, Amestoy Elementary School

Posted by Paul Clinton at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier this week, California's Secretary of Education David Long used Bunche Elementary School (a Carson school that's in Compton Unified) to illustrate his point that schools in poorer neighborhoods can stop using that as an excuse for low test scores.

"There are a number of California schools with predominately poor, minority and English learning students that are achieving at high levels, like Ralph Bunche Elementary in Carson and The Preuss School in San Diego," Long said.

Bunche Elementary's students are 99 percent black or Latino, 40 percent English language learners and 95 percent economically disadvantaged. The school has raised its API score from 445 to 846 since 1999. Mikara Solomon is the school's principal.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Richard and Melanie Lundquist, who live in Palos Verdes Estates, have given the largest private donation ever to LAUSD, a princely sum of $50 million. Both attended LAUSD schools. Richard is a local product, attending Dodson Middle in San Pedro and Narbonne High in Harbor City.

Here's the story.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the weekend we reported on a San Pedro charter high school's difficulties nailing down a building and a generous gift to The Hill's private Chadwick School.

The Port of Los Angeles High School, a two-year-old charter has made academic strides, but struggled to pin down an agreement to lease a former shipping company's headquarters. » Read the story here.

Roger MacFarlane, a Palos Verdes Estates shipping executive, has established a $1 million endowment to Chadwick for promising students who qualify for financial aid. » Read the story here.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Six South Bay educators are among 64 countywide vying to be named one of L.A.'s "Teachers of the Year."
Whittled down from a total pool of 85,000 teachers, 16 will be selected and named in a Friday morning announcement by County Superintendent of Schools Darline Robles.

Continue reading "Top Teachers To Be Announced Friday" »

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)