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Arts High School To Have Audition Process
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| The 1,700 students who enroll in the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts when it opens in 2009 will have to demonstrate some artistic proficiency or interest. The school will cost $232 million. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
Applicants at $232 Million Facility Will Undergo 'Exercises' For Skill, Interest Level
by Ryan Vaillancourt
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - As construction crews put the finishing touches on the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, Los Angeles Unified School District officials are beginning to craft a unique policy regarding which students will get to attend the $232 million facility.
Once envisioned by philanthropist Eli Broad - whose foundation has given $5 million to the project - as a school for the city's most talented young artists, the school instead will cater primarily to the low-income students who live in the surrounding communities. While the district will not employ a strict audition process, it will give priority to students with demonstrable talent, or potential, in the arts, said Richard Alonzo, superintendent of Local District 4 and the top LAUSD official overseeing the school.
Unlike the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts at Cal State L.A., which utilizes a highly selective audition process to find the county's most talented students, those who enroll at the campus at 450 N. Grand Ave. will have had little exposure to the art world, Alonzo said.
"These parents don't have the social capital to have their children take piano lessons or take them to art classes and have special instruction, which doesn't mean that they don't have the talent or the desire or the motivation to become artists and singers and actors and dancers," Alonzo said. "We say those same world-class students exist, but kind of like diamonds in the rough in our neighborhood."
Incoming freshmen, sophomores and juniors - the district will forego a senior class in the school's first year, which begins in fall 2009 - will have to demonstrate talent, or proven potential and interest, to be accepted, he said. Starting this spring, the LAUSD will host a series of weekend "recruitment fairs" that will allow families to learn about the school and let potential students participate in informal evaluations, he said.
The events will be open to students from across the LAUSD, as 30% of the school's 1,700 seats are reserved for children who live outside the school's feeder district, known as the Belmont Zone of Choice.
Details regarding the selection process have not yet been finalized, but Alonzo said the district is working with art teachers and professionals to develop rubrics to determine a student's fit for one of the school's four academies: visual arts, drama, music and dance.
"The students will go through various exercises, so for those interested in dance we'll have dance classes so we can see if students have the right posture or bone structure to be able to be dancers, or a child interested in art, we'll have them make drawings," he said.
The LAUSD is also reaching out to middle school arts teachers in the feeder district to help identify students who would be a good fit for the new school, Alonzo said.
For now, Alonzo stressed that the selection process will not be highly competitive. But he said that could change.
"The audition will be evolutionary and progressive as the school begins to develop a reputation," he said. "We hope that in the future we'll also be able to develop an audition process that will be fair to all kids and won't be determined solely on economics and what parents are able to offer their children."
Different Method, Same Objective
The enrollment process at the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will differ from that at three other nearby high schools: Belmont High School, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center.
Those schools, which currently comprise the Belmont Zone of Choice, are divided into specialized academies. The 15 academies within the three institutions focus on areas such as engineering or social justice.
To get into one of those academies, students merely have to indicate interest, Alonzo said. He added that 60% of students attend their top choice, and 75% of students get into their first, second or third selections.
While the enrollment process at the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will differ from the others - given the consideration for existing talent - it is still striving toward the same goal of giving students choice, said Maria Casillas, president of the nonprofit Families in Schools and a member of Discovering the Arts, an advisory board helping the district develop the new school.
"Compared to the evaluation rubric that they're currently using at the other schools, like the social justice school, it should be somewhat similar except the arts are more applied," Casillas said. "At the end of the day, it's all about giving students and parents choices."
In addition to developing the rubrics to evaluate potential students, the district is reviewing 26 candidates for the school's principal position, which will have a major role in developing its arts curriculum, Alonzo said. Officials hope to select a principal by the end of the month, he said.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
page 3, 10/13/2008
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Once envisioned by philanthropist Eli Broad - whose foundation has given $5 million to the project - as a school for the city's most talented young artists, the school instead will cater primarily to the low-income students who live in the surrounding communities. While the district will not employ a strict audition process, it will give priority to students with demonstrable talent, or potential, in the arts, said Richard Alonzo, superintendent of Local District 4 and the top LAUSD official overseeing the school.
Unlike the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts at Cal State L.A., which utilizes a highly selective audition process to find the county's most talented students, those who enroll at the campus at 450 N. Grand Ave. will have had little exposure to the art world, Alonzo said.
"These parents don't have the social capital to have their children take piano lessons or take them to art classes and have special instruction, which doesn't mean that they don't have the talent or the desire or the motivation to become artists and singers and actors and dancers," Alonzo said. "We say those same world-class students exist, but kind of like diamonds in the rough in our neighborhood."
Incoming freshmen, sophomores and juniors - the district will forego a senior class in the school's first year, which begins in fall 2009 - will have to demonstrate talent, or proven potential and interest, to be accepted, he said. Starting this spring, the LAUSD will host a series of weekend "recruitment fairs" that will allow families to learn about the school and let potential students participate in informal evaluations, he said.
The events will be open to students from across the LAUSD, as 30% of the school's 1,700 seats are reserved for children who live outside the school's feeder district, known as the Belmont Zone of Choice.
Details regarding the selection process have not yet been finalized, but Alonzo said the district is working with art teachers and professionals to develop rubrics to determine a student's fit for one of the school's four academies: visual arts, drama, music and dance.
"The students will go through various exercises, so for those interested in dance we'll have dance classes so we can see if students have the right posture or bone structure to be able to be dancers, or a child interested in art, we'll have them make drawings," he said.
The LAUSD is also reaching out to middle school arts teachers in the feeder district to help identify students who would be a good fit for the new school, Alonzo said.
For now, Alonzo stressed that the selection process will not be highly competitive. But he said that could change.
"The audition will be evolutionary and progressive as the school begins to develop a reputation," he said. "We hope that in the future we'll also be able to develop an audition process that will be fair to all kids and won't be determined solely on economics and what parents are able to offer their children."
The enrollment process at the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will differ from that at three other nearby high schools: Belmont High School, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center.
Those schools, which currently comprise the Belmont Zone of Choice, are divided into specialized academies. The 15 academies within the three institutions focus on areas such as engineering or social justice.
To get into one of those academies, students merely have to indicate interest, Alonzo said. He added that 60% of students attend their top choice, and 75% of students get into their first, second or third selections.
While the enrollment process at the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts will differ from the others - given the consideration for existing talent - it is still striving toward the same goal of giving students choice, said Maria Casillas, president of the nonprofit Families in Schools and a member of Discovering the Arts, an advisory board helping the district develop the new school.
"Compared to the evaluation rubric that they're currently using at the other schools, like the social justice school, it should be somewhat similar except the arts are more applied," Casillas said. "At the end of the day, it's all about giving students and parents choices."
In addition to developing the rubrics to evaluate potential students, the district is reviewing 26 candidates for the school's principal position, which will have a major role in developing its arts curriculum, Alonzo said. Officials hope to select a principal by the end of the month, he said.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
page 3, 10/13/2008
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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Jeff Trail wrote on Oct 15, 2008 4:49 PM: