A Semillas Community Schools Newsletter
LA SEMILLITA December 2011
LAUSD Affirms Semillas’ Unique Contributions
On November 10, 2011, Dr. Joyce Johnson and Dr. Robert Bravo of the LAUSD’s Innovation and Charter Schools Division conducted an annual review of Academia Semillas del Pueblo. According to the Annual Review report, “The school offers an instructional program that is truly unique in Los Angeles. The curriculum aims to balance a global emphasis through the IB program along with an emphasis on the culture of indigenous Americans. Students receive instruction in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl. The school recently surveyed its parents and parent responses indicate that a strong majority of parents believe that the school has effectively developed students’ sense of cultural pride. Approximately 90% of survey respondents indicate that they are proud to have their students enrolled at the school.” The draft report also notes that with regards to governance and organizational management the school is, “fulfilling its fiduciary responsibility and being effectively led and managed as a public school.” The challenges cited by the District review team focused upon facilities, financial resources, and performance on standardized tests. Of course, Semillas is dedicated to improving the educational attainment of our students while supporting their needs as learners with high support and high expectations. We look forward to a positive process going forward to renew or expand our charters with LAUSD.
IB Seeks Out Semillas To Film Education In A Global Context
An IB commissioned film crew recently spent a day filming our schools on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 to document and produce a short video that highlighted our international curriculum, indigenous education and multilingual programs. The IB Global Centre in The Hague, Netherlands, contacted Marcos Aguilar requesting collaboration from Semillas on this important project. The IB Global Centre supports multilingualism and intercultural understanding across all programmes in the IB Continuum. Semillas was chosen as the only Los Angeles area IB World School to be featured in a professionally-produced short film that introduces the IB’s soon-to-be-published statement on education in global contexts. The film crew focused on three classrooms depicting our educational continuum in PYP and MYP. The teachers that were filmed included Mrs. Gutierrez (Kinder), Mr.Trujillo’s (6th) and Ms. Ley (10th). Multilingual education and indigenous education in the global context were the focus of all of the filming and interviews. We would like to thank our staff who were flexible and all our parents who supported this valuable project by signing the permissions to include their children in the filming process. Semillas will screen the film publicly for our community as soon as it is available. Thank you IB!
ACADEMIA SEMILLAS DEL PUEBLO XINAXCALMECAC ANAHUACALMECAC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY OF NORTH AMERICA 4736 Huntington Drive South Los Angeles, CA 90032 Phone: 323.352.2070 I Fax: 323.987.1240 I E-Mail: support@dignidad.org I Web: www.dignidad.org