Camino Nuevo High School will graduate its first senior class with approximately 60 percent of students attending four-year colleges.
LOS ANGELES – Camino Nuevo Charter Academy (CNCA), recognized by the state of California with 2007-2008 Title 1 Academic Achievement Award and ranked among the top 10 high schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District serving students in the MacArthur Park Community, is graduating it’s first senior class on Friday, June 20, 2008. The commencement ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. at the Wilshire Ebell Theater, 4401 West 8th Street.
This graduation of the Class of 2008 represents a significant achievement for students, the high school, CNCA and the community overall. This graduating class demonstrates the realization of the potential for excellence that exists in children of communities who have historically experienced academic failure and incomprehensible high school drop-out rates. According to a recent report by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, nationwide about 71 percent of 9th graders make it to graduation four years later. That figure drops to 58 percent for Hispanics. At Camino Nuevo High School, where 90 percent of the student population is Hispanic, 79 percent of graduating seniors started at the high school in 9th grade. Over 60 percent of the graduating class has received acceptance to one or more four-year colleges or universities.
“Camino Nuevo proves that all students rise to meet high expectations when held to high standards, exposed to relevant learning experiences, provided targeted intervention, and supported in a personalized learning environment,” says Ana Ponce, Chief Executive Officer of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy.
In 2004, CNCA opened Camino Nuevo High School to provide Camino Nuevo students and the Greater MacArthur Park community with a local quality education high school. Established as a High Tech High affiliate, CNHS students learn in an integrated, multi-disciplinary environment that incorporates computer technology and real life experiences in the community. All high school students enroll in courses that meet the University of California A-G admission requirements. Additionally, all seniors have a digital portfolio of their academic work, have participated in job shadowing and/or real-world internships, performed more than 12,000 hours of community service collectively and completed the type of hands-on projects that set them apart from seniors around the country.
Camino Nuevo delivers a rigorous college preparatory curriculum to ensure that students are college ready, college bound. In 2006-2007, Camino Nuevo High School ranked 10 out of 10 (10 being the highest) on the State Academic Performance Index (API) when compared to schools with similar demographics. It also ranked in the top 10 performing high schools among all 103 Los Angeles Unified School District high schools, including magnets and charter schools, with an API score of 760.
ABOUT CAMINO NUEVO CHARTER ACADEMY
Camino Nuevo Charter Academy is a network of college preparatory public charter schools, serving over 1,500 students in preschool through high school. It was founded in August 2000 by Pueblo Nuevo Development, a nonprofit community development corporation in the MacArthur Park/Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles. Camino Nuevo was born out of this community’s need and commitment to give its children a high quality education and break the cycle of underperformance. The Greater MacArthur Park neighborhood is one of the poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The goals of CNCA have been to bring quality educational choices to parent and students, to improve the quality of life for its students through a solid educational foundation, and to strive for positive change in the ecology of the neighborhood through its impact on students, families and the community.
The mission of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy is to educate students in a college preparatory program to become literate, critical and independent problem solvers who are agents of social justice with sensitivity towards the world around them.