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| Students from I-Poly High School will benefit from a $150,000 grant recently awarded by the Confidence Foundation that will establish a model high school program with rigorous performance standards. |
The College of Education & Integrative Studies (CEIS) and International Polytechnic (I-Poly) High School have been awarded a $153,000 grant by the Confidence Foundation that will allow these two entities to collaboratively establish a model high school program that prepares students for the rigors of higher education and the professional work force.
?This grant is an important first step in moving the I-Poly campus toward becoming a model for student and teacher learning,? says César Larriva, assistant professor in Education and principal investigator of the grant. ?The idea is to then share the model with other schools, eventually influencing high school curriculum and instruction throughout the San Gabriel Valley and Southern California.?
A Model for the Reform of the American High School Project proposes a model approach for assessing student work that connects the high school experience with the expectations of higher education and the work place. I-Poly and CEIS will work with experts from academia, business and industry who will help to further define the standards used in creating this model.
?There is substantial research nationally that demonstrates that students are not being sufficiently challenged in high schools across the nation,? says Joan Bissell, dean of CEIS. ?This grant program positions I-Poly to create a model that prepares students for the changing demands of the workplace.?
The project will utilize online resources over the Internet, which will support interaction between students and their academic and professional contacts, who may be located in other cities or states. The ACME Network and the university?s division of Instructional & Informational Technology will help to facilitate online features that will provide access to experts in other countries and continents. The grant will also provide support for teacher professional development activities and research that focuses on teaching and assessment practices.
With a current enrollment of 430 students, I-Poly is a comprehensive, college preparatory high school run by the Los Angles County Office of Education and open to all students in good standing from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Founded in 1993, I-Poly was established on the Cal Poly Pomona campus to be a model school to demonstrate contemporary educational reform initiatives consistent with California curriculum standards. Fully 100 percent of its graduates in 2002-03 fulfilled the CSU and UC course eligibility requirements, compared with rates of 36.5 percent for the county and 34.6 percent statewide.
Founded in 1980, the Confidence Foundation is one of the Whittier Family Foundations. Giving primarily to organizations in Southern California, the foundation is committed to supporting programs in the areas of early childhood education and secondary school/education, social services, youth development and health education.