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| | Learn more about Green Dot |  | | For more information about Green Dot, our students' successes, and our plans for transforming public education in Los Angeles, visit our website:
www.greendot.org
| | Dear Green Dot Supporters:
As we wind down from the excitement of our first, and very successful, Green Dot Ball, we are getting revved up again about all the great strides we have been making to transform public schools here in Los Angeles.
Our schools are as successful as ever, garnering praise from visitors such as Bill Gates Sr. of the Gates Foundation and the Los Angeles Times. We recently embarked on the first phase of our plan to transform Locke High School in Watts. And, we are close to receiving approval for a Green Dot charter high school to open in New York City, a joint effort with the local teachers union, United Federation of Teachers (UFT).
As always, we thank everyone who supports our important work to make all public schools in L.A. small, safe, and successful at graduating kids and sending them to college.
And, we wish all Green Dot supporters, parents, staff, and students a safe and happy holiday season.
Steve Barr
Founder and CEO | | | | Make Sure You Get Green Dot's e-mails!
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| | | Ánimo Leadership Among Nation's Top High Schools
 Ánimo Leadership ranked 31 among the top 100 high schools in the country in U.S. News & World Report's first-ever listing of America's best high schools. The magazine, known for its annual ranking of best U.S. colleges, analyzed more than 18,000 high schools in 40 states. It reviewed state test scores, college-level coursework, and progress of each school's disadvantaged students. Nearly 1,600 high schools made the cut, the top 100 of those noted as gold medal winners.
Ánimo Leadership is one of 23 California high schools to receive gold-medal status, meaning that it met all three criteria of the magazine's review. The magazine used a formula produced in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 data research and analysis business run by Standard & Poor's. Nearly 180 California high schools were among the overall 1,600 finishers.
"It is such an honor to be recognized for all the hard work that the teachers and students have done," says Ánimo Leadership Principal Julio Murcia. The ranking "gave teachers the energy to continue doing what they do. Now they are saying 'Next year, we want to be in the top 20 schools.' "
To read more about the high school rankings click here. | | * * *
Ánimo Leadership's APIs On the Rise
Ánimo Leadership was the top-scoring Green Dot school with a 712 API, an increase from 651 in 2006. The increase was driven by across-the-board improvements in California state test scores and by almost every tenth grader passing the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). Great job Ánimo Leadership!
| | Bill Gates Sr. Visits Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo
Bill Gates Sr., the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and father of Microsoft's founder, visited Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo in October and came away impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of its teachers and students. He met with nearly a dozen teachers and students from the school including senior Paul Sims, junior Elsie Garcia, and math teacher Helene Pao.
"Before I visited Oscar de la Hoya Ánimo school, I knew the stats. ...I was ready to be impressed," Gates told a gathering of business and civic leaders at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles' Corporate Philanthropy Roundtable. "And then I met the students, and the teachers, and I was really impressed. ...Oscar de la Hoya is taking the very same students who are languishing in traditional schools and giving them the chance to excel."
Gates rattled off a list of problems with U.S. high schools at the gathering, from their dismal four-year graduation rate to high numbers of high school drop-outs. He chided L.A.'s business community to get more involved in improving the city's schools. And he noted the successes that exist in the move to reform public education in L.A., including Green Dot. "These schools ask their students-students who weren't making the grade in their old schools-to do more, not less," Gates told the group. "And now Green Dot is going to be taking on Locke High School, bringing to Watts the high expectations and the supportive environment that are characteristic of Green Dot schools."
| | Ánimo Watts Schools Begin Locke Transformation
Green Dot recently embarked on the first step in our Locke Transformation Project: opening two charter high schools in Watts. The two schools, Ánimo Watts 1 and Ánimo Watts 2, are the first of 10 small high schools Green Dot will open as part of the transformation plan. The two schools each opened with ninth-grade classes and 140 students. The new schools have already settled into a productive school year.
"It has been so rewarding to see the incredible strides our students have made since September," says Ánimo Watts 1 Principal Dinah Consuegra. "The same students who entered our Summer Bridge program with low self-confidence have quickly become members of our student council. Their success has positively changed the fabric of our school culture."
Green Dot received the OK from the L.A. School Board to take control of Locke High in fall of 2008. It is the first non-district organization to gain control of a district school. As part of the transformation plan, Green Dot will restructure the Locke campus into several college-prep high schools of about 500 students. The schools will follow Green Dot's Six Tenets for High-Performing Schools: small, safe schools; getting parents involved; holding students and staff to high expectations; maximizing funding to the classroom; giving principals and teachers significant authority over school-site decisions such as budget and curriculum; and keeping schools open later for community use.
| | | | Green Dot Gets the Green Light in New York
Green Dot and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), New York City's teachers union, moved one step closer to starting a new charter high school in the Bronx. The State University of New York's Board of Trustees recently approved the application for the proposed high school. The approval by the SUNY trustees sets the stage for final consideration by the State Board of Regents in coming months. If approved by the Regents, Green Dot will operate a high school in the South Bronx beginning with 100 students in grade nine and eventually expanding to include grades 9-12. Class size will be capped at 25 students. "We want to build the best public high school in New York," Green Dot founder Steve Barr told the NY Daily News. The new school will follow Green Dot's successful model that has been implemented in a dozen schools in the L.A. area. Click here to read more about the proposed school.
| | Winners Circle Scholarship Winner has a Passion for Science
Christian Talavera is all science, all the time. "I like the complexity of science, how you can apply it to everything in life," says the Ánimo Lead ership senior. This past summer, Christian won a scholarship to spend six weeks at UC Santa Barbara studying biology, focusing in seasonal ecology. Once back at school this fall, he immediately took the helm his school's biology club and enrolled in a physics class at El Camino College. He's also applying for the Gates Millennium Fund Scholars program, which awards financial scholarships for college to minority high school students who show academic excellence. Christian has coupled his interest, and excellence, in science, along with his leadership skills to help fellow students. Last year, he organized about 15 Ánimo Leadership students to help tutor their peers in biology. That extra academic support helped the school raise its biology standardized test scores to record heights. "Christian is one of those students who puts in the extra effort to go far beyond what's expected," says his marine biology teacher, Mark Friedman. "He is among the highest caliber that Ánimo has had in my four years here." Christian hopes to attend Princeton University where he plans to double major in chemistry and biology.
Congratulations Christian. Keep up the good work!!
If you have success stories about Ánimo students or schools, let us know. E-mail info@greendot.org. | | | | Green Dot Profile
Cicile Taliaferro: Ánimo Inglewood Parent
Cicile Taliaferro was tired of fighting. She spent four years fighting to get her daughter into AP and honor classes at Santa Monica High School and was exhausted.
"It's important to fight for your children, I understand that, but it shouldn't have to be such a battle," says Taliaferro, whose daughter was often the only African-American student in those advanced classes. "There was always someone at the school saying 'No, she can't do this or that' rather than encouraging her," Taliaferro adds.
When it came time for her son, Devon Hatcher, to attend high school Taliaferro said 'No' to Santa Monica High and 'Yes' to Ánimo Inglewood. For Taliaferro, the resources offered by Ánimo Inglewood were the same, but the energy was different. Taliaferro recalls watching and hearing school leaders and staff constantly encouraging students-most of whom are African-American and Latino-to excel beyond the basics. Most importantly, she notes, "there's no fight in to get a good class."
Granted, her son's adjustment wasn't easy. He never had to wear a uniform at school, had never attended a school where he was in the majority, and he wanted to stay with his friends. But the small size and the close relationships with his teachers won Devon over.
"I think because it's so small, everyone gets to know you and teachers form a bond with you so they aren't afraid to call your parents if they need to," he says. "That's an incentive to make sure you're on top of your work."
Devon had an opportunity to transfer to Loyola High School for the 2007-08 school year. He chose to stay at Ánimo Inglewood. Now a junior, the 16-year-old is taking AP U.S. History, AP Literature, honors chemistry, Algebra 2 (his favorite subject), and Spanish 3. He's hoping to go to college on the East Coast like his sister who attends Smith College.
For his mother, she's not looking back. "I'm so happy with our decision," Taliaferro says. "It's a wonderful and important experience for him, and for me too."
| | Green Dot Ball a Success  More than 700 people ascended to the Griffith Observatory to celebrate Green Dot's success at the first annual Green Dot Ball. With a magnificent view of Los Angeles at night, guests heard the inspiring stories of Green Dot educators, its teacher union leaders, and its important supporters: philanthropist Eli Broad, SEIU leader Andy Stern, and boxer and philanthropist Oscar de la Hoya. Thank you to all who attended and have supported Green Dot in all of our efforts to make Los Angeles schools the best in the nation. We look forward to seeing you at next year's Ball.
| | News to Know...
L.A. Times Is Thankful for Steve Barr & Green Dot
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the L.A. Times expressed its gratitude to politicians, firefighters, community leaders, and others who the paper said "contributed something of value" to southern California and the state in 2007.
Among those thanked for their work was Green Dot and its founder Steve Barr. According to the Times, "Barr demands attention for his 10 Los Angeles public charter schools at every conceivable opportunity. ...Barr's schools, known collectively as Green Dot, are not only providing safe campuses and high-quality education, they are goading the LAUSD into trying to match them. That makes Green Dot an engine of progress and educational reform in a district that desperately needs such energy."
Green Dot thanks the L.A. Times for recognizing our hard work and achievements. To read the entire story click here.
Wells Fargo Funds Green Dot
Wells Fargo showed its support of Green Dot's work by approving a generous low-interest loan to fund the growth of our network of schools. The equity-equivalent investment will help Green Dot prepare the children of the South L.A. and Watts communities for college, leadership, and life. Green Dot thanks Wells Fargo executives Michael Park, Jerry Ruiz, Jan Wu, and Margo Kairoff for their support!
Volunteers Help with College Applications
More than a dozen volunteers from Green Dot, led by journalist Charlotte Hildebrand, worked one-on-one  with seniors from Locke High School to help whip their college essays in shape for upcoming college application deadlines. Twenty students from the high school worked with volunteers who spent two hours helping students think through ideas, work on structure, and create high-quality essays. Volunteers were impressed by the students' eagerness to learn how to improve their writing and their excitement about going to college. Thank you to our volunteers!
| | Green Dot in the News Keep up with the latest news about Green Dot's progress to improve L.A.'s public high schools. Visit our website to see current and past news articles and video clips. Click on the stories below to catch up on some of the most recent news and commentary:
"Bring on the Green Dots" Chicago Tribune Editorial
(Green Dot has no plans to open schools in Chicago, but we are pleased that our model is inspiring education reformers around that country.)
"Teachers' Union, Green Dot to form charter high school" by Tanyanika Samuels (New York Daily News)
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