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LAUSD, Jimmy Iovine, and Dr. Dre to open new high school in South LA
Los Angeles Jun 14, 2021
| Photo courtesy of LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner
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L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner, along with music producer and entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine and artist-producer- entrepreneur Andre “Dr. Dre” Young Monday announced a joint effort to launch a new high school in South Los Angeles.
A release from the LAUSD said the school’s curriculum will build on USC Iovine and Young Academy’s groundbreaking approach — which combines design, business and technology with hands-on, real-world learning to help develop young leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs.
The school will be known as Regional High School #1 until the official naming process is completed, will be co-located on the Audubon Middle School campus and serve up to 124 students when it opens in Fall 2022, the LAUSD said.
School capacity will expand over time to accommodate 250 students.
“This new partnership with Jimmy, Dr. Dre and the USC Iovine and Young Academy will help open the doors of opportunity for students, in particular Black and Latino children, from communities which have been historically underserved,” Beutner said.
“Much like the work of the Academy, this effort will help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.”
According to the announcement, the new high school will mirror the Academy’s unique educational model. Its curriculum will focus on multidisciplinary, hands-on learning, with a strong emphasis on real-world projects with top companies and non-profits.
The level of talent at the Academy continues to attract attention from the most innovative companies in the world. Its graduates are on the rosters of leading companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, DreamWorks and Sony, as well as launching successful startups that have garnered over $120 million in seed funding to date, the district said.
“We want to give the next generation of students access to a proven, revolutionary learning experience that will not only prepare them for the jobs of today, but equip them to reimagine and shape the jobs, technologies and creative enterprises of the future,” Iovine said. “We’ve already succeeded in higher ed, now we’re bringing it to high school.”
Beutner’s office said students will be exposed to new career paths and opportunities as well as increased access to top college programs through a first-class college preparatory curriculum and enhanced learning programs that focus on critical thinking and analysis.
“The USC Iovine and Young Academy was founded on a mission to develop educational programs that are adaptive to the ways in which technology is influencing our culture, and responsive to the individual needs and creative passions of our students,” Dean Erica Muhl said.
“From grade school through college, our students are not just part of the dramatic changes we’re experiencing in how we live and work, they’re driving those changes through an innate understanding that the world today, their world, no longer fits neatly into the traditional disciplinary silos we*ve built for them.”
Added Board Member Dr. George J. McKenna III: “Generations of students will benefit from the extraordinary career opportunities this dynamic partnership will offer Los Angeles Unified students. These innovative academic programs are exactly what our students need to stay motivated and inspired to continue their educational journeys to college and beyond.”
