Camino Nuevo Charter Academy is a group of

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

s serving the Westlake/

MacArthur Park MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and later designated ...

area of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In 2003 Camino Nuevo Charter Academy was awarded the

Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...

gold medal. The school was founded by

Philip Lance Philip Lance (born 1959) is an American psychoanalyst and former community organizer who began his career as an Episcopalian priest. He was one of the first persons ordained by the Episcopal Church whose homosexuality was openly acknowledged by ...

, an activist Episcopalian priest, community organizer, and psychologist. Camino Nuevo Charter Academy operates two middle and two elementary schools in the same neighborhood. Students have a longer school day and year than students at traditional Los Angeles Unified School District schools, and smaller class sizes. Camino Nuevo schools are very involved with parents and the community at large; the school even operates a health clinic for family members. Camino Nuevo High School, known as the Dalzell

Lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier ( lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike si ...

Campus, received a 751 on its

Academic Performance Index The Academic Performance Index (API) was a measurement of academic performance and progress of individual schools in California, United States. The API was one of the main components of the Public Schools Accountability Act passed by the California ...

score, significantly higher than any other high school in its neighborhood. The school was awarded a 10 out of 10 from the state of California for its similar schools ranking. 80 percent of sophomores passed the

CAHSEE The California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) was an examination created by the California Department of Education, that was previously mandated to administer in high schools statewide in order to graduate. The examination was suspended in ...

on their first attempt, compared to only 67 percent of

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...

students.California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) Results: Los Angeles Unified School District
/ref> Camino Nuevo's official mission statement is "to educate students in a college preparatory program to be literate, critical thinkers, and independent problem solvers who are agents of social justice with sensitivity toward the world around them."

Student body

Over ninety percent of students at Camino Nuevo High School qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 79% enter as English learners. As of the 2010–2011 school year, Camino Nuevo enrolls 3,100 students.Los Angeles Times California Schools Guide
/ref>

Campuses

High School

Camino Nuevo - Dalzell Lance High School: The school, which opened in 2004, is located at the corners of West Temple Street and Silverlake Boulevard in Los Angeles. The school serves students from a variety of local areas, including

Koreatown A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have ...

, Rampart, Westlake,

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Pico-Union Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name "Pico-Union" refers to the neighborhood that surrounds the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to ...

, Silverlake, and

Echo Park Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known fo ...

. Some students also travel from suburban cities like Canoga Park or Van Nuys; also from places like Highland Park and Lincoln Heights. In association with the Teach for America program, Camino Nuevo hires teachers training to earn their credentials in order to further the initiative to aid underserved communities. The school's distinctive yellow-and-grey building was designed by Kevin Daly of

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

-based

Kevin Daly Architects Kevin Daly Architects (KDA) is Kevin Daly's architecture firm in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1990 as Daly Genik. Daly has taught architecture and is a fellow at the American Institute of Architects (FAIA). Kevin Daly Daly received ...

TK-8 campuses

Five TK-8 campuses (Burlington K-8, Kayne Siart K-8, Cisneros K-8, and Castellanos K-5, and Eisner 6-8 sister sites).

In the news

Three students from Camino Nuevo High School were interviewed o
NPR's Morning Edition
regarding the immigration debate in the U.S. Camino Nuevo Charter High and Camino Nuevo Elementary "are in the bottom 5 percent of public K-12 schools as measured by the alifornia'snew accountability tool".

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 34.076464, -118.285832, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-CA, display=title Charter school organizations based in California Coalition of Essential Schools Educational institutions established in 2004 Los Angeles Unified School District schools Westlake, Los Angeles 2004 establishments in California