Stephen Minix, athletic director of Locke High School in Los Angeles, says the transformation of the school since he started seven years ago is like night and day. At the Get Schooled conference, he describes how Locke’s filthy halls were filled with rats and roaches, staff fled as gangs took over the school, and deplorable conditions led to a 600-person riot and a police lockdown. “How is any school supposed to develop any kind of vision on such a wobbly foundation?”
In 2008, Green Dot Public Schools turned Locke into a cluster of eight small, autonomously-run schools that inspire its students. Minix explains how the school has undergone a major cultural shift, and graduation, retention, and dropout rates have dramatically improved in just one year. “The students are proof that the resiliency of youth, combined with the efforts of educators and the community, make for an unstoppable force.”
View "Get Schooled: You Have the Right," the 30-minute program that highlights the lessons learned by three young professionals, showing through real-life examples how education has made a difference in their lives.