Hybrid High sets example for innovation

USC holds plenty of summer programs for high school students. Soon, however, it will be running an actual high school.

USC Hybrid High is the first school in the county to address the community’s high dropout rate with an entirely original approach. The school holds the ambitious goal of graduating 100 percent of its students.

Though people might argue against the feasibility and success of the school in directly addressing dropout rates, the school should be praised for its pioneering, targeted plan.

Regardless of how the school performs, its inception serves as an example for other colleges to innovate.

The school’s unique mix of attributes makes it perfectly poised to address students’ needs.

According to the Council for Exceptional Children, many young adults who drop out see themselves as perfectly competent students. The students felt they could have graduated if their schools had supported them properly.

USC Hybrid High seeks to provide that support. Students will receive online coursework that will let them work at their own speed. The school plans to provide digital curricula and online video resources. The school will further accommodate students’ busy lives by offering customized schedules that take students’ outside responsibilities into account.

Along with being sensitive to individual students’ needs, USC Hybrid High will also be mindful of the surrounding community’s demographic. The school’s decision to mirror the USC neighborhood and enroll more than 90 percent Hispanic and African-American students shows it is looking to directly address the community’s needs.

According to the California Department of Education, the high school dropout rate in Los Angeles County in 2010 was 20.3 percent, two percentage points higher than the statewide dropout rate of 18.2 percent. The dropout rates for Hispanic/Latino and African American students, who constitute more than 70 percent of the students in the district, are even higher at 23.1 percent and 31.3 percent, respectively.

One could argue that the school fails to address a handful of deeper and broader issues that tie into dropout rates — race, gender and economics.

Such an argument is justifiable, but it would be an incredibly tall task to design a curriculum and program that targets all those factors at once. It is better to focus on what, realistically, can be solved on such a small scale.

USC Hybrid High isn’t perfect. Though the day-to-day operations of the school will be managed by Ednovate, a non-profit organization launched by USC Rossier School of Education. There is no formal apparatus or evaluation system in place that will examine the school’s true effectiveness in lowering dropout rates.

Furthermore, USC Hybrid High’s technology-focused and custom-tailored model does not emphasize discipline. There is a chance that without the usual rigors of the traditional school week, students will get too caught up in their busy lives to finish their coursework.

It will be impossible to determine the school’s true success until the first class of students graduates. Its approach, however, is still worth trying.

Though USC Hybrid High might not lead to a noticeable or drastic change in dropout statistics for students in inner-city or low-income neighborhood high schools, the school does set a precedent for innovation and should inspire more meaningful collaboration between universities and their surrounding communities.

 

Jasmine Ako is a senior majoring in business administration.