0001 Palmdale School District
Palmdale PROMISE MSAP 2017 Priority 1 – Need for Assistance. (a) The costs of fully implementing the magnet schools project as proposed. Introduction. With this application, Palmdale School District (PSD) applies for magnet school funding to develop five new magnet middle school academies to reduce, eliminate, or prevent African American minority, English Learner, and low socioeconomic isolation and to improve the academic achievement of all students by providing real school choice. All five proposed magnet school academies are new; Palmdale School District has never received Magnet Schools Assistance Program funding. PSD is an elementary district serving students in pre- kindergarten through eighth grades. PSD is situated in the Antelope Valley in the High Desert of Southern California. Located 60 miles north and east of Los Angeles, Palmdale is rural, and is geographically and economically isolated from services and opportunities that are prevalent in the urban metropolis. The unemployment rate for Palmdale is 9.5% compared to under 5% for the U.S. (http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/california/palmdale). Many families in Palmdale live at or below the poverty level. Our five proposed magnet academies enroll students who are primarily Hispanic/Latino (72.7%) African American (16.6%), and low income (84.4%). Compared with State achievement scores as measured by California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), Palmdale middle school students score persistently low. Our MSAP plan is designed to create and sustain systemic change in educational practices and school cultures based upon research-based practices that have demonstrated effectiveness with populations that are similar to ours. Each of the proposed new magnet academies will include a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) focus, with an additional magnet emphasis that links it to the aerospace, business and professional communities of the Antelope Valley (AV).
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