The School Sites

We have selected three public LA high schools as our research sites: Windward, East River, and Canyon Charter high school.

Our criteria for choosing our sites was that the schools would have:

  1. a large number of underrepresented minority students (almost a sure bet in the LAUSD system)

  2. a pool of college-bound students with diverse backgrounds

  3. computer science programming classes. This latter consideration is not a sure bet for LAUSD, but a requirement for our project since we are following the decisions of students to take (or not take), persist (or not persist) in computer science.
All three of these schools are Digital High Schools. Our ITW grant proposal describes how the California "Digital High School Education Technology Grant program" was established to offer schools the opportunity to "fully integrate computers, networks, training, and software to achieve computer literacy in all pupils and faculty and to improve academic achievement.

Windward High School:

Windward High is an aerospace magnet, located near the LAX airport. The demographics are 68% African-American, 20% Latino/a, and the rest white and Asian. The student population is 3100.

Canyon Charter High School:

Canyon Charter High is a public charter school located in the wealthy white area of Los Angeles. Its student population is 30% White ( mostly neighborhood residents), 30% African American, 25% Latino/a, 8% Asian. Most of these students of color are transported in from over 101 zip codes. Canyon High is often referred to as having a "two school in one" problem, with the resident and "travelling" students in different classes and social circles.

East River High School:

East River High is located in East LA. It has a student population of 4600 students, is 98% Latino/a. This Latino/a population is very heterogeneous with families from many different countries of origin represented. Industrial is a year-round school, with three tracks.