Downtown College Prep

Downtown College Prep
Address
1460 The Alameda San Jose, California, 95126 United States
Coordinates	37°20′04″N 121°54′49″W / 37.334422°N 121.913699°W / 37.334422; -121.913699Coordinates: 37°20′04″N 121°54′49″W / 37.334422°N 121.913699°W / 37.334422; -121.913699
Information
School type	Charter public high school
Opened	2000
School district	San Jose Unified School District
Director	Jennifer Andaluz
Grades	9–12
Team name	Lobos
Website	www.downtowncollegeprep.org

Downtown College Prep is a public charter high school in San Jose, California. Its mission is to prepare low-achieving and economically disadvantaged students, especially Latinos, to attend a four-year college. It opened in 2000 as the first charter school in Santa Clara County.

Mission and characteristics

Downtown College Prep is an intentionally small school (400 students, 100 in each of the four grade levels)^[1] with a mission of personal attention and of valuing intellectual achievement and effort, in order to prepare its students to gain entrance to and succeed in college. Although charter schools cannot select their students, Downtown College Prep is intended for those who would otherwise be unlikely to succeed, especially immigrants with little or no English and students who will be the first in their families to attend college.^[1][2] The founding principal, Greg Lippman, said in the early years of the school:

The school's target student isn't a troublemaker ... He's a trouble follower. In a large high school, he'll drift along ... At DCP, immersed in a culture that honors grades and determination, the target student will follow the academic leaders all the way to college. That's the promise DCP has made to parents: If your children graduate from this school, they'll qualify for a four-year college or university.^[3]

Another statement as to the target population was: "We wanted Hispanic students who were failing in school but weren't in jail."^[4]

Downtown College Prep has an eight-hour day, daily homework in all subjects,^[5] mandatory tutoring in addition to the small classes and personal attention from teachers,^[6][7] and strict rules about dress and respect.^[8] In addition, the school provides college visits, assistance with applying to colleges and for financial aid, and an alumni coordinator to assist graduates after they begin college.^[9]

Downtown College Prep's parent corporation and fundraising body is the Across the Bridge Foundation.^[10] The school is one of the partner schools with the Stanford Graduate School of Education.^[11]

History

The school was founded by Lippman and by Jennifer Andaluz, who became Executive Director. When it was granted a charter by San Jose Unified School District late in 1999, it was the first charter school in Santa Clara County;^[12][13] an elementary school opened the same year.^[14] After a summer program testing teaching concepts and forming the first group of students, the school opened in fall 2000 with 102 9th-grade students,^[5][15] split between two sites in downtown San Jose, near the San Jose State University campus: St. Paul's Methodist church (in 2007 the site of the launch of a charter elementary school, Rocketship One)^[13] and a YWCA.^[16] In each of the following three years, a grade and another approximately 100 freshmen students were added.^[17] The school received considerable help in its formation from Father Mateo Sheedy, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic church, and its advisory board and eventual board of trustees included then-mayor of San Jose Ron Gonzales, Robert Caret, then-president of San Jose State, Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight Ridder, then headquartered in San Jose, and Greg Jamison, president of the San Jose Sharks hockey team.^[18] The mayor and the priest both spoke at the opening celebration on August 30, 2000.^[15]

Of the first freshman class, approximately one third transferred out, 11 moved away, 6 were expelled, and approximately half graduated, all of whom were accepted by four-year colleges.^[17] In 2007–08, the school had a 0.9% drop-out rate and a 100% graduation rate.^[19]

Initial plans of constructing a school building on land donated by San Jose State fell through.^[20] Instead, after briefly being split between three sites, the school moved in October 2002 to a converted fitness center,^[21][22][23] and in December 2005 to the former building of Hester Elementary School, on The Alameda.^{[24][25][26][27]} The building was gutted to create a "great area" and other new spaces; Downtown College Prep students and their math teacher assisted the architect, Bill Gould, in laying out the partitions for the interior rebuilding.^[28]

Gould had been the designer with Glen Rogers of the Spirit Gate, a San Jose Public Art Program project completed in 2000 consisting of an ornamental gateway on The Alameda with concrete posts resembling elephant tusks and inspirational "power words" such as "family" and "dream" stencilled out of the circular gate itself. Hester students chose the words, and the mosaics that wrap around the posts are based on their drawings.^[28][29][30]

Middle school

In 2008, Downtown College Prep opened an affiliated middle school (6th–8th grade) in Alviso, in North San Jose.^[31] For the 2012–13 school year, this closed and was replaced by an affiliated middle school in Alum Rock, on the eastern edge of the city.^[32] This currently has 300 students and is projected to become a 600-student middle and high school.^[33]

References