The Arts Schools Network Board of Directors has designated Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) an Exemplary School in recognition of its commitment to excellence. The five-year designation is awarded for 2020-2025.
Arts Schools Network (ASN), the nation’s largest professional membership organization of specialized arts schools, awards Exemplary School designations to members that follow A Guide to Assessing Your Arts School in strategically evaluating their school’s purpose, operations, and educational programs. The Guide is a collaborative effort by ASN and the Accrediting Commission for Community and Pre-collegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS). Due to Covid-19 and the inability to host an in-person conference in 2020, ASN will honor the school at the Awards Breakfast hosted during the ASN 2021 Annual Conference, in Chicago, IL.
“We offer guidance, inspiration and incentives to arts school leaders who strive for excellence in their schools. When they demonstrate outstanding efforts toward this goal, as they do by following A Guide to Assessing Your Arts School, we recognize and reward their achievements with this designation.” — Melissa Brookes, Managing Director for ASN
The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) provides a unique conservatory-style arts program to students in 9th through 12th grade. One of LACHSA’s greatest strengths is the access students receive to professional teaching artists who lead conservatory-style classes in the afternoon. Nearly 80 teaching artists are employed by LACHSA, and all of them are part-time, non-credentialed teachers who are actively working in their respective arts fields. Commercial actors, musicians, fashion designers, filmmakers, principal dancers and more meet with students weekly to provide highly-specialized courses. Survey participants overwhelmingly identified the arts program and arts faculty as a strength of the program. One respondent indicated that LACHSA’s greatest strength is its “strong arts education from qualified professionals in the arts.” Students expressed extreme satisfaction with the sizes of the arts classes; Because of the high number of arts classes and instructors teaching simultaneously, students can be spread out into smaller ensembles ranging from 4-5 students in a piano class to nearly 80 in an orchestra, providing for more individualized and specialized education; 87% of respondents agreed that the size of the arts classes contributed to effective learning.
Melissa Brookes, Managing Director for ASN, said, “We offer guidance, inspiration and incentives to arts school leaders who strive for excellence in their schools. When they demonstrate outstanding efforts toward this goal, as they do by following A Guide to Assessing Your Arts School, we recognize and reward their achievements with this designation.”
Dedicated to excellence and leadership in arts education, Arts Schools Network, a non-profit association founded in 1981, provides arts school leaders, innovative partners and members of arts education institutions with quality resources, support and networking opportunities.
Visit www.artsschoolsnetwork.org to learn more.
