Semillas Community Schools Offering Instruction in 4 Languages Launches Student Recruitment

Semillas Community Schools, a non-profit charter school founded upon an indigenous culture and knowledge based in East LA, today announced it will kick off its student recruitment campaign Saturday, March 12 from at 8:45am to noon at the Audubon Center at Debs Park as part of the 2nd Annual 4-Mile Hill Challenge. 

For nearly 10 years Semillas Community Schools has been preparing East LA students for college with student scores showing impressive growth year after year. Students who enroll in Semillas will become part of a unique charter school that has consistently been at the forefront of innovative education—becoming the first public schools in the city of Los Angeles to be authorized by the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB), a major effort now being pursued by many LAUSD schools. 

“Semillas provides a unique college-preparatory experience usually not available to our communities,” said Marcos Aguilar, Co-Founder of Semillas Community Schools. “We are excited to be opening enrollment for more students to take advantage of this great opportunity.”

Semillas offers students a rich education in line with the school’s mission to foster an excellent education rooted in the students’ language, cultural values, and history. The IB Continuum provides a K-12 grade inquiry-based curriculum that prepares students to become globally minded, well-balanced, critical thinkers that exceed local standards and meet international university standards.

Semillas’ continuum has successfully outperformed surrounding schools in its district and has demonstrated consistent growth in API scores every year, by empowering young scholars in disenfranchised sub-groups such as Socio-economically Disadvantaged, Special Needs, and English Learners. Since 2009 the school’s API jumped 34 points from 682 to 716 in 2010.

Semillas is also the only non-profit charter school in Los Angeles offering culturally relevant instruction founded upon on indigenous knowledge to the native population of L.A., despite Los Angeles having the largest Native American population in the country.

“Cultural identity is both an inherent intelligence and a boundless wellspring of knowledge our students embrace,” Aguilar added. 

Additionally, the schools offer unique features such as instruction in four languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Nahuatl, the indigenous language of Mexico), college preparation for 100% of its HS students, Annual Hanban Cultural Exchange Trip To China in association with the UCLA Confucius Institute, Aztec Dance, Prize-winning Kung Fu program, Multi-media courses and a two-week language immersion program at the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy.