Still I RISE: A Case Study of the Revolutionary Work Happening at Da Vinci RISE High School

Humbly nestled on Central Ave and 29th, in the epicenter of what was once the west coast jazz scene, blocks away from the location of the first national convention of the NAACP, sits the first Da Vinci RISE High School micro-campus. RISE serves as the home of a new revolution in Los Angeles, one centering the lived-experiences of youth who have been historically underestimated and systemically silenced. Designed and redesigned around the intricate needs of youth who interface with foster care, housing instability and the juvenile justice system, RISE is committed to using these experiences to construct a universally-designed school well-equipped to serve all students. 

A cornerstone of the RISE model is co-locating with mission-aligned nonprofits that serve as collaborators in providing the material, academic, physical and mental health resources youth need to access an empowering education. RISE has two locations to serve approximately 200 students any time anywhere: A Place Called Home in Los Angeles established in 2018 and Richstone Family Center in Hawthorne established in 2021, with a vision to expand in future years. The students RISE serves often have complicated lives and schedules; many were let down by their traditional high schools and now need extra support. This multi-campus model ensures that when/if students are displaced, they likely have a RISE site within their region and can advocate to remain at their school of origin as they are transitioning placements. Micro-campuses also allow this population an easier access point to develop supportive relationships in a space where many of them have historically been traumatized and excluded. This is all in conjunction with RISE’s devotion to restorative justice, creating a welcoming framework where students engage in interpersonal community circles to ensure youth build healthy and strong relationships with students, staff and partners alike. 

The Da Vinci RISE student support services team works in tandem with the teachers, admin and operations staff to ensure youth are holistically cared for. Behavior interventionists, Case Manager- Counselors and School Psychologists circulate the building pulling students for 1:1 counseling, college and career advising, anger management, resource allocation and more, ensuring that students’ baseline needs are always accounted for. Prioritization around training for all staff in the fields of restorative justices, trauma informed care and non-violent crisis intervention allows RISE to operate as a largely non-expulsion and non-suspension school, even while recruiting and serving youth who are often expelled and suspended from their previous schools. To ensure RISE students are honored for their learning, the school uses 21st century assessments and performance tasks to levelset credit allocations and transcripts upon enrollment. When a student comes in with 5/10 credits in English 9, rather than ignoring the half-year they committed to learning, Da Vinci RISE honors these credits and meets the students where they are by providing them with the remaining skills and opportunities to show mastery to continue the course where they left off. This traditional practice of eliminating partial credit upon enrollment when a student transitions schools is one of the largest contributors to discouragement and high school dropout rates amongst youth. 

RISE High’s design reflects a set of beliefs about how learning best occurs, tied to the school’s overall principles and values, based in extensive conversations with stakeholders (including students), and grounded in research on best practices in education, particularly for those students who have not been successful in more traditional learning environments. Project based learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, trauma informed care, flexible scheduling, transportation services, material resources, mental health services and small class sizes are all key facets of the RISE model that ensures our students’ success. 

Many RISE students are unable to attend school for 8-hours a day due to competing priorities deeply related to their survival. As such, we became chartered as an independent studies school to allow our youth to complete assignments whenever and wherever they are. This also means we can curate individualized schedules upon intake. The traditional independent study model of a single teacher managing multiple course packets for scores of students limits academic rigor and frustrates often already academically low-skilled students. At RISE High, students understand that learning happens in all aspects of life and not just within the four walls of a traditional classroom during specified times each day. Our flexible scheduling model within an independent study framework enables students to both receive instructional time and meet their personal needs outside of school, such as working to support themselves and their families, attending court dates, receiving counseling and mental health services, or caring for their own children or younger siblings. Students engage in interdisciplinary and realworld-driven projects with industry partners and rigorous feedback cycles during their days on campuses. When offsite, they continue their learning online through google classroom leveraging adaptive learning technologies and teacher-curated assignments and lessons. 

RISE High seeks to make education relevant and engaging for all students by providing opportunities for thinking about how their education will apply to their life and career beyond school. Through partnerships with local industries and organizations, students have opportunities to participate in exciting internships and earn work experience that prepare them for jobs they wish to pursue in the future. Students are also connected to paying jobs where possible if they need financial support, and are prepared and supported through work readiness and financial literacy courses. Skills learned in real-world experiences can result in mastered competencies and count towards course credit. 

The future of Da Vinci RISE is bright. We are currently working on plans to open up our next campus within a local community college to bust down the visible and invisible barriers between our student population and post secondary education. We have forged partnerships with Kaiser Permanente Medical School and are approaching our second year of a medical pathway for students interested in exploring careers in medicine and mental health. RISE has been awarded the California Golden State Pathways grant to design and implement 3 new high-interest and high-demand career pathways: aviation, mental health and digital media. Additionally, RISE has been awarded the Peer-to-Peer Youth Mental Health Pilot Demonstration grant to deploy a youth-driven mentorship and mental health program amongst our student body. 

As RISE has stayed committed to the holistic wellness and preparedness of our youth, we have seen an influx of highly qualified alumni coming back to work at RISE and throughout the Da Vinci School network. During the 2023-24 school year, RISE had three alumni serving on staff and a fourth working at another school within the network. Most notably, RISE is on the forefront of the fight for equitable funding formulas for schools committed to serving the most at-promise youth in our city, with recent visits from Superintendent of LACOE, Debra Duardo, California Congresswoman, Sydney Kamlager-Dov, Los Angeles County Supervisor, Holly J. Mitchell, Assemblymembers Isaac Bryan and Al Muratsuchi and the 2024 LACOE Board, we hope we can begin to make positive change for other schools hoping to do the same. Because at RISE we know, together we RISE!