About Us
OUR MISSION
East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy (ELARA) will be a center of community life and learning, whose students see themselves as architects of their own, and their community's future. The college-ready graduates of ELARA will have the broad-based knowledge, collaborative skills, and personal confidence to become innovators and leaders in their communities and professions.
OUR VISION
ELARA will create a vibrant community of scholarship and rigorous interdisciplinary studies in order to provide our community's diverse learning population with an integrated, research-based curriculum that prepares students for, and inspires them to, leadership roles in the 21st century. ELARA will, through its focus on Urban Planning and Public Policy, generate direct connections between the academic program and the present and future environments of its students. The faculty and its university and community partners will work collaboratively and engage regularly in focused professional development to maintain an environment responsive to all of its students' needs, interests, and aspirations.
OUR CORE VALUES & BELIEFS
To realize the Mission and Vision, the faculty at ELARA recognizes the necessity of embodying and cultivating the following core beliefs and values in their school community:
- Collaboration that promotes responsive teaching strategies;
- Creating curriculum relevant to student lives, including community and social justice;
- Creating rigorous curriculum, encouraging critical thinking and preparing students for college and career;
- Growth mindset fostered by intentional reflection;
- Continuous improvement as lifelong learners;
- Valuing families as partners;
- Recognizing students’ humanity first;
- Fostering a culture where students are present, academic, respectful, and responsible.
