Highly Gifted Magnet

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The Highly Gifted Magnet (HGM) is one of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Gifted and Talented programs, restricted to students who meet the criterion of 99.9% on an intellectual assessment that meets the eligibility requirements of the district which is an IQ of 145 or above. Admission to the schools is based on a point system where points are automatically assigned for 5 different rationales, outlined in the "Choices" brochure sent out to eligible LAUSD students yearly.

There are three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school out of the 162 magnet programs in the district that are part of the Highly Gifted Magnet. The three elementary schools are Eagle Rock Elementary, Multnomah Elementary and San Jose Elementary. (Carpenter Elementary School formerly offered a highly gifted program, though not a magnet, as well). The three schools have nearly 300 students from grades 2 through 5, and in one case grade 6. Many students from those three elementary schools go on to the Portola Highly Gifted Magnet Center, which serves students from grades 6 through 8. North Hollywood High School is the parent school for the HGM program at the high school level, serving almost 400 students from grades 9 through 12.

1 The HGM at North Hollywood High
2 Guest Speakers
3 Separation from Resident School
4 HGM Faculty
5 HGM Controversy
6 Notable alumni
7 External links
8 References

[edit] The HGM at North Hollywood High

The HGM at North Hollywood High is a community of students, their parents, and faculty. In many cases, the students have known and attended school with each other since elementary school due to the small number of "feeder" schools. HGM students and faculty take part in many school-wide activities, such as Ultimate Frisbee, Chess, Bridge, and VAMS clubs, but they also have separate activities, such as dances, "House" meetings in the style of Harry Potter^{[citation needed]}, and their own literary journal, The Magnitude. Many such clubs are even sponsored by HGM faculty.

Many HGMers, as they call themselves, also participate in numerous service groups, such as the California Scholarship Federation, and Jewish Student Union, as well as in the school's Academic Decathlon, Science Bowl, Science Olympiad and miscellaneous sports teams and music groups.

The HGM program rivals those at academically rigorous private and public schools, and as a result, North Hollywood High offers a number of Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Students are required to follow a rigid class schedule filled with mostly honors and AP classes that meet LAUSD's graduation requirements and University of California A-G requirements for prospective incoming freshmen. For most academic classes, students are restricted to those taught by HGM faculty, and only honors and AP classes, or equivalents, are available for English, Mathematics, Foreign Languages, Sciences and Social Sciences. Unlike many high schools in the nation, students are first exposed to AP classes during their freshmen year. For many juniors and seniors, the schedule often ends up being filled with 5, or even 6, AP classes for everything from Chemistry to English Language and US History.^{[citation needed]}

The North Hollywood HGM consistently sends students to some of the most distinguished colleges and universities across the nation. Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California are some destinations of HGM alumni.

The current HGM coordinator is Phyllis Spadafora.

[edit] Guest Speakers

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Highly Gifted Magnet is the events it arranges for notable people to speak to and with HGM students. Recent speakers include Little Rock Nine member Terrence Roberts, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and 42nd California District Assembly leader candidates Michael Feuer (whose son is a sophomore in the HGM), Abbe Land, and Clark Baker.

[edit] Separation from Resident School

While based on the campus of the much larger North Hollywood High School, a campus with a Concept Six inclusive size of more than 3,000 students, the 300-student HGM is considered for administrative purposes separate from the resident school.

While students for scheduling or elective reasons may take classes in among the course offerings of the resident school, most HGM teachers are dedicated full-time and only teach HGM classes containing HGM students. Class sizes in the HGM are often significantly smaller than those of the resident school.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, the program has its own administrative office and couselor. Technically, all HGM students are guests on the North Hollywood High School campus. There is some degree of overlap between the administrative responsibilities of the multi-function HGM office and its conterparts for the resident school, e.g. attendance and disciplinary issues. The decisions of the HGM office in matters concerning HGM students are supposed to be authoritative, but in reality the opposite is often the case, with the resident school faculty having the final say.

[edit] HGM Faculty

The HGM boasts a distinguished faculty, including 3 PhDs, one Bar association member, and over 150 years of field experience. The three founding faculty members Iris Abrams, Gail Grande and Phyllis Spadafora, remain with the program. The faculty as of 2006 consists of:

Ms. Jessica Vega, Counselor
Ms. Phyllis Spadafora, Coordinator
Ms. Iris Abrams, Office Manager
Dr. Barbara Barnett, English
Dr. Judith Haut, English
Ms. Stacy Ordoña, English
Mr. David Corcos, Foreign Languages
Mr. Reza Bahmanyar, Mathematics
Ms. Gail Grande, Mathematics
Mr. Altair Maine, Mathematics and Sciences
Dr. Ardeshir Irani, Sciences
Mr. John McCollaum, Social Sciences
Mr. Kailim Toy, Social Sciences
Ms. Jennifer Lemvo, Art
Mr. James Hatem, Sciences

[edit] HGM Controversy

In May 2004, The HGM was featured on a PBS television program, Brown v. Board of Education : 50 Years Later, and was in essence accused of being a segregationist program. There was significant student backlash to the accusatory program, and though a response was drafted and sent to PBS, it never aired.^{[citation needed]}

Also, due to a decrease in IQ testing, fewer students enroll in the Highly Gifted Magnet in NOHO every year.

The school will eventually be forced to dismiss some of its greatest instructors because of lowering enrolment. This has distressed many students and teachers because instructors with less tenure will be dismissed before less qualified teachers with seniority. In order to persuade students to ask their parents to protest laying off well qualified teachers, some instructors mention a popular math and sciences teacher (Mr. Maine) who is rumored to be the first to leave the program if enrollment lowers.

[edit] Notable alumni

Kevin LaHue, criminal defense attorney

Jason Gordon, celebrity disc jockey

Anna-Claire Simpson, pianist, keyboardist from the rock band Lily and the Ladies, toured with Deep Purple, is well-known in France where she's starred in a slew of best friend roles, and recently overdosed while vacationing in St.Petersburg

Glydia Chan, damn she's cool.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

The 2005-2006 Choices Brochure, available from LAUSD's Gifted/Talented Programs office

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