Liberal Arts and Science Academy of Austin at LBJ High School
Encyclopedia
The Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School of Austin
is a specialized high school
for students interested in liberal arts
, science
, and/or mathematics
. As an advanced program magnet school
, it admits select high school students from across the Austin Independent School District
(AISD).
The Academy was designated an Exemplary high school by the Texas Education Agency a year after its opening as a separate high school in August 2007.
As of the 2006-2007 school year LBJ received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
to support implementation of an educational enrichment program called First Things First. When the grant was issued, the AISD superintendent inaccurately promoted an idea that the grant prohibited an advanced program from being part of the same school as a parallel high school program, and began to push to separate LASA from the rest of LBJ. In fact, representatives of the Gates Foundation reported at a public hearing event their preference that advanced academic programs such as LASA continue to be a part of a larger high school where the entire student body can benefit from each other's contributions to student life and the academic and other classes not housed under the advanced program. Members of the LBJ Alumni Association around the world lobbied members of the school board to prevent the isolating separation of the LASA program from the overall high school and the elimination of the benefits the entire student body had enjoyed when the Science Academy — and later LASA — were fully integrated into the LBJ community. The Urban League and a large number of students and faculty also fought the separation. Ultimately, this effort was unsuccessful. The two schools, LBJ and LASA, were formally separated in the 2007-2008 school year. Although they continue to be housed on the same campus, each keeps separate faculty, staff, and records for standardized tests, grade point averages,and class ranking. During the 2007-2008 school year there was a single yearbook, band, choir, theatre, art, and all students within the two schools are able to take part in all sports. As a result of the split, both schools are required to have separate principals, and Rene Sanchez, who was the interim director of the LASA program, was selected to be principal of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School.
student body. it is rumored to have been designed by a prison architect. LBJ went through various renovations during summer 2010, including remodeling many of the science labs used by LASA. The building is primarily triangular and is sometimes referred to as "The Uterus
" with the addition of the fine arts wing off of the dark purple hall way. There is also a new, state-of-the-art theatre, which was finished late in the 2006-2007 school year. The Theatre was named the Don T. Haynes III Performing Arts Center, after LBJ's band director of 37 years. The outside of the campus is maintained by a volunteer group of students and parents. The most well known feature of the LBJ campus is "The Texas," a large, granite statue in the shape of the state's outline. The statue, a gift from the class of 1978, sits outside the front of the school. As the school is built upon a hill the lowest level is partially underground to the north and therefore has no windows. It is fondly referred to as "The Dungeon" throughout campus. The Dungeon contains the wood shop, gym, and some science classrooms. Additionally there are two upper floors of which the first is inhabited by LBJ and the second upper floor is inhabited by LASA. On campus there are also eight portables only 3 of which are used by LASA.
It is three stories tall, with three protruding academic wings currently designated by 3 different colored borders: white, yellow, and purple. The hallways were previously white, yellow, and purple, but in the 2010-11 school year the hallways were repainted to light purple, medium purple, and dark purple, because of a communication error. This made it hard to find the correct classroom as the building is geometrically symmetrical. Only the downstairs LBJ hallways were intended to be repainted. After the one year of confusion, the hallways were once again repainted to be white, yellow, and purple. The repainting was done in the hopes of reducing gang violence present in the LBJ hallways. The purple halls are mostly humanities and ELA (English/Language Arts) rooms, the white halls are mostly for math, and the yellow halls are mostly science classes. In the eighties, the hallways were blue, red and orange. At that time, a huge student-painted mural dedicated to Kent Faseler, a girls' soccer coach and English teacher dubbed in the mural as "the Wizard of Fas," adorned one wall next to his class area in what was then the "orange open area" on the second floor. One notable feature of the school is the fine arts hall, a wide open space lined with lockers designated for band students only. In 2002 a group of seniors started a Reagan-LBJ tradition by wrapping the Texas in saran wrap to protect it from vandals. The night before the annual Reagan-LBJ football game, seniors wrap the Texas in saran wrap and spend the night keeping it and other parts of the campus safe from vandalism by students of their rival Reagan High School.
Director of the Liberal Arts Academy at Johnston High School:
Directors of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy at LBJ High School:
Principal of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School:
As of 2005-2006, the demographics of LASA are:
Average years teaching: 12
Average class sizes:
Student to teacher ratio: 15 to 1
The school offers, as a whole, 15 sports.
These are:
Aiming at fostering collaboration among the leaders of strong organizations at LBJ and helping to create stronger leaders at LBJ, the LBJ Student Leadership Consortium (LC) was founded in the 2005-2006 year by student leaders of: Student Council, National Honor Society, PALs, STAC, Band, SMILE, the Liberator, LASA Robotics, African American Culture Club, and Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB). Many other such clubs, including the LASA Latin Club, are award winning and have claimed the top honors in the state of Texas.
Students must take two "Signature Courses" in both their Freshman and Sophomore years. These Signature Courses are semester-long block period classes designed to make well-rounded students. Freshmen must take Science and Technology or SciTech and Electronic Magazine or E-Zine; Sophomores take Planet Earth and Great Ideas (also known as Introduction to the Humanities).
LASA offers a wide range of electives in all core subjects ranging from The Hitchhikers Guide to Sci-Fi, Amateur Radio (students may apply for a HAM radio license while taking the course) and the state's only Modern Physics course. The math classes at LASA range from Magnet Algebra I to Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Number Theory courses. Roughly 75% of the LASA senior class graduates having taken calculus.The sciences are quite extensive, with its classes ranging from Topics Biology (covering cellular & molecular biology) to pathophysiology, astronomy, and multi-informational engineering. The computer science program at LASA is home to the Student Technology Administrative Council (STAC), a rigorous program designed to train students with moderate computer skill at the freshman level to be professional network engineers by the time they graduate. This is accomplished through practical work-environment experiences, given thorough training on the computer networks that classrooms actually function on, rather than the traditional experimental and theoretical classroom approach. STAC was established in 1995 through a joint effort of students and teachers, and operated as a student run organization through 2002.
LBJ offers six languages: French, German, Latin, Japanese, Spanish, and, starting in the 2010-2011 school year, Chinese. Every fall the language clubs will come together and play broomball
with the French, German, Latin and Japanese clubs teaming up to take on the massive Spanish club.
There are two levels of curriculum in our core courses - Magnet and Topics. The term Topics originally described the difference between the two levels of math offered by the Science Academy. If a student took Topics math, then they were on track to take BC Calculus before they graduated. Other Science Academy students were on track to finish with AB Calculus. Now, Topics courses are differentiated from Magnet courses by their breadth and depth of the material covered by the curriculum. Another way to differentiate the two curricula is to think of courses in college. Topics courses are, for example, math for math majors or English for English majors and Magnet courses are Math for English majors and English for math majors.
LASA offers 27 Advanced Placement courses; many students begin taking them their sophomore year with either Computer Science or a language. Ms. Aguayo-Tabor also helps students prepare for the World History exam with study sessions during lunch if they are interested in taking it.
LBJ's 26 Advanced Placements courses:
Although the program's curriculum is heavily based in academics, LASA is home to an extremely creative community. The Liberator, the school newspaper, was named the best student newspaper in the South by TIME Magazine,and has been recognized regularly at the state and national level. The recently created Literary Magazine (not to be confused with E-Zine), The Composer, was created when the two academies merged and every spring is well sought after. The theatre program is highly celebrated with its fall play and spring musical. But it is the LBJ Jaguar Band that brings the most attention to the school with its tradition of high performance. The 165 member band has performed all over the world.
The LASA requires that students graduate under the Distinguished Achievement Plan (DAP) as defined by the State of Texas. The DAP requires additional years of foreign language study, mathematics, and the completion of at least four "Advanced Measures."
The following are considered Advanced Measures:
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
is a specialized high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
for students interested in liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, and/or mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. As an advanced program magnet school
Magnet school
In education in the United States, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools.There are magnet schools at the...
, it admits select high school students from across the Austin Independent School District
Austin Independent School District
Austin Independent School District is a school district that is based in the city of Austin, Texas, United States. It was established in 1881. Its current superintendent is...
(AISD).
The Academy was designated an Exemplary high school by the Texas Education Agency a year after its opening as a separate high school in August 2007.
History
The Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) of Austin was created in 2002 from the merger of two separate magnet programs: the Science Academy at Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) High School, founded in 1984 and opened in 1985 under the direction of John Friedrick and Sue Sinkin-Morris, and the Liberal Arts Academy, founded at Johnston High School (only five miles away) in 1987.As of the 2006-2007 school year LBJ received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...
to support implementation of an educational enrichment program called First Things First. When the grant was issued, the AISD superintendent inaccurately promoted an idea that the grant prohibited an advanced program from being part of the same school as a parallel high school program, and began to push to separate LASA from the rest of LBJ. In fact, representatives of the Gates Foundation reported at a public hearing event their preference that advanced academic programs such as LASA continue to be a part of a larger high school where the entire student body can benefit from each other's contributions to student life and the academic and other classes not housed under the advanced program. Members of the LBJ Alumni Association around the world lobbied members of the school board to prevent the isolating separation of the LASA program from the overall high school and the elimination of the benefits the entire student body had enjoyed when the Science Academy — and later LASA — were fully integrated into the LBJ community. The Urban League and a large number of students and faculty also fought the separation. Ultimately, this effort was unsuccessful. The two schools, LBJ and LASA, were formally separated in the 2007-2008 school year. Although they continue to be housed on the same campus, each keeps separate faculty, staff, and records for standardized tests, grade point averages,and class ranking. During the 2007-2008 school year there was a single yearbook, band, choir, theatre, art, and all students within the two schools are able to take part in all sports. As a result of the split, both schools are required to have separate principals, and Rene Sanchez, who was the interim director of the LASA program, was selected to be principal of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School.
Construction and Design
The LBJ campus is located in northeast Austin. The school was built in 1974, taking on a portion of what had been the Reagan High SchoolReagan High School
Reagan High School may refer to:* John H. Reagan High School * John H. Reagan High School * Ronald W. Reagan High School, Pfafftown, North Carolina...
student body. it is rumored to have been designed by a prison architect. LBJ went through various renovations during summer 2010, including remodeling many of the science labs used by LASA. The building is primarily triangular and is sometimes referred to as "The Uterus
Uterus
The uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...
" with the addition of the fine arts wing off of the dark purple hall way. There is also a new, state-of-the-art theatre, which was finished late in the 2006-2007 school year. The Theatre was named the Don T. Haynes III Performing Arts Center, after LBJ's band director of 37 years. The outside of the campus is maintained by a volunteer group of students and parents. The most well known feature of the LBJ campus is "The Texas," a large, granite statue in the shape of the state's outline. The statue, a gift from the class of 1978, sits outside the front of the school. As the school is built upon a hill the lowest level is partially underground to the north and therefore has no windows. It is fondly referred to as "The Dungeon" throughout campus. The Dungeon contains the wood shop, gym, and some science classrooms. Additionally there are two upper floors of which the first is inhabited by LBJ and the second upper floor is inhabited by LASA. On campus there are also eight portables only 3 of which are used by LASA.
It is three stories tall, with three protruding academic wings currently designated by 3 different colored borders: white, yellow, and purple. The hallways were previously white, yellow, and purple, but in the 2010-11 school year the hallways were repainted to light purple, medium purple, and dark purple, because of a communication error. This made it hard to find the correct classroom as the building is geometrically symmetrical. Only the downstairs LBJ hallways were intended to be repainted. After the one year of confusion, the hallways were once again repainted to be white, yellow, and purple. The repainting was done in the hopes of reducing gang violence present in the LBJ hallways. The purple halls are mostly humanities and ELA (English/Language Arts) rooms, the white halls are mostly for math, and the yellow halls are mostly science classes. In the eighties, the hallways were blue, red and orange. At that time, a huge student-painted mural dedicated to Kent Faseler, a girls' soccer coach and English teacher dubbed in the mural as "the Wizard of Fas," adorned one wall next to his class area in what was then the "orange open area" on the second floor. One notable feature of the school is the fine arts hall, a wide open space lined with lockers designated for band students only. In 2002 a group of seniors started a Reagan-LBJ tradition by wrapping the Texas in saran wrap to protect it from vandals. The night before the annual Reagan-LBJ football game, seniors wrap the Texas in saran wrap and spend the night keeping it and other parts of the campus safe from vandalism by students of their rival Reagan High School.
Leadership
Directors of the Science Academy at LBJ High School:- Dr. John Friedrick (1984–1989)
- Suzanne Sinkin (1989–1994)
- Mary Long (1994 - June 1997)
- Carol Hovland (August 1996 - February 1997)
- Daniel Gohl (February 1997 - February 2002)
- Dr. Betty Stapp (Feb. 2002 - August 2002)
Director of the Liberal Arts Academy at Johnston High School:
- Dr. Paula Tyler (1987–2002)
Directors of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy at LBJ High School:
- Dr. Betty Stapp (August 2002- June 2004)
- Dr. Gregory Foley (August 2004- September 2006)
- Rene Sanchez (September 2006 - August 2007)
Principal of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School:
- Rene Sanchez (August 2007–December 2010)
- Scott Lipton (December 2010 – July 2011)
- Ms. Stacia Crescenzi (July 2011 - Present)
Students
As of 2005-2006 the student population of LBJ High was 1632. The academy is made up of roughly 850 students.- Magnet students comprise 53% of the students at the LBJ campus.
- 95% of LASA students are accepted to four year colleges.
- The average academy SAT score is 1250 of 1600.
- the academy averages 20 National Merit students a year
As of 2005-2006, the demographics of LASA are:
- 53% White
- 24% Hispanic
- 13.8% Asian
- 8% African American/Black
- .5% Native American
- 34% of LASA students are low socioeconomic standings
- LASA has the closest demographic mix to that of Austin at large compared to other AISD high schools
Faculty
Because of the difficulty of LASA's curriculum, teachers are often similar to their students in that they too are the best that the district has to offer. Many teachers are the recipients of awards, including Maricruz Aguayo-Tabor, recipient of a Milken Educator Award and Alicia Ruch-Flynn, the Austin Independent School District Teacher of the Year for 2009 (Ms. Ruch-Flynn has since moved to New Mexico).Average years teaching: 12
Average class sizes:
- English: 26
- Foreign language: 28
- Math: 22
- Science: 25
- Social Studies: 28
Student to teacher ratio: 15 to 1
Traditions
LASA's traditions are as diverse as the people who make them. Our traditions vary depending on the class, club, or time of year the campus is observed. For the academy, one can begin with the Magnet Showcase in January, in which all of the magnet classes, as well as many clubs and sports teams stay after school one night to show what LASA has to offer. There is often a friendly rivalry among classes and clubs over who can attract the most attention. In early April, Coffeehouse occurs. The event, which originated at Johnston and was brought over by English teacher Matt Kelly, is a talent show where students perform music, drama, poetry and prose. There is also Car Bash which is held before the big rivalry football game, students pay $1 for an unlimited number of hits for 30 seconds or $5 for unlimited hits for 5 minutes to smash a donated car with a sledgehammer. The Car Bash is hosted by LASA's Robotics team led by Anthony Bertucci. The car is often spray painted either with the rival's name or with random teachers' names. Throughout the year there are Communal Lunches. Frequently held on the first or last Friday of a grading period, Communal Lunch is a gigantic pot luck lunch and stress reliever as students are seen bringing pogo sticks, guitars, and blowing bubbles to the lunch. The last tradition of the year is the Senior Salute. The Salute, sponsored by the Parents and Friends of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, is the new senior recognition ceremony that replaced the Science Academy Senior Banquet. Its main purpose is the recognition of the LASA Senior class and is where students are awarded their magnet certificate. The event is filled with multimedia presentations, readings, music, skits, student speeches, and in the end an academy senior class photo. There is also a smaller interclass gathering on the last day of school: the LASA picnic, usually held at Zilker Park, it usually student organized with students arranging transportation and times, it's bring your own lunch, and then joining other students at Barton Springs Pool, time for talking and yearbooks, and just general camaraderie.Sports
The sports that academy students are most likely to participate in are: ultimate, golf, lacrosse, swimming, cross-country, and tennis.The school offers, as a whole, 15 sports.
These are:
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Clubs and Student Organizations
LBJ offers 72 clubs and student organizations, including:
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Aiming at fostering collaboration among the leaders of strong organizations at LBJ and helping to create stronger leaders at LBJ, the LBJ Student Leadership Consortium (LC) was founded in the 2005-2006 year by student leaders of: Student Council, National Honor Society, PALs, STAC, Band, SMILE, the Liberator, LASA Robotics, African American Culture Club, and Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB). Many other such clubs, including the LASA Latin Club, are award winning and have claimed the top honors in the state of Texas.
Curriculum
In order to receive magnet endorsement LASA students must complete a minimum of 15 magnet classes. They must also complete the Distinguished Achievement Plan or DAP which involves a minimum three years of one language (many students having finished their language will begin another). These classes are college prep level, and all students must complete four years of English, four years of social studies, four years of math, and three years of science.Students must take two "Signature Courses" in both their Freshman and Sophomore years. These Signature Courses are semester-long block period classes designed to make well-rounded students. Freshmen must take Science and Technology or SciTech and Electronic Magazine or E-Zine; Sophomores take Planet Earth and Great Ideas (also known as Introduction to the Humanities).
LASA offers a wide range of electives in all core subjects ranging from The Hitchhikers Guide to Sci-Fi, Amateur Radio (students may apply for a HAM radio license while taking the course) and the state's only Modern Physics course. The math classes at LASA range from Magnet Algebra I to Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Number Theory courses. Roughly 75% of the LASA senior class graduates having taken calculus.The sciences are quite extensive, with its classes ranging from Topics Biology (covering cellular & molecular biology) to pathophysiology, astronomy, and multi-informational engineering. The computer science program at LASA is home to the Student Technology Administrative Council (STAC), a rigorous program designed to train students with moderate computer skill at the freshman level to be professional network engineers by the time they graduate. This is accomplished through practical work-environment experiences, given thorough training on the computer networks that classrooms actually function on, rather than the traditional experimental and theoretical classroom approach. STAC was established in 1995 through a joint effort of students and teachers, and operated as a student run organization through 2002.
LBJ offers six languages: French, German, Latin, Japanese, Spanish, and, starting in the 2010-2011 school year, Chinese. Every fall the language clubs will come together and play broomball
Broomball
Broomball is a recreational ice game originating in Canada and played around the world. It is played in a hockey rink, either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. Broomball is popular in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where Glenella is the Broomball Capital of the World...
with the French, German, Latin and Japanese clubs teaming up to take on the massive Spanish club.
There are two levels of curriculum in our core courses - Magnet and Topics. The term Topics originally described the difference between the two levels of math offered by the Science Academy. If a student took Topics math, then they were on track to take BC Calculus before they graduated. Other Science Academy students were on track to finish with AB Calculus. Now, Topics courses are differentiated from Magnet courses by their breadth and depth of the material covered by the curriculum. Another way to differentiate the two curricula is to think of courses in college. Topics courses are, for example, math for math majors or English for English majors and Magnet courses are Math for English majors and English for math majors.
LASA offers 27 Advanced Placement courses; many students begin taking them their sophomore year with either Computer Science or a language. Ms. Aguayo-Tabor also helps students prepare for the World History exam with study sessions during lunch if they are interested in taking it.
LBJ's 26 Advanced Placements courses:
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Although the program's curriculum is heavily based in academics, LASA is home to an extremely creative community. The Liberator, the school newspaper, was named the best student newspaper in the South by TIME Magazine,and has been recognized regularly at the state and national level. The recently created Literary Magazine (not to be confused with E-Zine), The Composer, was created when the two academies merged and every spring is well sought after. The theatre program is highly celebrated with its fall play and spring musical. But it is the LBJ Jaguar Band that brings the most attention to the school with its tradition of high performance. The 165 member band has performed all over the world.
The LASA requires that students graduate under the Distinguished Achievement Plan (DAP) as defined by the State of Texas. The DAP requires additional years of foreign language study, mathematics, and the completion of at least four "Advanced Measures."
The following are considered Advanced Measures:
- An Advanced Placement test score of at least 3 or higher
- Completion of a dual credit course with a grade of 3.0 or higher
- A PSAT score that qualifies the student to be a National Merit Finalist, semi-finalist, or commended, a National Hispanic Scholar, or a National Achievement Scholar finalist or semi-finalist
- An original research project, judged by a panel of professionals or directed by a mentor and reported to an appropriate audience (Up to two of these projects can be applied toward completion of Advanced Measures)
SciTech
SciTech is hands-on science and engineering, which will prepare students to perform in industry and university work environments with industry level evaluation. Students are given a mechanical engineering challenge that they will have to complete. The course is based in general on a "four step" design process: conceptualization, design, layout/construction, and evaluation. One of the Highlights of SciTech is Kickoff Day when the semester's challenge is announced, former students are often heard asking the current students "What is the challenge this semester?" Or later after kick off, taunting them with, "my challenge was harder than yours", or equally terrorizing, "Man, yours is the hardest I have ever seen!" The exact challenge parameters and the course itself is the "best kept" secret at the academy until Kickoff. The class is celebrating it's 50th semester (25 years) Fall 2011.Planet Earth
Planet Earth examines the relationship between life and the physical planet throughout geologic history. The objectives range from recognizing cause and effect relationships to collecting and analyzing data for a long-term research project and then presenting the results. The students participate in two large projects during planet earth: The KT (Cretaceous-Tertiary) Debate and the Biodiversity Project. The KT Debate covers the various theories discussing the mass extinction of dinosaurs at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods and the possibility that an asteroid wiped them out, providing the prompt: "The US government will allow fifty billion dollars to an organization that provides scientific evidence for or against defense from asteroids and other extraterrestrials." The debate takes place over a week with students taking the role of senators, lobbyists, reporters and witnesses. The Biodiversity Project consists of students designing and completing a field study in which the relationship between the physical environment and the biodiversity of the Austin area is analyzed. Students working in pairs, trios, or solo select an organism and city park to study.eZine
eZine was created in the 2005-2006 school year in order to give the Liberal Arts Students to provide more humanities exposure. Students self-select their groups based on common interest and learn various skills necessary for creating a magazine, such as Adobe Creative Suite 5 software, interviewing skills, and other journalism skills. Visiting professional graphic designers serve as mentors to student groups, providing professional feedback for the publications. The 2009 fall class was the first of the ezine classes to add podcasting to multimedia product. Students apply their knowledge to writing several types of articles for the magazine and designing the magazine. The official eZine website can be found at http://www.ezineempire.weebly.com.Great Ideas
Beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, an additional signature elective was added to the curriculum, known as Introduction to the Humanities or Great Ideas. The class was designed to encompass the Liberal Arts, in an attempt to make the curriculum less focused on Math and Science. The material that is learned in the class is very similar to what would normally be in an English class; plays and literature are used in place of textbooks, and students are also educated in philosophy and art. After Great Ideas was added as a signature elective, the aspect of signature electives at LASA was reshaped to accommodate the functionality of four signature electives. As of the 2007-2008 school year, Freshmen are required to take both Sci-Tech and E-Zine, while it is mandatory for Sophomores to take Planet Earth and Humanities. Only one Signature elective can be taken by a student per semester, and the length of class time allotted to a signature elective course is twice that of another class per week. One of the Former Geat Ideas teachers, Rick Odum has a wiki at rickodum.wikispaces.com as well as a blog at [odumgreatideas.blogspot.com].See also
- LBJ High SchoolLBJ High SchoolLyndon Baines Johnson Early College High School in northeast Austin, Texas is a high school built in 1974 that later came to house one of Austin's two magnet high schools, the Science Academy...
- LASA and LBJ students share the same campus, newspaper, annual, band, theatre, orchestra, choir, and many other curricular and extracurriclar programs
External links
- http://www.austinschools.org/campus/lasa/ (main LASA HS web site)
- http://www.austin.isd.tenet.edu/schools/details.phtml?id=007 (AISD LASA site)
- http://www.lasarobotics.org (LASA Robotics team web site)
- http://www.lbjhs.net (main LBJ HS web site)
- http://www.lasaonline.org (site of PFLASA, Parents and Friends of LASA)
- http://www.lbjsports.org (LBJ and LASA Sports)