What is different about Life Academy? Principal Aryn Bowman credits much of the school’s success to its small size, social justice emphasis, rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, and a deeply committed teaching staff.
At Life Academy students feel like family: “It’s a pretty small school so you know everyone. There’s a different type of connection here.
Life Academy of Health and Bioscience is a small district middle and high school in the Oakland Unified School District that serves 464 Latino students, of whom 78% are low-income.
Research is conflicting — some studies suggest that students of color are over-identified for special needs, while others show they are under-identified. Either way, this misidentification can limit their achievement in school and beyond.
Not all students are getting equal access to STEM education. During the 2015-2016 school year, low-income students and students of color were less likely to have opportunities to take advanced math and science classes. A study from the U.S. Department of Education showed that only 55 percent of high schools with high Black and Latino enrollment — compared to 65 percent of all high schools — offered advanced mathematics. For calculus, only 38 percent of high schools with high Black and Latino student enrollment offered advanced math, compared to 50 percent of all schools.