South LA To Get A Dr. Dre/Jimmy Iovin High School

LOS ANGELES, CA — Being too cool for school will soon be a thing of the past in South Los Angeles where the newest public high school to open will be an academy in partnership with Dr. Dre.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintenent Austin Beutner, producer-entrepreneur Andre "Dr. Dre" Young and music producer and entrepreneur Jimmy Iovin announced the new high school Monday morning. The school's curriculum will focus on the skills need for tomorrow's innovators, and entrepreneurs. According to a statement of by the school district, the school's curriculum follows USC Iovine and Young Academy's groundbreaking approach, which combines design, business and technology with hands-on, real-world learning.

The USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy is a professional school founded in 2013 "to establish a new school to nurture critical thinking and unbridled creativity at the intersection of four essential areas: arts and design; engineering and computer science; business and venture management; and communication," according to USC.

Iovine and Young co-founded Beats Electronics, which sold to Appled for $3 billion in 2014. It was their philanthropic efforts that created the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, and now they are looking to open the same doors for high school students. Thirty years ago, Dre's group N.W.A. was being banned on radio stations across the nation. Now he is recognized as titan of the industry and a business role model especially for kids in is native Compton.

"We want to give the next generation of students access to a proven, revolutionary learning experience that will not only prepare them for the jobs of today, but equip them to reimagine and shape the jobs, technologies and creative enterprises of the future," said Iovine, founder of Interscope Records. "We've already succeeded in higher ed, now we're bringing it to high school."

Officials hope the school will give students from underprivileged communities the opportunities to follow their passions and be leaders in their fields.

"This new partnership with Jimmy, Dr. Dre and the USC Iovine and Young Academy will help open the doors of opportunity for students, in particular Black and Latino children, from communities which have been historically underserved," Beutner said. "Much like the work of the Academy, this effort will help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators."

The school will be locatinged on the Audubon Middle School campus and serve up to 124 students when it opens in Fall 2022, the LAUSD said. It's capacity will grow over time to accommodate 250 students.

According to the announcement, the new high school will mirror the Academy's unique educational model. Its curriculum will focus on multidisciplinary, hands-on learning, with a strong emphasis on real-world projects with top companies and non-profits.

The level of talent at the Academy continues to attract attention from the most innovative companies in the world. Its graduates are on the rosters of leading companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, DreamWorks and Sony, as well as launching successful startups that have garnered over $120 million in seed funding to date, the district said.

Beutner's office said students will be exposed to new career paths and opportunities as well as increased access to top college programs through a first-class college preparatory curriculum and enhanced learning programs that focus on critical thinking and analysis.

"The USC Iovine and Young Academy was founded on a mission to develop educational programs that are adaptive to the ways in which technology is influencing our culture, and responsive to the individual needs and creative passions of our students," said Erica Muhl, the Academy's founding dean.

"From grade school through college, our students are not just part of the dramatic changes we're experiencing in how we live and work, they're driving those changes through an innate understanding that the world today, their world, no longer fits neatly into the traditional disciplinary silos we've built for them."

Added Board Member Dr. George J. McKenna III: "Generations of students will benefit from the extraordinary career opportunities this dynamic partnership will offer Los Angeles Unified students. These innovative academic programs are exactly what our students need to stay motivated and inspired to continue their educational journeys to college and beyond."

City News Service contributed to this report.