Downtown Magnets High School (DMHS) is an alternatemagnethigh school located in the Temple-Beaudry neighborhood near Downtown Los Angeles. The school belongs to the Downtown/MacArthur Park Community of Schools[5] and houses three magnet programs: Business (DBM), and Electronic Information (EIM), and the International Baccalaureate (IB). The three magnets combined hold a total student population of approximately 1,000 students.
After founding the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies in 1977, David Peha founded Downtown Business Magnet in 1981 as a component of LAUSD's expanding voluntary integration program specializing in bushiness training.[7] The school's first class consisted of 55 sophomores from different neighborhoods around Downtown Los Angeles. The first campus was previously a storage room for the textbooks used by LAUSD and shared the area with television station KLCS; before that the area previously being used by Custer Avenue School that was demolished in 1949 to make way for U.S. Route 101.[8][9] The school was focused on introducing a business program into the curriculum and mimicking a business environment.
In 1994, the Electronic Information Magnet was created for specialization in technology and multimedia. Because of the new magnet, Downtown Business Magnet adopted the name Downtown Magnets to incorporate both.[10]
On June 6, 2022, the school announced that it would be relocating to another campus after 40 years. They moved to the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center in the summer before the 2022–2023 school year.[6]
Academics and programs
Upper gate at the former campus, 2021.
Downtown Business Magnet
The Downtown Business Magnet was the first magnet program established at DMHS, and is the largest magnet program, with approximately 45% of the school's population. The curriculum includes accounting, business organization, corporate management, sales, entrepreneurship, careers, international relations, and the use of technology in business. It includes the Academy of Finance and the Academy of Fashion Design & Merchandising.
The Academy of Fashion Design & Merchandising was established in 1992 under as the Fashion Careers Center to educate students on the design and fabrication of general clothing apparel.[11] In 2014, the Fashion Careers Center was combined along with the existing Academy of Finance of DBM. It was renamed the "Academy of Fashion" in 2015, and then to "Academy of Fashion Design & Merchandising" in 2017.
The Grings College Center was founded to assist students for college by helping with applications, financial aid, and scholarships. Previously known as simply the College Center, it was renamed in 2005 to honor Carol Grings, a college counselor who also served as a math teacher, and coordinator for DMHS from 1982 until 2005, when she died from cancer.[15]
In the 2021–2022 school year, the Los Angeles Times ran a story about the Center and the college counselor, Lynda McGee, and how they helped students from the school rival the college admissions rate of elite private schools.[16][17]
In 2012, the boys and girls' tennis teams were introduced, and in the next year, the girls' tennis team won the school's first championship over El Camino Real Charter High School.[20]
For the 2019-2020 school year, DMHS had an enrollment of 1056 students, broken down into 25% freshmen, 27.3% sophomores, 25.4% juniors, and 22.3% seniors. 71.2% of students had English as their second language.[21] 2% were English learners.[22] The school had 83.6% of enrolled students economically disadvantaged in the 2012–2013 school year.[23]
As of 2022, DMHS is ranked 24th in California and 194th nationally according to the U.S. News & World Report.[24] In 2014, the school placed 25th out of 75 in Los Angeles's Challenge Index.[25][26] In 2015, it placed 84th out of the top 100 on the U.S. News & World Report list.[27]
The Academic Performance Index (API) measures the academic progress of schools across the state of California. Since the 2007-2008 school year, Downtown Magnets has placed number one in Local District 4, thanks to the continual growth of its API Its scores are as follows:
Year
2012
2011
2009
2008
2007
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
API
826
807
746
736
690
655
645
616
606
601
593
595
The aforementioned data is provided by the California Department of Education.[28]
