Lighthouse Community Public Schools is dedicated to high standards for all students. Some of the highlights include:

• Crew (commonly known as advisory) exists to ensure that each Lighthouse student continues to have a strong relationship with at least one caring adult at school. The crew leader is charged with coaching students in setting goals, developing effective strategies to achieve designated goals, and ensuring consistent communication with families. These goals are revisited at least three times each year at Student Led Conferences. Taught in small groups, the Crew curriculum integrates students into Lighthouse’s culture, specifically the Core Values, Restorative Justice practices, and our academic expectations. It becomes the forum for reinforcing rituals, celebrating achievements, providing a space to repair relationships, and building community.
• A college-going culture. We work hard to facilitate events and activities that help students see college as a legitimate, viable, and exciting option. Whether taking students on college visits so that they see people who look like them in college, holding financial aid workshops for families, or hosting annual College Declaration Days, it is important that we help students see college as a place for them to ultimately pursue the career of their choice.
• College-eligibility for all. Our program is designed to ensure all students complete A-G requirements within their four years at Lighthouse High School. As a result, all students are eligible to apply to a CSU or UC by the time they graduate. Additionally, there is flexibility in our schedule for juniors and seniors to participate in dual enrollment with community college classes.
• College and career prep as core subjects. At Lodestar High School, we take college and career counseling out of an office and integrate it into the school day via our College and Career Prep course and Senior Seminar course. By ensuring all students engage in these classes, post-secondary education is accessible to all students, especially for those considering a technical certificate or military training or those who will be the first in their families to attend college. Both of these classes include assessments so that students can see the value in and get feedback on what they are learning as well as access information to support their decision-making.
• All students are part of a pathway. Every student will receive the benefit of being part of a Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway. Beginning in the K-8 program, students participate in the Maker Program via Making Art & Design. In doing so, all students are active participants in building and shaping their worlds by looking closely at the world around them, exploring the complexity of how objects or systems are designed, and designing opportunities to enact change in their environments to create a more just and equitable world.  This extends through grades 9-12 into a sequence of CTE Pathway, Media, Arts and Design. Watch a brief intro video about Lodestar’s Media Arts Career Pathway.
• Dual Enrollment classes at local community college. While in high school, students take college classes that count as high school and college credit allowing students to graduate with their college career underway.
• Junior Year Internships. At Lodestar High School, all juniors participate in internships or work experiences that provide them with opportunities to integrate academic learning and real-world experience. These experiences provide students with work-based learning, so they have the opportunity to explore a career interest within the local community. Beyond the application of knowledge and technical skills, these internships promote career exploration and character development by placing students with mentors who model professionalism and civic responsibility.
• Passage & Senior Passage. Students take part in passage, a tradition that confirms students’ readiness to move forward in all realms of achievement at selected grade levels. During 12th grade, all seniors will design, develop, and carry out a research project on a topic of interest to them. Research projects demand an ability to conduct and synthesize academic research and the capacity to leverage resources and support in school and the wider communities. This paper is a critical element of the Senior Passage experience and is essential to a student’s preparation for college-level rigor and an opportunity to celebrate the culmination of the educational experience.