Come September 2012, at-risk youth will be able to attend a new charter high school that will aim to eliminate some of the stressors that lead some students to drop out.

Dubbed USC Hybrid High, the school earned its name for the heavy doses of online curriculum that students will use in the classroom to prepare them for the 21st century. Organizers say this will allow students to work at their own pace until they have mastered a particular topic. With real-time feedback that will be analyzed by teachers and aides who will offer support both individually and in groups, the face-to-face instruction is meant to complement the work online.

Students will also confer weekly with an academic advisor who will remain with the students during their time at the school. The advisor will act as an advocate and build personal relationships with the students, their parents or guardians, counselors, social workers and others. They, along with other staff, will also encourage the youth to explore technology-based careers.

“We strongly believe that social, emotional growth is closely tied to academic growth,” said David Dwyer, USC Hybrid High’s executive director and the Katzman/Ernst chair in Educational Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship at USC Rossier, who noted that the advisory program will help students with conflict resolution, self-control and the ability to set and meet goals. “We will invite parents and guardians into the picture to become partners and more active supporters for their children’s success.”

Believing that peers are sometimes the best teachers, students who have mastered a subject will assist other students while earning service credit at the same time. Academic and project coaches —comprised of USC students, retired teachers and community volunteers — will be on hand to provide guidance in each learning area.

Virtual instructors will steer students through the courses, evaluate progress, grade work and issue assignments. Routine communication will come in the form of emails and phone or video conferences.

Beyond coursework, the high schoolers, who must commit a minimum of 35 hours per week, will take part in community service projects, multi-media based or model based projects and internships that drive the curriculum home.

Each student will be given a personal and customized learning plan and schedule that meets their needs and state education requirements. The four academic cores will be in math, science, language arts and social studies, and will be extended through online programs provided by Apex Learning, Inc. to include literature, economics, Spanish or French, personal finance, psychology, art, music, health, geography, world history, U.S. history, U.S. government, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, algebra, geometry, calculus, reading and writing and English.

Audio, video, animation, diagrams and interactive text will also be inserted into the instruction.

All told, the school’s mission is a lofty one: To graduate 100 percent of it’s students and prepare them for college or successful careers.

Affiliated with the USC Rossier School of Education, the campus will be open up to 12 hours per day, seven days a week and year-round, for a total of 315 school days. This, said school officials, will cater to students who hold jobs or care for family members in hopes of giving them the time they need to master subjects and attain their high school diploma.

On average, one-third of students who drop out of U.S. high schools every year identify those key factors as reasons for leaving school early.

“No matter how you look at it, our traditional high schools are in trouble and putting students at risk,” says the school’s mission statement. “Students are dropping out in shockingly large numbers. The act of dropping out is devastating to a young person’s future and the cost for society is unsustainable. These facts define both moral and economic imperatives to develop educational alternatives for urban adolescents, and they set the mission of the USC Hybrid High School Project: Stem the loss of young, urban youth from the nation’s high schools and prepare every student for success in post-secondary education and in the workplace.”

In the first year, the school will enroll 150 ninth-graders, increasing to a maximum of 650 students by year four. Like other charters, students will be selected in a random lottery system. Though the campus is geared toward serving at-risk youth, all students are welcome to apply.

In terms of demographics, Dwyer said that they expect most of the students will be Hispanic and English language learners given the make up of the surrounding area. Specialists will aid them in language development. African-Americans are assumed to be the next major group. Many will be on free or reduced lunch.

On hand will be seven full-time and one part-time teachers, making the student to teacher ratio 20 to 1. Yet, when including instructional aides, that figure drops to 15 to 1.

The goal is to remove the barriers of a traditional high setting so that the environment is more conducive to learning. “The notions of the square box classroom and school don’t necessarily work for everyone; it’s an artifact,” said Melora Sundt, associate dean for academic programs and professor of clinical education at the USC Rossier School. “We’re creating an environment for testing some of those assumptions by getting down to the bare bones of what learning is all about; and, on the other hand, really harnessing technology to work on behalf of learners.”

According to Stephanie McClay, founding principal of USC Hybrid High, traditional school settings often do not provide students with the A-G requirements they need to graduate and go on to higher education — because once a student falls behind in one or more areas, it can be difficult to catch up.

“We intend to remove that time limitation of everybody having to start and finish at the same time,” she said, adding that, more importantly, the typical 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule does not work well for those who must tend to their family, work or have children of their own. “A certain number of kids who drop out of high school, drop out because of schedule conflicts.”

To aid in these areas, Ednovate, a newly established non-profit organization launched by USC Rossier School, will assume responsibility of the campus and its day-to-day operations. Its mission is to “eliminate the dropout problem and prepare every student for success in post-secondary education and in the workplace,” said a press release issued by USC.

Here, USC Rossier School Dean Karen Gallagher serves as the chair of the board of directors, and Thomas Sayles, USC’s senior vice president for university relations, serves as a member of the governing board.

USC Hybrid High was granted its charter by the Los Angeles Unified School District on Dec. 6. Though a site has yet to be determined, Dwyer said they are seeking to open near the USC University Park campus next fall. In doing so, students will have access to a number of faculty members who are expected to lend their expertise.

Due to the high cost of construction, officials are seeking to renovate an existing facility near the university. A former school campus is preferable, Dwyer said, noting that an existing structure would leave them to just supply equipment, staff, materials and other necessities.

Under a five-year contract, the campus will be allowed to operate through 2017. Once the term is near, USC Hybrid High officials will compile data with test scores, dropout rates and other information that can be used to persuade the LAUSD to extend it further.

Because the school is a charter, it will rely on philanthropic support to fund its operations. Thus far, the Bill Gates & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as Elliot and Marcia Sainer, have given their backing and are expected to be donors.

“My expectation is that we will have 100 percent of our students graduate from high school and college-ready, career prepared. That in itself is a pretty lofty expectation,” said McClay. “Setting that as an expectation and essentially a mission for the school really raises the bar and starts to position our responsibility as educators in making sure that we are serving our students so that we can meet that goal. It really is a paradigm shift, in that there is no acceptable loss of students in our process.”