Her immediate descendants are sharecroppers from the deep south, she made a name for herself in Chicago and she has a burning passion for education and the desire to shape young minds.

No, we’re not talking about entertainment icon Oprah Winfrey — with whom she shares a passing trajectory — but a former Chicago Public Schools teacher who will head one of the charter schools recently approved by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Laura J. McGowan is the founder and executive director of the Crown Preparatory Academy, a proposed tuition-free South Los Angeles public school that will serve grades 5-8 and is slated to open in the Leimert Park area this August.

According to its mission statement, Crown Prep will achieve success through its five core values of PRIDE — Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline and Excellence — teaching a rigorous academic curriculum that will propel its students beyond grade level so that they can successfully compete in high school, college and life.

Initially enrolling an inaugural class of 120 fifth graders for the 2010-2011 school year, the Academy intends to add one grade level each year until it reaches a total of 480 students at all grade levels.

Nearly two weeks before the new campus hosts a parents’ information night on March
25 at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, McGowan sat down with The Wave to talk about the school’s plans, her vocational commitment and how her background and skills can produce academic excellence.

Have you found a location for the school or do you have a list of available campuses?
Right now we’re in the phase of actually looking for a facility. Locating facilities in the Crenshaw/Leimert [Park] area is a bit of a challenge because it’s densely populated. But it’s not impossible and that’s the area we’re seeking to locate in. However, we are cognizant of the fact that due to availability we may have to locate a little bit outside that area. As far as a list is concerned, we have applied for district facilities in the event they become available, but we’re unsure at this point where that might be. There are smaller facilities we could occupy, but I’m not at liberty to say because we want to have a fighting chance of getting one of them. There’s always the possibility that one of those facilities will not become available, but the Academy will be based in South L.A., possibly in the West Adams/Arlington district, we wouldn’t extend east beyond the 10 Freeway.

Who will be eligible to attend the school and what are your academic goals for Crown Prep?
Any and all students who live in the state of California, but first priority [is] given to students who live in the district because we’re authorized by LAUSD to operate a charter school within their district boundaries. But then after that, any student who can get there on a daily basis is eligible to apply, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, culture, academic ability, disability or sexual orientation. Our goal is college prep; we are absolutely unapologetic about that. We want our students to be able to go to rigorous high schools and universities and graduate successfully. Our focus will be math and language, students will have double periods of each in an extended school day that will begin with breakfast at 7:30 a.m.; with classes from 8 a.m. to 3:37 p.m., and after school programs, including tutoring, until 4 p.m. After an initial period, after school programs will be extended to 5 p.m.

What exactly are your PRIDE principals?
I believe it’s important that we not only teach a foundation in academics, but also give our students a sound character base and support what they are learning at home. I’m talking about those principals of pride; perseverance, respect, integrity, discipline and excellence. For example, perseverance, I think it’s important we teach our students that just because they come across a math problem they don’t understand, it doesn’t mean they throw in the towel. We will teach them to ask for help, raise your hand. The teachers will be there from day one to help our students. Also respect, for others and self. We will develop life skills courses where we will teach students conflict resolution skills. We will have a well-structured learning environment that will include uniforms. There will be silent hallways; students will walk in an orderly fashion, passing from room to room or room to lunch. We will have the highest expectation for our students, we will expect the best and when we don’t see it, there will be consequences to their behavior, but we will talk to them and parents to correct that behavior because we will be working together to create a safe campus for our students.

What is your background and why do you want to open a school?
My background is steeped in education. I come from a family where my grandmother only attained a 6th grade education, but she taught my grandfather to read and write. They were sharecroppers in Mississippi. But education was very important to my grandmother, and while she did not receive a high school diploma, she told her 16 children that it was absolutely important for them to go to college or at least finish high school. My mother was the first and only one of the 16 to graduate with her bachelor’s degree at 35 with three children and a husband. I was 5 years old and I recall going to college classes with my mom, scribbling away right next to her. I distinctly remember her telling me one day, I will go to college and have the opportunities she never had. Since then, although I didn’t know I wanted to open a school at that moment, I shared that passion my grandmother and mother had for educating youth and when I happened to set foot inside a classroom one day and discovered that was my passion, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else than being a teacher or some way being involved in education. From that point on, I sought out opportunities. I was the first in my immediate family to achieve an advance degree, a master’s in education and instructional leadership. I sought out the Chicago public school system and became an employee under the current Education Secretary Arne Duncan. I taught in a school that was 100 percent African-American, where more than 95 percent received free or reduced lunches. Later, I moved to L.A. and taught at Jefferson High School, which really ignited a fire for me to open my own school. I moved urgently, working in Johns Hopkins University’s urban schools talent program, then became an instructional coach and became a fellow in the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship. The highly selective program provides a year-long training in the best practices of high performing schools and I had the opportunity to visit 30 of the best campuses across the nation.

So, given California’s education funding crisis and poor nationwide performance, are you optimistic about public school education here?
I’m certainly optimistic; nature causes us to see where we can go with public education. There are certainly challenges with funding, but that means we have to make some serious decisions where the money is going to go. And to me that should absolutely be in the classroom, focused on making sure our students are achieving proficiency and advanced levels in mastering the state standards. That’s now requiring us to drill down to the basics, we might not have the bells and whistles, but what can we do to [do] with what we have to provide quality education. To me that means putting money into the classrooms and teachers so they can deliver the instruction our students so desperately deserve.