LA Unified Unveils Competitive Video Game Esports Championship

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When Los Angeles sophomore Marco Sanchez quit Chatsworth Charter High School’s baseball team, he needed to find a new outlet to build on the teamwork skills he left behind.

He said his parents were worried too, wondering “what is Marco going to do now?”

The 16-year-old started to consider the school’s Esports program at the suggestion of a friend. With aspirations of becoming an electrical engineer, the pairing felt right. His parents agreed. 

“To be an electrical engineer, you need to know your way around technology,” Sanchez said. “And the video game aspect has been a part of my life since I was young, so it’s a great course to take if you want to go to college.”

Sanchez’s experience is one the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) wants to highlight as the district shifts toward integrating technology into the classroom. One way they’ve done it is through last month’s LAUSD Secondary Esports Championship & iDREAM Showcase.

That’s when, early on a recent Saturday morning at the SoLA Beehive in South Los Angeles, the district brought together about 700 students from across the city for the first-ever LAUSD Secondary Esports Championships for middle and high school Esports programs. 

The event began with remarks from LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who said, in an interview with LA School Report, the district must be innovators of technology in schools while still maintaining a balance of protecting students and keeping them engaged. 

“We do not want technology to rob time from something else, nor do we want technology to enslave the mind of the child,” said Carvalho. “We teach students the responsible use of technology and the important concept of digital citizenship.”

The safe and responsible use of technology and social media has been at the forefront of Carvalho’s mind this year, with the deployment of district-wide ban on cell phone ban for students.

Carvalho said the responsible use of technology and digital citizenship is also taught in LAUSD’s first-of-its-kind curriculum built around ESports.

Debuting in the fall as a high school career and technical education class, the course ESports 1 – later to be joined by ESports 2 – will prepare students for careers in game development, streaming and content creation, among other skills. 

Carvalho said the course, which will be available at select LAUSD high schools, is meant for workforce development, as gaming has become a $6 billion industry.

The curriculum was built in cooperation with a math teacher and ESports coach at Chatsworth Charter High School and culminates with students learning how to build a computer.

Carvalho said ESports clubs and programs are engaging students in around 40 schools across the district, and nearly 400 students are engaged in these types of activities. 

The district’s program is the largest in the country, said Carvalho, who aims to expand it to include all schools in the coming years.

While the ESports curriculum has not come to all LAUSD campuses, its iDREAM Mobile Learning Labs have traveled to dozens of schools across the district to introduce topics like robotics, game design and sound design to students beyond regular instructional hours.

The district’s esports competition debut in March also included breakout sessions where students learned how to use 3D printers, fly drones, build computers and produce music. 

Learning sessions were also provided to educators on how to best integrate the curriculum into their classrooms and provide students with information on how Esports applies to higher education and potential careers.

Sanchez said the program at his school has taught him skills no other class has to this point, like the hierarchy of needs, technology development and computational systems.

He said these skills will help him reach his goal of becoming an engineer. He hopes other kids feel the same way.

“I’d say give it a shot,” Sanchez said. “It’s a really fun experience; you make new friends, meet new people, and there are a lot of opportunities that come with it.”

Marco Sanchez Sr, Marco’s father, agreed.

“He’s right there, growing with [the program], so I’m totally on board,” Sanchez Sr. said. “This is the way of the future.”

This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

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