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LOS ANGELES — A $50,000 grant awarded to Mountain View High School in El Monte will help finance the planning of a math and science academy intended to help students overcome obstacles that, in the past, have contributed to the school’s academic underperformance when compared to statewide averages.

Mountain View High School has an enrollment of 1,845 students, 77% of whom receive free or reduced-price lunches and qualify for Title I services. Nearly half of its students are English language learners, and 79% speak a language other than English at home. Many experience difficulty in comprehending high school textbooks. And about 40% begin the ninth grade with skills below that expected of high school students.

The Smaller Learning Communities grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, will enable a core planning team of 35 people to tailor a program that takes all those special circumstances into account. Working with the UCLA School Management Program, which is facilitating the process, the group will plan for the “Information Technology Academy for Math and Science.” Participants in the process will come from various parts of the school district, the community, and private industry, which has for years expressed grave concern about a crisis in education and workforce development.

Similar concerns about this crisis contributed to the formation 12 years ago of the UCLA School Management Program, a joint initiative of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.