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LOS ANGELES — A $40,000 grant from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation has been awarded to the UCLA School Management Program (SMP), which has been working for 12 years to improve education by educating and motivating teachers.

The grant, which complements an earlier challenge grant of $25,000 from the Joseph Drown Foundation, will be used to provide professional development services at the 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles. Among the programs that will be established at the school with the money is the “Critical Friends Group,” which involves the formation of teams of educators who meet once a month to review student work and to discuss plans to improve performance, taking into account specific challenges faced by that school’s population.

With 45 school districts in the state on a fiscal watch (Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2004), many districts are overwhelmed with the need to cut costs, while at the same time continuing to improve the quality of education they provide. For the past 12 years, SMP has been partnering with K-12 teachers and administrators on how to improve the quality of education without spending more money on materials or new buildings.