Wednesday, October 24, 2007
For Immediate Release
UCLA School Management Program awarded
$200,000 for six Baldwin Park Unified Schools

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA School Management Program (SMP), a team of school site and district educators dedicated since 1992 to partnering with learning communities to ensure high achievement for every student, has received a $200,000.00 grant from the California Community Foundation to be the primary funder for an Education Collaborative Initiative in Baldwin Park Unified School District.

Over the next two years, the grant is intended to support the UCLA School Management Program, a center of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, partnership with Baldwin Park Unified School District’s Central, Foster, Geddes, Heath, Pleasant View and Tracy elementary schools in creating professional learning communities. The initiative will focus on professional development and community building programs to increase student achievement in the six high poverty predominantly English learner populated locations.

The collaborative project is based in the core belief – which has been proven in practice – that school cultures can be improved to ensure higher levels of student achievement with the implementation of a Continuous Cycle of Instructional Inquiry and Improvement Model (C2I3 Model). The UCLA SMP C2I3 Model begins with school and student data to ascertain the current state of student learning. From a clear understanding of its situation, the school begins its implementation of the C2I3 Model by asking and answering professional inquiry questions that connect student learning to teacher practice. A formal process of action research – individual and school-wide – leads the school to resolve issues of practice, to establish connections to professional development, to design processes which assess if that professional development has changed practices at the teacher and classroom level, and, finally, to apply professional learning toward changing and sustaining a school culture of consistent, universal, standards-based student learning.

“Baldwin Park Unified School District is pleased and enthusiastic about a continuing partnership with the UCLA School Management Program and the California Community Foundation. The inclusion of additional elementary schools into this partnership will allow parents, staff and administrators the opportunity to explore and implement activities and inquiry to meet the needs of our students,” said Baldwin Park Unified School District Associate Superintendent Lynne Kennedy. “On behalf of our Board, Superintendent and community, we thank these two organizations for their commitment to and support of our District.”

The grant from the California Community Foundation will provide an opportunity to customize specific continuous improvement plans for each school. The initiative will focus on teacher professional development and parent engagement in low-income and underperforming elementary schools and districts and will increase a school’s capacity to provide quality education and increase student achievement. “Partnerships between teachers and parents are critical in enhancing educational opportunities and we are confident that students will benefit tremendously from this initiative,” said Antonia Hernandez, president & CEO of the foundation.

“This is a continuation of a partnership between a local school district, a major community based foundation, and a University center to come together in supporting increased student achievement,” said Dr. Dan Chernow, executive director of the UCLA School Management Program. “We are very pleased and grateful for the continuation of confidence the California Community Foundation has shown in our partnership with public schools.”

For more information, contact the UCLA School Management Program, Executive Director, Dr. Dan Chernow,  (310) 825-2488, or by .

UCLA & GSEIS logos UCLA home page UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies