UCLA School Management Program (SMP)

Baldwin Park High School

Closing the Gap in Student Academic Achievement

In 2003, Baldwin Park High School (BPHS) selected the UCLA School Management Program to guide in the creation of a school-wide learning community that would support significant improvement in student achievement. UCLA SMP’s comprehensive program, which was supported by a federal High Priority School Grant (HPSG), included training institutes with individual and team coaching along with mentoring efforts to assist the school in increasing school effectiveness. This initiative, which is based on UCLA SMP’s Continuous Cycle of Instructional Improvement and Inquiry (C²I³), has been highly successful in transforming BPHS into a positive learning community.

Baldwin Park Hight School API Targets and Actual Growth During Partnership with UCLA SMP

UCLA SMP’s work with BPHS has been effective in developing processes and dynamics that support a strong professional learning community with broad-based leadership. Outcomes for teachers and staff include:

development of strong school identity and collegial relationships;
improved conversation and dialogue;
shared access to information and capacity for effective action; and
continuous improvement based on analyzing and making decisions about the results of their work.

More profoundly, UCLA SMP’s work at BPHS has produced a model – built from feedback, reflection, dialogue, and analysis – that has significant potential to be extended down the educational “feeder pattern” to the BPUSD middle and elementary schools.

According to the most recent HPSG report: The evidence from BPHS makes a persuasive case that, with strong teacher and administrator leadership and candid feedback about how each perceives the school’s internal climate, a productive discussion can uncover changes that need to be made. And, by continuing the process year after year, it is possible to see significant positive changes based on changed practices, structures, and processes implemented by teachers and administrators.

As a result of implementing BPHS’s HPSG Action Plan, student academic achievement has risen substantially during the last three years, as indicated by the California State Academic Performance Index (API) and NCLB AYP measures:

the school’s 2002 API of 478 points increased to 633 points in 2006-2007;
each year subsequent to 2002, BPHS has exceeded state growth targets and has met its subgroup target goals (see inset below);
in 2006-2007, BPHS exceeded the state target of 9 points with a gain of 15 points school-wide. This trend was also reflected in subgroup gains, demonstrating a growth of 19 points for Hispanic/Latino students and 16 points for socio-economically disadvantaged students;
in 2006-2007, school-wide AYP targets in English/Language Arts and Math were met, as well as the targets for Hispanic/Latino and socio-economically disadvantaged subgroups.


Year	2002	2003*	2004	2005	2006	2007
API Base Score	494	485	548	588	609	618
API Score	478	551	573	609	630	633
API Growth	-16	+66	+25	+21	+21	+15
API Target	15	16	13	11	10	9

* UCLA SMP started collaborating with Baldwin Park USD in 2003.