UCLA SMP’s track record of improving student test scores is an impressive one: California schools partnering with UCLA SMP since 2002-03 show a much stronger cumulative API growth than schools that did not work with SMP. Even more significantly, there is strong evidence that the more extensive a school’s involvement with UCLA SMP, the greater the resulting API scores.

Breaking down schools into four categories depending upon the number of staff trained at UCLA SMP institutes, our analysis shows that average school API growth dramatically improves at each increment of increased staff training. The effect of UCLA SMP training is most apparent when comparing schools that did not send any staff to institutes to schools sending 15 or more staff members. Schools in the former category experienced average score growth of 40 points between 2003 and 2007, while schools in the latter category gained an average of 68 points over the same time period.

The length of a school’s contract with UCLA SMP also has a clear impact on school API scores. The average growth in API scores between 2003 and 2007 increases in direct proportion to the number of years that schools contracted UCLA SMP. Schools working with UCLA SMP for all four years had an average API growth of 83 points, compared to 40 points for schools that did not work with UCLA SMP at all.