Dear Superintendent:

With the recent posting of API and proficiency scores – which show progress for the seventh year in a row – there is ongoing pressure to improve student outcomes. You may be wondering, how can my district continue to improve student outcomes in spite of mounting budget and staffing challenges?

By using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and participating in staff development programs from UCLA School Management Program (SMP), you can enhance the likelihood that student outcomes in your district will continue to improve this school year.

ARRA FUNDS

The US Department of Education has begun to distribute ARRA funds, which can be used to provide focused professional development for subject-area teachers. One of goals of the funding is to ensure teachers are effective in assessing and developing both subject-area knowledge and academic language proficiency among their students.

UCLA School Management Program (SMP)

Over the last seventeen years, UCLA SMP has worked with districts throughout the state to support the sustainable transformation of public schools. Our core team members are highly experienced practitioners in preK-12 education. They have proven track records as successful board members, organizational specialists, superintendents, principals, and teachers.

UCLA SMP offers a range of targeted and practical professional development to support your teachers in improving their teaching strategies and support your schools in building capacity for ongoing learning and improvement. Evaluations and feedback of our programs have shown that our work improves teaching practices as well as student achievement. Student data shows the significant impact of our efforts in terms of improved student achievement scores.

Upcoming UCLA SMP Professional Development Institutes

In the following paragraphs, we describe the professional development institutes that UCLA SMP will be hosting this year. These activities have helped hundreds of schools surpass their API targets and experience significant growth on the California Standards Test. (Please note: we can bring any of these institutes to your schools and district to better meet your timeframe and objectives.)

WASC Accreditation and Reform Strategies at Your School
Session provides attendees with essential strategies to unite school improvement with the WASC accreditation process. Special guests, WASC executive director David Brown and WASC associate director Marilyn George, will present information.
When: November 19, 2009
Where: Almansor Court in Alhambra
Cost: $95 per person

Test Thinking Strategies Workshop
A 2.5-hour session designed to help teachers better understand how students think about test questions and their answers. With this enhanced understanding, teachers can coach students to a better performance on their tests.
When: January 20, 2010 and January 21, 2010
Where: Orange County (1/20) and Los Angeles (1/21)
Cost: $95 per person.

Bridges to Understanding: Teaching That Matters Most for English Learners
A 3-day institute designed to give educators a portfolio of strategies that guide them in enabling K-12 students to participate actively in classroom learning when English is not their first language. It provides educators with the processes they need to assure teaching and learning at the highest levels and to explore the connection between what teachers do and how students learn.
When: February 2-4, 2010
Where Los Angeles County or Orange County
Cost: $650 per person

Classroom Walk-Throughs: Teacher Led Observations
A 4-day, interactive institute that provides educators with practical experience in using a protocol to observe students at work in classrooms and debrief their observations in order to identify patterns of successful learning. This non-evaluative, non-judgmental protocol surfaces useful data about student learning and ties it to effective instructional practice through professional inquiry based on educators' questions about student learning.
When: February 23-25, 2010
Where: Los Angeles County or Orange County
Cost: $650 per person

Critical Friends Group: Sustaining Your Professional Learning Community
A 5-day institute is designed to provide K-12 educators with research-based processes that engage them in collaborative work that fosters continuous professional development and improves student academic achievement. Using time-efficient protocols for looking at student work, educators will be brought directly into the conversations that lead to examining instructional practice, planning next steps, and getting positive results with students.
When: March 15-19, 2010
Where: Los Angeles County
Cost: $1,000 per person

Evening with Diane Ravitch
UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Sciences and UCLA SMP co-present Diane Ravitch. She is a Research Professor of Education at New York University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and will be discussing the findings of her new book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.”
When: April 12, 2010
Where: UCLA
Cost: FREE

Back to the Future: Building a Vision From Within
This 3-hour engaging workshop, held at your school or district location for administrators, teachers, or entire staffs together. It is designed to support school communities to regroup and deal with the California Budget Crisis in a thoughtful, organized and positive way.
When: According to contract
Where: Your location
Cost: $995 per event

FOL / WASC Leadership Workshop
This 4-hour workshop, held at your school or district location for particular school faculty or multiple school teams, is designed to launch your WASC process. We help your team take advantage of the opportunity the WASC process allows for planning to ensure high achievement for every student. Get your FOL / WASC effort off to a jump start!
When: According to contract
Where: Your location
Cost: $1,500 per event

I would like the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how ARRA funding could potentially impact your district and how to use UCLA SMP to enhance your efforts to achieve student achievement. Please do not hesitate to contact me at dchernow@smp.gseis.ucla.edu or (310) 825-2488.

Sincerely,

Dan Chernow, EdD
Executive Director

P.S. Additional information on UCLA SMP is available on our website: http://www.smp.gseis.ucla.edu