Beginning in the 1999-2000 school year, SMP was selected by the California Department of Education to serve as an external evaluator in the State’s Immediate Intervention / Underperfoming Schools Program (II/USP), part of the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999. Through this program, SMP used a school community-wide planning process to support California schools in analyzing their school improvement needs.

SMP approached its work as an II/USP external evaluator as an opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to a local school’s ongoing efforts to significantly improve the achievement of all students. SMP looked for the patterns of barriers that were inhibiting academic achievement and identified the strengths that were the starting place for addressing these barriers. SMP’s final recommendations supported both the short-term measurable achievement goals that schools had to meet to remain a part of the II/USP process and the long-term vision of a school where all students are learning at a high level all of the time.

State funding for II/USP ended in fiscal year 2004-2005.

Review the list of schools that UCLA SMP has worked with through II/USP...