Center X, the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies' center for teacher education and professional development, has been awarded three grants worth $12 million to fund programs designed to support teachers' professional development and boost student achievement at low-income schools.

The grants, from the U.S. Department of Education and the state's commission on postsecondary education, come on the heels of a $2.5 million grant awarded to the school and Center X by the National Science Foundation in September to fund a professional development program for computer science teachers in Los Angeles high schools.

 

"The grants represent Center X's continuing efforts to design and conduct programs that prepare and support kindergarten-through-12th-grade teachers in urban schools," said Tyrone Howard, director of Center X and associate professor of urban schooling.

 

"We are committed to providing teachers the support they need to succeed in the classroom," said Aimée Dorr, dean of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. "These grants assist our efforts to improve student academic achievement by strengthening teacher preparation and professional development. I am proud of Center X's leadership in these endeavors."

 

The center received two $1 million grants from the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) and a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.  

 

"Each of these grants contributes to our overall goal of preparing and sustaining highly qualified teachers who are committed to providing equity and instructional excellence in low-income schools," Howard said.

 

The CPEC's three-year Teacher-Initiated Inquiry Projects (TIIP) grant will provide funds for teams of classroom teachers in Los Angeles urban schools to design and implement their own professional development programs. 

 

"The current budget crisis has limited the participation of teachers in professional development," said Jody Priselac, executive director of Center X and principal investigator for the project. "TIIP affords teachers the opportunity to think deeply about their practice and to work to increase student achievement by implementing new curricula and instructional plans. Our goals are to improve teacher retention by increasing their creative outlets, to expand repertoires of pedagogical strategies, and to develop teachers into skilled presenters who can disseminate their learning within their schools, in the community and beyond."

 

Twenty-four teams from Los Angeles County, each including three to five teachers, will be awarded funds through Center X's TIIP grant. Applications will be submitted to Center X beginning Dec. 1.  

 

The CPEC's four-year Getting to the Core of the Content: Organizing Learning to Close the Gap grant provides professional development funds for social studies and science teachers at 12 Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS) campuses serving 18,000 students, including Gompers and Stevenson middle schools. 

 

"Currently, English-language learners and students with disabilities at Gompers and Stevenson middle schools have lower achievement rates on social studies and science California Standards Tests than the larger school population," said Howard, the project's principal investigator. "The PLAS grant enables us to plan a system-wide approach to improve student learning by providing focused coaching to science and social studies teachers at these schools, and ultimately to improve student achievement in these two subject areas."

 

Classes and workshops will be held at each school site to improve teachers' abilities to identify, tailor and implement a curriculum that supports learning for a diverse student population. Additionally, the project will create a professional learning community at each school by developing collaboration among peers across grade levels and departments.

 

The Department of Education's five-year UCLA/LAUSD Urban Teaching Residency grant provides funding for a multilevel reform effort that will recruit, prepare and retain new teachers and mentor teachers in math, science, special education and early childhood education.

 

Center X will partner with LAUSD Local District 4, the Los Angeles Small Schools Center (LASSC) and the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies' National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) to create a residency program for Teacher Education Program (TEP) participants at innovative low-income and ethnically diverse elementary, middle and high schools. 

 

"This program will invest in teachers and teacher-leaders working in high-need subject areas within a consortium of high-need yet innovative pre-K-12 small autonomous schools and small learning communities — workplaces that are becoming exemplary sites of learning for students and teachers," said Karen Hunter Quartz, director of research at Center X and principal investigator for the project. 

 

The research findings obtained and programs designed through all the grant projects will be disseminated nationwide, allowing other school districts and universities to utilize them.

 

Center X was established in 1995 with a vision to dramatically change schooling for the underserved students of Los Angeles. Now a model for university-based new and continuing education for teachers and principals, the center provides a unique setting where researchers and practitioners collaborate to design and conduct programs that prepare and support K–12 teachers in urban schools. The center's Teacher Education Program (TEP) offers participants the opportunity to obtain a master of education degree and a teaching credential; an undergraduate program for math and science; and a multiple- or single-subject preliminary credential. The center also houses the California Subject Matter Projects, which support the latest in teaching techniques in a variety of subjects for practicing teachers, and the Principal Leadership Institute, which offers a master's degree in education and a preliminary administrative services credential to prospective administrators and principals in California schools. 

The UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) includes both the department of education and the department of information studies. Together, the two embody the school's commitment to understanding and improving educational practice, information systems and policy in a diverse society. GSE&IS's academic programs bring together faculty and students committed to expanding the range of knowledge in education, information science and associated disciplines. Its professional programs seek to develop librarians, teachers, administrators and information professionals within the enriched context of a research university.

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