UCLA develops K-12 program
By Ben Thaler
April 15, 2009 11:41 p.m.
Faculty and researchers from the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies have spent the past several months developing a curriculum for a new Los Angeles Unified School District pilot school.
The school is one of six autonomous pilot schools being developed by LAUSD at the site of what was once the Ambassador Hotel near downtown Los Angeles.
A total of approximately 4,200 students will attend the six schools, and each will have a curriculum based on social justice learning, said Karen Quartz, the director of research and development at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
The school UCLA is working with was formerly called the Bruin Community School but was recently renamed the UCLA Community School, Quartz said.
The planning committee of UCLA researchers and community members involved with forming the school recently hired a principal and is in the final stages of establishing the curriculum. It is set to open to LAUSD students in portions of the 90004 and 90005 zip codes this upcoming fall, said Georgia Lazo, the principal of the UCLA Community School.
Lazo said the school will be within the LAUSD system but will have its own autonomy over curriculum, staffing, budget and governance.
She added that the school is set to open in two stages, with the K-5 students entering in September 2009, and the 6-12 students starting in September 2010.
The UCLA Community School will differ from a traditional K-12 school in its curriculum, class sizes and approach to learning, Lazo said.
“We hope to keep class sizes small with no more than 20 students, and we want to have about 60 students per grade,” she said.
The school is basing its teaching off of the ideas of the Coalition of Essential Schools, which shares a common philosophy of building small schools with a social justice curriculum, said Jeanne Fauci, a member of the new school’s planning and design committee.
The curriculum will include primarily project-based learning, with personalized learning plans and an advisory program, Fauci said.
Fauci added that the advisory program, which consists of a small group of students assigned to a faculty member for a year, gives students personal attention and individualized learning based on their needs.
Another component of the UCLA Community School is its dual language program, Lazo said.
The program will allow students to maintain their native language while learning English, she said.
Quartz said her division in the school, called Center X, has taken an integral role in developing the UCLA Community School.
Quartz said the mission of Center X is to transform public schools to fit into a just and humane society.
The Center X staff are involved at all levels of the UCLA Community School, and have recently participated in developing the curriculum and creating a recruitment brochure for parents, Quartz said.
When the school opens in the fall, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies researchers and faculty will visit regularly to conduct research and take part in a community dialogue with parents, she said.
Fauci said she looks forward to seeing more schools in the LAUSD convert to the principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools.
“Students need to be prepared for the real world, and the principles of the coalition help students figure things out through real-world experiences like projects and internships, rather than accumulating facts and knowledge,” she said.
Lazo said she is still currently working on building the staff for next year, having hired three out of 18 teachers, two of which are graduates of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
The coming months will include preparing the staff for the curriculum and publicizing the new school, Lazo said.
The staff is also currently visiting and learning from schools that practice small, personalized, multiaged learning environments, such as the Corrine Seeds University Elementary School and Wildwood Elementary School, Fauci said.
Lazo said she sees the UCLA Community School as a positive endeavor for its students due to its small class sizes and personalized learning program.
“It’s a wonderful partnership between LAUSD and UCLA, and I’m thrilled to take part,” she said.
