The UCLA School Management Program has received grants from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the California Community Foundation for a combined total of $244,913. The money will be used during the next two years to help fund programs in Los Angeles County area public schools and to compile data for use by schools outside Southern California.

The California Community Foundation grant of $95,000 is from the foundation's "Nurturing Neighborhoods - Building Communities" program and will be used for comprehensive professional development and leadership initiatives at three Baldwin Park Unified School District elementary schools. These initiatives are supported in part by the California Community Foundation grant. Additionally, the School Management Program supports the middle and high schools where these students enroll.

The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant of $149,913 was awarded to assist the UCLA School Management Program in introducing a professional development initiative designed to establish a culture of collaboration using Critical Friends Groups. It also will be used to implement a program called Data Institutes, as well as leadership development at four charter high schools in the Los Angeles area to be selected through an application process.

Critical Friends Groups are teams of educators who commit voluntarily to work together long term in the interest of improving their own performance and that of their students. With the assistance of the School Management Program, these educators learn to identify challenges faced by their site and develop and implement school improvement plans.

Data Institutes are designed to support schools by effectively using relevant data to drive classroom instruction and school-wide plans. They work with the Critical Friends Groups to improve learning, teaching and decision-making.

The School Management Program is a UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies center that has worked with public school teachers and administrators since 1992. During the past year, it has worked with numerous districts and schools in California.

For more information on the UCLA School Management Program, please contact Dan Chernow at (310) 825-2488 or dchernow@smp.gseis.ucla.edu.

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