Not traditional courses listed in any university catalogue, these courses and many others are offered by UCLA to K-12 school leaders in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area through the UCLA School Management Program (SMP). A non-profit venture of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and the Anderson Graduate School of Management, SMP has been participating in institutional transformation through public school reform since 1992. Most notably, SMP has been a part of LEARN (the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now), the local reform plan adopted by the Los Angeles Unified School District, for the past three years. The LEARN plan was created by a coalition of 650 business, education, and community leaders who shared a concern for the deteriorating condition of Los Angeles public schools. Their plan, "For All Our Children," calls for several planks of reform and includes an important mandate for the professional development of school personnel. Basic to this aspect of the plan is an independent role for schools. To achieve this independence, school leaders and entire school communities must be brought up to speed on new education, management and technology skills. SMP facilitates the acquisition and implementation of these critical skills.
SMP offers courses to principals and lead teachers through its Advanced Management Program (AMP), one of several program initiatives focused on improved student learning through the professional development of educators. Through the best of theory and research and the most effective demonstrations from business and education practice, AMP works with K-12 public schools to build a community of learners ready to embrace change. Not a prescribed program of reform, AMP is an effort to encourage the development of new school cultures described by the community members themselves. AMP provides the tools for change through the encouragement of full partnership and a rigorous skill-building curriculum. SMP has trained the leaders of 192 LEARN schools already and is looking forward to beginning training of a fourth cohort.
AMP is an 18-month program of intensive training, coaching and support along several curriculum strands: strategic planning and budgeting, community building, and instructional leadership. AMP curriculum ties the day-to-day realities of schools and the roles of school leaders to the latest tactics in instructional skills, computer modeling, communications and marketing, strategic planning and budgeting, human resource management, and community building.
Additional opportunities for training and support are available to LEARN schools through various SMP programs. The Case Development & Technology Center provides access to state-of-the-art training materials. Leadership Training Institutes are customized to specific skills desired by educational leaders. And the Corporate Connections program involves the business community in UCLAÕs work with schools through the Business Mentor Network, which matches a volunteer mentor with a school for guidance and networking, and through Access to Training, which provides space in the professional development courses of local corporations for program participants. SMP follows up its school- and community-based initiatives with attention to the district level of school systems through the New Directions program. New Directions works with district leaders to better participate in student achievement and to better manage day-to-day operations.
Through its many program initiatives, UCLA SMP promotes institutional transformation by carefully listening to the needs and concerns of all school stakeholders, and then by empowering them to change the dynamics of their own communities. With the vast resources and deep commitment of GSE&IS and the Anderson School, SMP is prepared to extend UCLA's involvement to communities across the country.
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