March 2019 Newsletter

We are excited to share news of our Second Annual Convening as well as other partnership highlights this month.

Partnering for Equity:
How Community Schools and Universities Can Advance Teaching, Research and Service

On March 7th and 8th, we were honored to welcome 100 teachers, students, researchers, as well as educational and civic leaders to our Second Annual Convening. Check out the links below to read about the event and view the program and convening photos.

New Data Report on RFK UCLA Community School Graduates’ College-going Plans, Enrollment & Persistence

This data report is a companion to a research paper entitled, Framing, Supporting, and Tracking College-For-All Reform: A Local Case of Public Scholarship, published this month by The High School Journal. The paper describes the collective problem-solving process that unfolded over a decade, from 2007 to 2017, as researchers and practitioners worked together to expand access to college for traditionally underrepresented students. This data report provides methodological information about how the school tracks and measures college-going and describes college-going data for four cohorts of UCLA Community School graduates. Year-to-year results show a steady growth in the percentage of graduates enrolling in four-year institutions as well as higher rates of college persistence than state and national averages.

Nurturing Play: How Schools can Provide Powerful Opportunities for Children to Learn

UCLA PhD Candidate Janelle Franco and RFK UCLA Community School teacher Gabriela Pérez-Swanson co-authored a Research, Practice, Policy Brief on the immense benefits of play for children’s academic learning and development. They are pictured to the left presenting their findings at the Second Annual Convening. As they explain, “playful learning,” a teaching approach that uses free-play as well as guided-play activities, is disappearing from many school settings, especially in schools located in underserved communities. In this brief, they discuss the value of play, highlight playful learning approaches at the UCLA Community School, and introduce organizations that advocate for play-based learning policies. They also provide suggestions and further reading for teachers and families.

Report in English and Spanish

Mann UCLA Team Advancing Socio-emotional Learning Supports

Mann UCLA educators and partners

On February 6th, Mann UCLA educators and partners participated in a two-day learning opportunity on the RULER approach for socio-emotional learning–part of their ongoing work with UCLA’s Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families.

Sharing Our Research-Practice Partnership on Bilingual Education

On March 23rd, RFK UCLA Community School teacher Nancy Garcia and UCLA PhD Candidate Janet Cerda shared the findings from their research-practice partnership on promoting students’ multi-lingual reader identity at the Annual Conference of the California Association for Bilingual Education in Long Beach, CA. Stay tuned next month to read more about this exciting work in a brief entitled, “The Power of Self-Assessments: Using Community-Based Measures to Advance Biliteracy.”

Next Month: Community Schools Presentations in Toronto at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association

If you are going to Toronto for the conference, please check out our sessions:

April 6 @ 10:25am: Examining Postsecondary Pathways: Capturing the Diversity of Students’ High School and College Experiences

April 8 @ 10:25am: Changing the Grammar of Schooling? An Examination of Reform

April 9 @ 12:20pm: Research-Practice Partnerships With University-Partnered Community Schools as Contexts for Graduate Student Training: Structures and Outcomes

April  9 @ 2:15pm: AERA Presidential Session: “A Beautiful Struggle”: Reimagining Neighborhood Schools in Urban Communities