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THE LOS ANGELES EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP (LAEP) has received a $300,000 grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation to provide advanced technology training for more than 3,000 teachers. LAEP will use the three-year grant to develop technology modules that will support science, math, literacy and thematic teaching.

The format for the modules will be based on LAEP's successful TELL US (Technology Enhanced Literacy and Learning in Urban Schools) training that was piloted by the Urban Learning Centers in the Spring of 1998. To develop these modules, LAEP's technology services will work closely with LAEP's various initiatives including Target Science, Humanitas, +PLUS+, and Urban Learning Centers.
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ARTS Online Academy offers teachers the tools to integrate the arts with technology.

LAEP Technology

Since 1993, LAEP has been leading the effort to bring technology into the classrooms, schools and communities of Los Angeles.

Teaching Excellence

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Elizabeth Learning Center.

HUMANITAS HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS LAST WEEK viewed the murals of Diego Rivera, visited the Latino History, Art and Culture and the Japanese American National Museums and followed Danté from the Inferno to Paradise during LAEP's Humanitas Academy.

The Academy is an annual professional development workshop designed to broaden teachers' knowledge of the humanities, provide them an opportunity to work together on teaching methods, and acquaint them with scheduled cultural and educational events of interest to their students.

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Humanitas moves closer to its goal of matching a challenge grant to improve and expand the availability of Humanitas curricula for high school teachers and students.

Tech Gap Widens

Are minorities and the poor being left behind?

Teaching Excellence

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Magnolia Avenue School.

THE LOS ANGELES EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP (LAEP) today announced the retirement of Peggy Funkhouser, the organization's president and executive director. LAEP will immediately begin a search for a new president. Funkhouser will remain in her position until January 1, or until a successor is found.

LAEP's first and only president, Funkhouser has led the development of LAEP from a conversation in a restaurant in 1983 into one of the nation's largest and most successful local education funds.

During her tenure LAEP has collaborated with foundations, corporations, educators and community members to raise and invest more than $50 million in efforts to improve public education in Los Angeles.

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"Birds in the City" institute sends Target Science teachers in search of feathered friends at LA River.

Teachers Raise
Pay Issue

Ask a teacher what needs to be done to improve student performance, and it's a good bet the first answer will be to raise teachers' salaries.

Teaching Excellence

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Lowman Special Education Center.

A GROUP OF EDUCATORS FROM DANVILLE, VIRGINIA were in Los Angeles last week to observe a school reform model at two inner city schools in the hopes of adopting some of the same principles for their school.

The principal and five other teachers and administrators from Westwood Middle School spent the week visiting Foshay and Elizabeth Learning Centers, seeing firsthand how the Urban Learning Centers model has provided design-based technical assistance to low-achieving urban schools and districts committed to comprehensive school restructuring.

Check back to the Learning Exchange later this week for an important announcement concerning the learning community.

Nearly three dozen Target Science teachers will scour the city in search of fine feathered friends.

Back to School Budgeting

Back-to-school necessities can add up rather quickly. Here's how to plan ahead.

Teaching Excellence

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Community Magnet School.

THE LOS ANGELES EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP along with four other organizations on the forefront of public education reform have announced the formation of a joint commmittee to explore the creation of a closer working alliance to further accelerate school reform in Los Angeles.

In addition to LAEP, the other four organizations are the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP), Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN), Los Angeles Business Advisors (LABA)and the Committee for Effective School Governance (CESG).

The joint comittee will explore ways to harness the resources of the individual organizations to maximize their effectiveness in improving public education in the greater Los Angeles area.

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LAEP President Peggy Funkhouser gives her perspective on the recent resignation of LEARN President Mike Roos.

Foshay Test
Scores on Rise

Stanford 9 test scores for Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles indicate moderate gains for grades 9-11 in reading and math, with most above LAUSD averages.

Teaching Excellence

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — White House Place Primary Center.

LAST WEEK, THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD unanimously approved a $4.7-million increase in arts funding and creation of a 10-year comprehensive arts program.

Under the plan, which aims to make theater, music, dance and visual arts basic components of the classroom experience, general funds will be used to assign art specialists to elementary schools to train teachers, develop curriculum and relay information about partnerships with art and cultural organizations.

Read the details of this program or follow these links to tap into arts resources for your classroom.

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Irving Middle School.

Why We Need
the Arts

Neil Anstead, academic director of LAEP’s Humanitas program, explains why students need the arts as an integral part of their curriculum.

ARTS Online

Sponsored by AT&T, this electronic gateway to art-centered, inquiry-based curriculum is designed for the high school classroom.

EARLY FINDINGS FROM AN ONGOING EVALUATION of California's massive, K-3 class size reduction (CSR) initiative indicate that students of all backgrounds have made small achievement gains, but teacher quality has suffered and many districts, particularly in urban areas, face difficulties in finding staff, space, and funds for the new classrooms required.

The four-year evaluation, mandated by the state legislature, is being conducted by a consortium of research agencies led by the American Institutes for Research (AIR)and RAND and including Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), WestEd, and EdSource. Check out the full report today.

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Wonderland Avenue Elementary School.

High-Tech Kids

President Clinton gives keynote address as tech companies announce an $8 million initiative to create "Information Technology Academies".

Principal Changes?

LEARN recommends a series of changes designed to strengthen school-site management in an increasingly decentralized LAUSD.

AS THE 20TH CENTURY NEARS ITS END the color lines of increasing racial and ethnic separation are rising in American Schools, according to a Harvard University study.

This study examines changes in the racial composition of American schools, national patterns of segregation, the relationship between segregation by race and schools experiencing concentrated poverty, the difference in segregation in different regions and types of school districts, and the segregation of multiracial schools. For both African American and Latino students, the study reports differences in segregation by region and state and the most segregated states. The report concludes with a discussion of policies that could help reverse the trends toward intensifying segregation.

Each week, the Learning Exchange will feature a different Excellence in Education Award winner. This week — Haddon Avenue Elementary School.

Target Science
Teachers Awarded

Ann Ifekwunigwe is serving as Einstein Fellow in Washington DC; Diana Takenaga-Taga receives Presidential Award in Elementary Science.

Stanford 9 Errors
Cause Delays

As a result of questionable Stanford 9 test score data, the California Department of Education has returned 1999 data files to publisher Harcourt Educational Measurement for re-calculation.

ON JULY 4, 1776 the Colonies claimed independence from England and Democracy was born.

Each year on July 4, Americans celebrate that freedom and independence with barbecues, picnics, and family gatherings. Through the Internet we are learning about and communicating with people of different nations, with different languages and different races throughout the world. Bringing the world closer with understanding and knowledge can only benefit all nations.

We invite you to celebrate Independence Day on the World Wide Web by checking out the links we've assembled to both inform and entertain you.

This week, we will be rerunning some of the very best articles from the Learning Exchange in 1999. Enjoy re-reading these articles and more of the Learning Exchange’s best work culled from our archives. Be sure to look for a new issue of the Learning Exchange on July 9, 1999.

If you're looking for some summer fun on the Web, these Web sites can give you some suggestions. • In February, Los Angeles youth celebrated art and culture at the "I Too Am America" Youth Arts Festival at Hollywood's Barnsdall Park. • As tragic events unfolded in Littleton, Colorado this past spring, we devoted an entire issue to understanding and preventing school violence.