Professional Development Academies in Education

Professional Development Programs in Information Studies

UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies is home to two departments. Each is a leader in their field, helping to pioneer what's next in the Education and Information worlds.

UCLA Ed&IS faculty are at the forefront of their fields, addressing issues of equality, access and social justice in the fields of education and information. Their scholarship has an international reputation for excellence and commitment to addressing the most critical issues facing our society.

An ecosystem of K-12 teaching schools where UCLA partners to develop, study, share, and advance innovative best practices.

The work at UCLA Ed&IS is guided by the principles of individual responsibility and social justice, an ethic of caring, and commitment to the communities we serve. Learn more about our mission and values, our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in our faculty and students, our history and more.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are defining features of UCLA Ed&IS and we embrace them as a source of strength.

Department of Education 2023 Information Sessions

Department of Information Studies Programs

Department of Information Studies 2023 Information Sessions

Learn more about the undergraduate and graduate academic programs we offer, when program information sessions are being offered and how to apply.

What began as a Teacher's College in downtown Los Angeles, grew into one of the top public research universities in the nation.

UCLA Ed&IS History

In 1880, Los Angeles was a gaslit pueblo with a population of 11,000. Leaders of the expanding city tried to convince the state to establish a second State Normal School in Southern California, to resemble the original one existing 300 miles to the north in San Jose.  

In 1882, the Los Angeles branch of the State Normal School, the usual term for an institution devoted to teacher education, opened its doors for instruction. Students who wanted to be teachers were the first to attend what is now one of the world’s pre-eminent universities.

In March of the following year, the State Assembly approved the school. Over 200 citizens contributed between $2 and $500 and purchased a site less than a mile from the city’s main business section.The school and its children’s school rose from an orange grove which today is the site of the Central Los Angeles Public Library. On August 29, 1882, the Los Angeles branch of the State Normal School welcomed its first students, all destined to become teachers for the children of Los Angeles.

By 1914, Los Angeles had grown to a city of 350,000 and the Normal School, whose enrollment far exceeded its capacity,moved to a Hollywood ranch off a dirt road that later became Vermont Avenue.

In 1917, Ernest C. Moore, the Harvard transplant and new Normal School Director,proposed that it become the first branch of the Berkeley-based University of California. On May 23, 1919, the Governor signed the necessary legislation. That year the “Southern Branch” offered a two-year program in undergraduate instruction to 1,125 future teachers. In 1922, a four-year Bachelor of Education degree program was added. In 1927, the Southern Branch earned its new name: University of California, Los Angeles, soon to be known as UCLA. In 1929, UCLA moved to Westwood, and in 1939 the Graduate School of Education was founded.

On July 25, 1930, the Los Angeles City Librarian wrote to the University of California President and a local Regent, urging the establishment of a library school at UCLA. Not until December 1958 was the school finally authorized, joining schools then at the University of California, Berkeley in the north and the University of Southern California in the south. On September 18, the day before the initial class of 50 (selected from more than 500 applicants) was to report, the School of Library Service was officially inaugurated. It was housed in what is now Powell Library and dedicated to serving the needs of UCLA’s undergraduates.

Stressing the word “service” in the School’s name, the new Dean and UCLA Librarian Lawrence Clark Powell characterized librarianship as “an act of giving.”Powell believed that outstanding teaching could be expected only from persons who had been seasoned in library work, and he brought together outstanding professionals as the first faculty. The library and education schools merged in 1994, forming the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

What is today the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School (Seeds UES) began in 1882 when the Normal School began. It has been part of UCLA ever since. In the 1930s and 1940s, under the leadership of Principal Corinne A. Seeds, a student of John Dewey, the school emerged as an outstanding example of progressive education. In 1947, Seeds UES moved to its current home on the UCLA campus.

As GSE&IS’s laboratory school, Seeds UES is a source of research and professional education and serves as a model and a resource for public schools.Through workshops on early literacy, primary resources, information literacy, technology integration, and school reform, Seeds UES teachers work closely with Los Angeles area schools to improve instructional practice.

The origin of the State Normal School, beginnings of teacher education in Los Angeles and the first days of the School of Library Service

UCLA Ed&IS’ roots

Celebrating and preserving the legacy of our alumni over the decades.