Creating opportunities that change lives

The UCLA Community School is the first in a series of Teaching Schools established by UCLA. These K-12 partner schools serve much the same role as the teaching hospital system that transformed our nation’s medical practices. Recognized in March 2015 by the State of California as a model of innovation in higher education, UCLA’s Teaching Schools are designed to create, evaluate, and demonstrate innovative instructional strategies; to help shape stronger teacher education programs; to serve as sites for training future and current educational professionals. When UCLA CS opened in 2009, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block noted the school’s impact would extend far beyond a single neighborhood. As a vibrant site for research-practice partnerships, the school maintains an active program of systematic inquiry that informs practice, ensures accountability, and creates generalizable knowledge about schooling.

The UCLA TIE-INS program strives to expand University and K-12 school partnerships that respect and strengthen each school's capacity to improve student learning and achievement. The principals and teachers work collaboratively to identify individual and collective needs of our partner schools and match UCLA resources to enhance the learning opportunities that ultimately benefit all students. The collaboration enables children of UCLA employees who live outside the attendance area to go to these eight public schools. In exchange, UCLA—with guidance from the schools’ leaders—provides assistance and enrichment in support of high achievement for all students in these schools. The TIE-IN schools: Beethoven Street Elementary School, Broadway Elementary School, Brockton Avenue Elementary School, Braddock Drive Elementary School, Nora Sterry Elementary School, Emerson Community Charter Middle School, Mark Twain Middle School, University High School Charter, Venice High School.