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LAAMP Collection
CSLA-16
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Table of contents
Title: LAAMP collection
Dates: 1984-2001
Bulk Dates: 1994-2001
Collection number: CSLA-16
Creator:
Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP)
Collection Size:
177 archival document boxes
Repository:
Loyola Marymount University. Library. Department of Archives and Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90045-2659
Abstract: Documenting the history of a Los Angeles educational reform organization, the holdings of the LAAMP (Los Angeles Annenberg
Metropolitan Project) Collection consist of textual materials: subject files, correspondence, minutes and agendas of committee
meetings, reports and studies, brochures, and publications on educational reforms.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount
University.
Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise,
Loyola Marymount University does not claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or publisher
must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola Marymount University does not assume any responsibility
for infringement of copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her heirs, assigns, or
executors.
[Identification of item], Series number, Box and Folder number, LAAMP Collection, Department of Archives and Special Collections,
William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University.
Gift of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project. Accession number: 2001.6
Part of its half-billion dollar initiative to resolve the crisis of the urban public school system in the United States, the
Annenberg Foundation allocated fifty three million dollars to fund the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP)
in 1994. The Board of Governors for LAAMP had submitted a proposal to The Annenberg Foundation on November 28, 1994, detailing
the structure and goals of LAAMP. The Annenberg Foundation was created by Walter H. Annenberg (former ambassador to Great
Britain from 1969-1974), who supported the foundation through his publishing fortune. The money was allocated with the stipulation
that matching funds from other sources would more than double the amount, with the purpose of creating a financial resource
to shape educational reform in Los Angeles.
LAAMP's Board of Governors included business executives with ties to educational reform in Los Angeles: Roy Anderson (Chairman
and CEO Emeritus, Lockheed Corporation; Chairman, Weingart Foundation) and Robert Wycoff (Chairman and CEO Emeritus, ARCO;
Chairman, Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now). Board of Governors drawn from education included Steven
B. Sample (President, University of Southern California), Blenda Wilson (President, California State University at Northridge),
and Charles Young (Chancellor, University of California at Los Angeles). After approval of the proposal, the Board appointed
Maria Casillas as the Director. LAAMP's philosophy was to extend and enhance the reform efforts already at work in Los Angeles
through such organizations as the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Reform Now (LEARN).
LAAMP's strategy centered on developing school families (composed of one high school working together with corresponding
"feeder" schools), to develop stabile schools characterized by coordinated educational policies that cut across grade levels.
LAAMP employed specific policies for curriculum and assessment tools that allowed the use of student data to shape instruction.
Results from student data were used to plan curriculum, help create transitions from one grade to the next, and to correct
shortcomings in the previously employed instruction. LAAMP's efforts were channeled through professional development programs,
desinged to support stable school family learning communities, and to create responsibility among the teachers, administrators,
parents and the larger civic and business community (the "stakeholders") for successful schools.
To achieve these goals, LAAMP administered two grants: the Challenge grants and DELTA grants (for the latter, see below).
The Challenge grants were allocated to twenty-eight school families (247 schools and 200,000 students) within the Los Angeles
area, primarily in the Los Angeles Unified School District. By signing a Memo of Understanding with LAAMP, each school family
agreed to a reform strategy and to the seven following "Action Principles":
- Becoming stable learning communities in which students know and are known by adults in the schools and in which students experience personalized teaching and learning
- Creating equitable opportunities for every student to engage in a broad, intellectually challenging curriculum that is based on the integration of content represented in the California Frameworks and Goals 2000 initiatives
- Sustaining a strong sense of equity and inclusiveness among parents and stakeholders
- Decentralizing control of resources and decision making
- Linking professional development to the creation of stable learning communities
- Reallocating professional time in schools and School Families
- Creating, using, and publicizing ongoing assessments of student and school performance.
LAAMP worked closely with other Los Angeles based educational reform organizations, such as the Weingart Foundation. The
Weingart Foundation supported one of LAAMP's goals by creating DELTA--"Design for Excellence Linking Teaching and Achievement"--for
teachers' professional development, with the gift of $8.9 million (supplemented with the Ford Foundation's $2.5 million).
By fostering teacher accountability for student performance, the participating DELTA schools took the LAAMP "School Family"
model to a deeper level by being linked linked to specific California State University campuses. DELTA also expanded a partnership
with the California State University system, leading to redesigned and integrated professional development programs.
After the Challenge grants were completed in 2001, LAAMP took the next step and merged with LEARN (see Center for the Study
of Los Angeles collection CSLA-14) to create a new entity, "L2", to carry on systemic educational reform in the Los Angeles
area.
This history incorporates information found in the "LAAMP Fact Sheet," "Action Principles," and the report:
Preliminary Reflections on the Annenberg Challenge.
Scope and Content of Collection
The LAAMP Collection was donated to Loyola Marymount University in 2001 and constitutes collection number "CSLA-16" in the
Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles Research Collection. The majority of the holdings consists of textual materials:
subject files, correspondence, minutes and agendas of committee meetings, reports and studies, brochures, and publications
on educational reforms. Also, a few photos and disks are included in the collection.
The dates of the holdings range from 1984 to 2001, with 1994-2000 constituting the bulk dates. Materials dating before 1994
did not originate with LAAMP, but were utilized by LAAMP as source material.
Some material containing confidential information (ie, social security numbers) has been removed from the collection.
The collection has been organized into fourteen series, which are based on the filing structure of LAAMP; thus, original
order has been preserved in this collection as much as possible.
The series are:
- Series 1. School Families. Subseries A: Subseries A: Accelerated School - Little Lake/Whittier
- Series 1. School Families. Subseries B: Long Beach Poly/Cabrillo - Temple City
- Series 2: Evaluation of LAAMP
- Series 3: North Hollywood School Family Archive
- Series 4: LAUSD and LEARN
- Series 5: Annenberg Organizations
- Series 6: Research Reports
- Series 7: DELTA
- Series 8. Partners. Subseries A: Bank of America proposal - LEARN correspondence, Mary Chambers
- Series 8. Partners. Subseries B: LEARN Retreat - School Family Leadership binder
- Series 9: Public Engagement and Communication
- Series 10: Board of Directors
- Series 11: Working Files
- Series 12: Matching Funds
- Series 13: Pasadena Unified School District
- Series 14: School Family Meeting Topics
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Los Angeles Unified School District
Nonprofit organizations -- California -- Los Angeles -- Sources
Community and school -- California -- Los Angeles
Educational change -- California -- Los Angeles -- Sources
Public schools -- California -- Los Angeles
Educational planning -- California -- Los Angeles -- Sources
School improvement programs -- California -- Los Angeles -- Sources
Urban schools -- California -- Los Angeles
Casillas, Maria
Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project