Impact

UCLA Lab School programs and people are making a positive impact in communities throughout California and around the globe.

Each year, public and private school educators and administrators visit our campus to attend professional development workshops and observe in our classrooms. Our teachers and researchers participate in major education conferences and publish broadly. Teachers who have worked or trained at UCLA Lab School go on to teach at and lead public schools around the country, taking the educational philosophy and teaching practices to those communities. Many of our students grow up to be leaders who use their knowledge and skills to make a positive difference in the world.

Supporting Teachers and Students

In recent years we have worked in partnership with educators from:

Compton Unified School District
  • Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School
Culver City Unified School District
  • El Rincon Elementary School
  • La Ballona Elementary School
  • Linwood Howe Elementary School
El Segundo Unified School District
  • Center Street Elementary School
  • Richmond Street Elementary School
La Cañada Unified School District
  • La Cañada Elementary School
  • La Cañada High School
  • Palm Crest Elementary School
  • Paradise Canyon Elementary School
Lawndale Elementary School District
  • Billy Mitchell Elementary School
  • Jane Adams Elementary School
Long Beach Unified School District
  • James Monroe Elementary School
  • Polytechnic School
  • Riley Elementary School
Los Angeles Unified School District
  • Broadway Elementary School
  • Camino Nuevo Charter Elementary School
  • Clover Avenue Elementary School
  • Coeur d’Alene Elementary School
  • Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts
  • Loyola Village Elementary School
  • Marvin Elementary School
  • Multicultural Learning Center
  • Para Los Niños Charter School
  • Third Street Elementary School
  • Topanga Elementary School
  • Vine Street Elementary School
  • Westwood Charter Elementary School
Montebello Unified School District
  • Fremont Elementary School
  • Laguna Nueva Elementary School
  • Potrero Heights Elementary School
Oak Park Unified School District
  • Brookside Elementary School
  • Oak Hills Elementary School
  • Red Oak Elementary School
Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District
  • Lunada Bay Elementary School
  • Point Vicente Elementary School
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
  • Franklin Elementary School
  • Grant Avenue Elementary School
  • John Muir Elementary School
  • Juan Cabrillo Elementary School
  • Malibu High School
  • McKinley Elementary School
  • Point Dume Elementary School
  • Roosevelt Elementary School
  • SMASH
  • Will Rogers Learning Community
Santee Elementary School District
  • Cajon Park Elementary School
  • Carlton Oaks Elementary School
  • Pepper Drive Elementary School
Ventura County Schools
  • Pleasant Valley Unified School District
  • Rio School District
Ventura County Office of Education
Charter Schools
  • Bridges Charter School
  • Larchmont Charter School
  • Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts
  • Open Charter School
  • Para Los Niños Charter School
  • Today’s Fresh Start Charter School
  • Westwood Charter School
Independent Schools
  • Echo Horizon School, Culver City
  • Westside Neighborhood School

Global Reach

Educators travel from throughout the country and around the globe to observe in our classrooms and consult with UCLA Lab School teachers, researchers, and school leaders. These visits offer opportunities to discuss educational ideas in context and allow visitors to observe innovative practices firsthand.

Over the years, visitors have come from:

Australia
  • Deakin University School of Education, Melbourne
Azerbaijan
  • Khazar University, Baku
Barbados
  • Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture
China
  • Ministry of Education
Cyprus
  • Cyprus Pedagogical Institute
England
  • University of Cambridge
Germany
  • Institut for Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung, Hagen
India
  • Eklavya School, Ahmedabad
Italy
  • University of Palermo
Japan
  • Daiden Co., Ltd.
  • Fukuoka Prefectural Government
  • Inatuki Elementary School
  • Kitakyushu College
  • Kyushu University
  • Lizuka Higashi Hoikusyo
  • Sacred Heart University
  • Seinongakuin University
  • Sasaguri Junior High School
  • Takata Town Office
  • Wakamura Gakuen
The Netherlands
  • Katholieke Universiteit, Nijmegen
Norway
  • Ostfold College School of Education
Taiwan
  • National Tapei University of Technology
Thailand
  • Bangkok Archdiocese Education Department
  • Kasem Pittay School, Bangkok
  • Kindergarten Association of Thailand
  • Office of Provincial Primary Education, Samutprakran
  • Thailand Ministry of Education
Tibet
  • Tibetan Children’s Village School
Uruguay
  • University of Uruguay

United States

Arizona
  • Phoenix Country Day School
  • Manzanita Elementary School, Kingman
  • Tempe School District
California
  • Apple, Inc.
  • America Reads
  • California Polytechnic Institute, Pomona
  • California School Library Association
  • California State Assembly
  • California State University, Channel Islands
  • California State University, Fullerton
  • California State University, Los Angeles
  • Calisphere Primary Resources Portal
  • Children’s Literature Council of Southern California
  • Cisco Systems
  • Claremont College, Claremont
  • Computer Using Educators (CUE), Los Angeles
  • Developmental Learning Consultants, Del  Mar
  • Even Start Program, North Fork
  • Los Angeles County Office of Education
  • Los Angeles Trade Tech College
  • Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
  • Microsoft, Inc.
  • Milken Family Foundation
  • Natural History Museum, Los Angeles
  • Pacific Bell
  • Page Museum Education Department, Los Angeles
  • Pepperdine University, Los Angeles
  • Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles
  • Sun Microsystems
  • Superintendents’ Learning Community
  • Tag Toys, Compton
  • University of California, Davis
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Venice Family Clinic
  • Volunteers of America, Harbor City
  • West Los Angeles College
  • Will Rogers State Historical Park
Florida
  • Liberty City Elementary School, Miami
Indiana
  • Indiana University, Bloomington
Kansas
  • Emporia State University
Louisiana
  • Jefferson Parish Schools
  • St. Bernard Parish Schools
  • St. Tammany Parish Schools
  • School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans
Massachusetts
  • Alden Elementary School, Duxbury
  • Duxbury High School
Michigan
  • University of Michigan
Missouri
  • Hixson Middle School, St. Louis
New York
  • Prospect Elementary School, Hempstead
  • Syracuse City Schools
  • Yeshiva Darchei, Monsey
Ohio
  • Ohio State University
Oregon
  • Heartlight School, Jacksonville
  • Oregon State University
Pennsylvania
  • The Petersmeyer Family Foundation, Philadelphia
  • University of Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
  • Brown University
Texas
  • Lubbock Unified School District
  • Texas A&M University
Washington
  • Mukilteo School District
Washington, D.C.
  • Inter-American Development Bank
  • U.S. Department of Education
  • Washington International School
Wisconsin
  • University of Madison
  • Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

Developing Innovative Leaders

UCLA Lab School provides an inspiring and challenging environment where both adults and children can develop their skills and stretch their thinking. Teachers who have worked or trained here go on to teach at and lead public schools, taking the educational philosophy and teaching practices to other communities. Many of our students grow up to be leaders who use their knowledge and skills to make a positive difference in the world.

Eric Garcetti (’82), Los Angeles City Council President

Eric Garcetti is a fourth-generation Angeleno. One of the youngest council members in the city's history when he was elected in 2001, Garcetti represents a district where more than 100 languages are spoken. An educator and an expert on race relations, government efficiency, public policy, and economic development, Garcetti was one of only 24 Americans selected as a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow. He said his years at the lab school helped prepare him for a leadership role: “UCLA Lab School fundamentally set me on a course that changed my life. It taught me global history and helped me to understand the city of my birth and cultures and traditions far afield… These lessons helped me to know myself and to embrace the world around me."

Muriel Ifekwunigwe, R.N., M.P.H., Ed.D., UCLA Lab School and El Rincon Elementary School, Culver City

In addition to her role as a health educator, Dr. Ifekwunigwe helps low income families acquire needed health services, connecting them to community, government and private resources. She also oversees the work of nursing students from Mount St. Mary’s College and UCLA, providing leadership and training to the next generation of health professionals. Recently Dr. Ifekwunigwe celebrated 35 years at the lab school. Multiply that by the hundreds of students and parents she counsels each year and all the lives they have touched—that’s a very big impact.

Josh Miller (’02), Founder and President, Resilient Youth Foundation

While he was still in high school, Josh Miller became an inspired and dedicated community activist. He received many honors for his work, including a CNN Hero Award. Now a student at Princeton University, Josh is building on that work and looking to make an even greater impact with his foundation’s latest initiative, a set of web based tools called VOICE, HELP and NEWS. From organizing and simplifying news about current events to providing a link between constituents and elected officials, the sites are designed to support active and engaged citizenship.