Our Story

Our Story Has Shaped Our Values

1. Teachers are valued professionals.

LAEP began by providing small grants to teachers to test their new ideas while also developing programs to support their professional growth and leadership. In partnership with LAUSD and teachers, we have fostered the expansion of teacher-driven professional development and networks, distributed leadership practices, and the creation of urban learning centers, such as Foshay Learning Center, and pilot schools like Social Justice Humanitas and Humanitas Academy of Art & Technology. Today, LAEP is pioneering trauma-responsive and resilient school teams to advance academic outcomes for students and improve well-being for staff and students as well as supporting the development of the early childhood education workforce pipeline.

2. Parents and other responsible and caring adults are partners in education.

As LAEP was working with teachers, we recognized we needed to get involved earlier with children and more deeply with families. In response, by 1989 we were working with schools to develop early childhood programs and resource-rich parent centers and Healthy Start collaboratives to increase school readiness. Our emphasis on promoting parents as their child’s first teacher lifted up the underutilized talents of community residents and led to their employment at LAEP as health promotoras, home educators, and childcare workers.

3. Students are self-advocates, actively engaged in learning.

In 1985, teachers designed LAEP’s student-centered, interdisciplinary Humanitas model to promote educational rigor, critical thinking, and communication skills using locally relevant and culturally rich instructional material. Student-led conferencing, promoted by Humanitas, encourages students to own a vision for their future and to share it, plus their progress, with parents and caregivers. In 1986, LAUSD and business leaders expressed a desire to increase the opportunity for high school students to get real-life relevance and experience while in school. The result was LAEP’s development of career-themed academies linked to local industries. Now, our school- and classroom-embedded college and career readiness programming ensures that all students have a strong foundation upon graduation from high school.

4. School site administrators have the autonomy to respond to local challenges and opportunities.

Our signature work with administrators and teachers builds their capacity for distributed leadership and collaboration to foster mission- and vision-driven schools. Our equity-centered coaching also supports administrators in dismantling inequitable systems for both students and staff of color. Our experience confirms that collaboration, continuous commitment to equity, and an unwavering focus on mission and vision are the keys to school success—not a cookie-cutter or silver bullet solution.

5. Community members are integral to ensuring student success.

Every school and community is different, with varied resources that can be harnessed to support learning. Since launching the first resource-rich parent center in the northeast San Fernando Valley, we have prioritized assisting schools in building a collaborative infrastructure. These community collaboratives address the specific needs of each school’s students and families by integrating community assets into school services and creating opportunities for expanded learning. LAEP is the preeminent community school practitioner and thought leader in California and an influential partner in the national community school movement.