UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access

This paper describes the creation and development of UCLA’s Urban Teacher Education Program in Center X. Specifically, it focuses on Center X’s effort to partner with local communities to create alternative sites of learning for novice teachers. The paper includes the story of Center X graduates working in one Los Angeles elementary school in order to set the stage for the research question: under what conditions do highly-qualified urban teachers remain committed to a career as a social justice educator? The paper reports preliminary retention data from a longitudinal study of Center X graduates and explores the issue of how professional learning communities emerge in urban schools.