Large Scale Multi-Year Implementation in Secondary Schools:Pearson Learning Teams in Los Angeles

Pearson Learning Teams’ partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District—the second largest school district in the United States--illustrates Pearson’s capacity to implement and scale the Learning Teams program in secondary schools within a large urban school district.

For over a decade, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has been working to meet a threefold district-wide agenda: (1) to ensure that all students have access to and are able to complete a rigorous curriculum; (2) to significantly increase the high school graduation rate; and (3) to significantly increase the number of students entering college and post-secondary programs.

In 2006, LAUSD selected Pearson Learning Teams to assist its middle and high schools in implementing a revised mathematics curriculum. The goal was to use Learning Teams to coordinate this new initiative with innovations already underway, build continuous improvement capacity at the school and district level, and improve student achievement in secondary schools. Learning Teams had been working with LAUSD schools since 1996, when fifteen LAUSD elementary schools participated in five-year scale-up study of Learning Teams funded by the Spencer Foundation. With documented success of higher student achievement scores already within the district, LAUSD and Pearson Learning Teams came together to bring collaborative learning communities to its middle and high schools.