ABOUT LASDI: Mission and Background Statement
Mission
The mission of the Los Angeles School Development Institute (LASDI) is to assist and support collaborative teams of teachers, principals, parents, community members, students and district leadership who are dedicated to examining their practice and organically reforming the culture and instructional delivery models at their school site. We believe that reform should be deeply rooted in research and data analysis with clear accountability models embedded in the design and should focus on the needs of students. We believe that authentic reform must involve input and meaningful collaboration from all stakeholders in the school community in order to achieve sustainable change.
About Us
The Los Angeles School Development Institute (LASDI) is a collaboration between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and Associated Administrators Los Angeles (AALA). The Institute is convened and housed at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce through its affiliate, UNITE-LA. LASDI is supported by the LA Compact partners including the City of Los Angeles, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the County Federation of Labor and 11 LA Basin Institutions of Higher Education.
LASDI was developed to provide capacity-building support to internal Public School Choice applicant and implementation teams in accordance with the 2010 Public School Choice Resolution which resolved that the “Superintendent shall develop a plan to ensure existing internal stakeholder teams are positioned and supported to develop and put forth viable designs for new and existing schools identified.”
LASDI offers personalized and differentiated services to school teams. The Co-Directors work directly with school leadership to identify needs as they collaboratively develop their vision and put it into practice. School teams are then matched with content experts or facilitators depending on their unique goals and needs. LASDI experts are retired educators who specialize in a range of topics from curriculum, school culture, professional development, family & community engagement, school operations, and special populations, to general coaching and facilitation.
The three Co-Directors of the Institute, representing UTLA, AALA, and LAUSD, are Jim Blackwood, a retired teacher and UTLA Chapter Chair, Michelle Bennett, a retired principal, and Shelley Weston, a retired LAUSD Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Instruction.