Center X News

Coaching Blog

Conflict

By Natalie Irons, Associate Director, Instructional Coaching, UCLA Center X I’m thinking a lot about how conflict looks, sounds and…
Northeast US Map with ExcEL Academy logo
ExcEL AcademyGrants

UCLA Center X Announces the Start of ExcEL 2026!

UCLA Center X is pleased to announce the start of ExcEL 2026, the latest iteration of the ExcEL Leadership Academy! ExcEL 2026 is a five-year program funded through the National Professional Development (NPD) grants offered by the US Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition.

books
Culture & Equity ProjectStudents' Voices

What the Curriculum Left Out for Us

Currently, there is a movement across the country to leave out critical narratives and histories from the curriculum. However, even before this movement, our curriculum has always left out counternarratives and histories. American textbooks are typically Eurocentric, biased, and disjointed.

PLI FeaturedPrincipal Leadership Institute

Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez High School: A Community School That Honors Its Neighborhood’s Legacy of Educational Justice

This Learning Policy Institute Brief focuses on a high-performing community school in East Los Angeles led by PLI faculty & graduate Mauro Bautista. The brief details the structures and practices that create the conditions for deep engagement, shared leadership, and a school culture that combines rigorous and engaging academics in a nurturing and inclusive environment.

Culture & Equity ProjectTransforming Education

Inclusion: Do we need to get ready or is it about normalcy?

As I walked around the classroom, I noticed a certain level of calmness. I saw co-teaching happening in this 1st
grade classroom and students actively engaged. The teacher called on “Sara” to talk about what she liked most in the story they read together as a class. Her friends tentatively sat and waited for her response. Her friend “Justin” held her hand and said “Sara, what did you like?” Sara waited and responded “I liked the pictures!” Sara’s response time took a little longer than some of her other friends but no one seemed to care.

Check out our Just News from Center X, a weekly web post and email news blast. It’s a great way to learn about issues of education and justice.

We are excited about the publication of  Preparing and Sustaining Social Justice Educators edited by our former executive director, Annamarie Francois, along with UCLA Center for Community Schooling director Karen Hunter Quartz.