When Madeline Loef was looking to enroll her children in an elementary school, she immediately thought of sending them to a private Catholic academy, where she had gone when she was younger.
“I went to a Catholic school, so I thought that would be best,” she said.
But after her sister-in-law, who teaches at UCLA, suggested the UCLA Lab School based on its “progressive” education, Loef decided to give it a try.
Several years later, she stands by the decision she made.
“There are a lot of teachers, and my kids are happy,” Loef said.
Located in the northwest corner of campus near West Sunset Boulevard, the UCLA Lab School is an elementary school for children ages 4-12. The school also serves as a center for research on education and child development, according to the Lab School Web site.
The school, formerly known as Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School, is comprised of approximately 435 students that encompass a wide spectrum of diversity, modeled off of the diversity of the state, Principal Jim Kennedy said.
He added that the school looks at the demographic data for the state and designs its student composition to imitate this data.
Thus, if 10 percent of Californians make under $15,000 per year, the school tries to reflect this in its student body.
However, the selection process for each demographic category is random so that all students who fall into a specific category have an equal chance of being admitted, Kennedy said.
Furthermore, the director of admissions visits preschools in lower income areas of Los Angeles to ensure that there is sufficient representation of underprivileged students, said Sharon Sutton, coordinator of outreach and technology.
She added that the school also targets the children of classified UCLA employees.
The diverse ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds that students bring to the school, along with the approach to teaching, makes for a unique learning environment, Kennedy said.
“It’s a very progressive approach, very child-centered, very project-based. The kids learn to be creative. Instead of learning math they’re mathematicians, instead of learning to write, we nurture them as young writers,” he said.
The school is funded by outside donors, tuition and endowment, Kennedy said.
The number of monetary donations has decreased, and the current economic conditions have forced the school to increase tuition by 9 percent.
However, Kennedy said that when some families had to stop making contributions because of personal circumstances, others stepped up to fill the gap.
Likewise, Loef said that while the recent increase in tuition is “pretty steep,” her family finances still allow her children to attend.
“It’s impacted us, but hopefully we’ll keep the tuition at a minimum,” she said.
The Lab School has been part of the UCLA campus for 62 years, although its name has changed several times since then.
The school was originally christened the State Normal School in 1882, based on the standards, or norms, that were taught to students, Kennedy said.
Over time, the school moved to a variety of locations, including downtown Los Angeles. In 1947, the school moved to its current location in the northwest section of campus and became part of the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
In the 1980s, the school was renamed after Corinne Seeds, a longtime principal. However, last year, the school was renamed the UCLA Lab School to emphasize the school’s connection to UCLA and to allow it to grow, Kennedy said.
“We are defined by our connection to UCLA and that (the school) is a lab for teaching and learning practices,” Kennedy said.
One of the distinguishing features of the Lab School is its hands-on approach to learning, Loef said.
“It’s a balance of doing field trips, and UCLA is their backyard, so they can go to the sculpture garden and meet doctors and professors,” she said.
In recent years, the school has also redesigned its curriculum and extended programs for outside educators.
This year, the school will host “Educator Days” once a month, during which instructors from various schools will observe classrooms and debrief with teachers about the programs that they lead, Kennedy said.
In this way, outside educators will be involved in the school’s programs, and the school will be able to extend outreach efforts to other schools and districts, Kennedy said.
“We’ve always been a lab school and always had a function,” he said. “It’s time for a good strong shot in the arm to live up to our role as a lab school.”