Researcher - Center Community Schooling

Overview of the UCLA Center for Community Schooling

The UCLA Center for Community Schooling advances democracy, justice, and public education by helping schools become vibrant, community-centered places where young people learn and thrive. The Center brings research, policy, and practice into close partnership with students, families, educators, and public agencies to support meaningful and lasting school transformation.

Grounded in long-term research-practice partnerships with the UCLA Community School and the Mann UCLA Community School, the Center has developed a nationally recognized approach for university-assisted community schools. At the state level, the Center plays a leadership role in California’s Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), supporting over 2,000 schools and more than one million students and families. Through applied research, technical assistance, and policy engagement, the Center demonstrates how universities can serve as powerful partners in advancing equitable, community-driven change.

In collaboration with the Faculty Co-Director, the Researcher/Co-Director provides scholarly and research leadership for the UCLA Center for Community Schooling. The incumbent develops, leads, and conducts a program of research focused on community schooling, research-practice partnerships, educational equity, and school transformation. The Co-Director is expected to produce significant scholarly contributions, including peer-reviewed publications and other research products; develop and lead externally funded research;

disseminate findings to scholarly, policy, and practitioner audiences; and contribute professional and public service based on their research expertise.

The Co-Director leads and participates in interdisciplinary and community-engaged research-practice partnerships with schools, districts, public agencies, and other partners. The incumbent exercises substantial intellectual independence in developing research questions, theoretical and conceptual frameworks, methodological approaches, analyses, and scholarly products and is expected to establish and maintain a significant record of research accomplishment and professional recognition.

In their role as Co-Director, the incumbent also provides leadership necessary to support the Center's research mission, including coordination of research personnel, research partnerships, sponsored research, and the integration of the Center's research portfolio.

• Provide oversight and leadership for the Center’s research portfolio including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies
• Advance research-practice partnerships that:
• Inform school-level practice
• Ensure accountability
• Generate generalizable knowledge about community schooling
• Lead the development of research products, including reports, policy briefs, and scholarly publications
• Ensure the translation of research findings into actionable insights for educators, policymakers, and communities through peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs, technical reports, and other publicly available publication channels.
• Oversee research administration, including review processes, compliance, and coordination with district partners
• Supervise research personnel and ensure appropriate staffing is maintained to meet research deliverables.
• Oversee research budgets and sponsored-project implementation.
• Ensure compliance with UCLA and external policies and procedures. Development and alignment of the Center’s research, policy, and practice agendas.
• Seek extramural funding and serve and PI/co-PI on contracts and grants that support the research mission of the center.
• With the Faculty Co-Director, Co-lead…