USC Music Professor Increases Campaign Gift to $10 Million

Los Angeles, California - Longtime violin professor Alice Schoenfeld of the USC Thornton School of Music has increased her campaign gift to the school by $7 million to establish the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Scholarship Fund for Strings Students. The new campaign commitment follows a $3 million commitment Schoenfeld made in October 2012 to renovate the school’s main symphonic rehearsal space for student-musicians. Her total campaign gift is the largest ever made to the University of Southern California by a longtime faculty member.

Schoenfeld, who is holder of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair in String Instruction, has directed that the new gift be used for scholarships in her name and that of her sister, Eleonore, a longtime professor of cello at USC Thornton who died in 2007. As the Schoenfeld Duo, the sisters were internationally renowned classical performers and toured the world’s great music halls for decades. Between them, they taught for more than a century at USC Thornton, and Alice Schoenfeld continues to instruct violin students.

Alice Schoenfeld’s $10 million donation is second in size only to the school’s naming gift in 1999 from philanthropist Flora Thornton. Schoenfeld’s contribution serves as the lead gift in USC Thornton’s $75 million fundraising initiative that kicked off last night. The initiative is part of The Campaign for the University of Southern California, a multiyear effort to secure $6 billion or more in private philanthropy to advance USC’s academic priorities and expand the university’s positive impact on the community and world.

“Alice Schoenfeld’s new commitment to establish a scholarship fund for string musicians at USC Thornton reflects her profound dedication to her students,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “Her students have

Taking Center Stage Model Middle Schools

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Congratulates California's 2013
Schools to Watch - Taking Center Stage Model Middle Schools

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced that 12 high-performing California middle schools have been newly designated as model middle grades schools in the Schools to Watch™−Taking Center Stage (STW−TCS) program. Another nine high-performing California schools will also retain their model middle grades schools status under the same program.

"My congratulations and admiration go out to these schools for continually striving to improve student performance," Torlakson said. "Their success is the result of effective and innovative practices that motivate their students to learn and excel."

STW‒TCS middle grades schools are high-performing model schools that demonstrate academic excellence, developmental responsiveness to the needs and interests of young adolescents, social equity, and organizational support. STW‒TCS model schools host visitors from California and around the world who are looking for replicable practices that will help them improve their middle grades schools and close the achievement gap.

The 12 newly designated STW‒TCS model middle grades schools are:

Fresno County

Fairmont Elementary K-8 (Sanger Unified School District, Sanger).
Quail Lake Environmental Charter K-8 (Sanger Unified School District, Sanger).
Sanger Academy Charter K-8 (Sanger Unified School District, Sanger).
The three schools are small, rural K-8 schools that have specific programs for middle grades students and have significantly closed the achievement gap. They act as one professional learning community frequently collaborating on better instructional strategies. (In 2011, Sanger Unified's Washington Academic Middle School was designated a STW−TCS.)

Los Angeles County

Frank J. Zamboni Middle School (Paramount Unified School District, Paramount) is an urban school whose Academic Performance Index (API) scores (on a scale ranging from 200 to 1000, with 800 established as the statewide target) in nearly every student group have risen from the 600's in 2006-07 to the 800's in 2011-12. Students who are English learners scored at 789, but made a significant 27-point growth last year. The staff has focused on poverty issues facing their students as part of their concern for the whole child.

Orange County