Lowell Milken's reputation as a visionary leader of education reform has been honed by more than three decades of education research, policy and practices -- as well as firsthand visits to thousands of classrooms and the creation of major national initiatives.
Under Lowell Milken's guidance since its establishment in 1982, the Milken Family Foundation has become one of the nation's most innovative private foundations, developing groundbreaking programs in K-12 education as well as medical research, as well as helping to fund more than 1,000 organizations worldwide with compatible missions.
Among his contributions to strengthening K-12 education, Lowell Milken conceived the Milken Educator Awards, first presented in 1987, to recognize the importance of outstanding educators and to encourage talented young people to choose teaching as a career. With a network of 2,500 recipients, the Milken Educator Awards is the nation's preeminent teacher recognition program, coined "the Oscars of teaching" by Teacher Magazine.
Recognizing that sufficient numbers of quality teachers would never result from current education practices, Lowell established TAP™: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement in 1999 as a comprehensive research-based strategy to attract, develop, motivate and retain high-quality teachers for America's schools. By creating an environment with powerful and sustained opportunities for career advancement, professional growth, teacher accountability and competitive compensation, TAP's proven system impacts over 20,000 teachers and 200,000 students across the country and is growing exponentially. President Barack Obama has highlighted the "promising work" of TAP in helping to ensure that "anyone entrusted with educating our children is doing the job as well as it can be done."
Based on TAP's rapid growth, strong results and high demand, Lowell created the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) in 2005 as an independent public charity to support and manage the TAP system nationally and to foster powerful teacher quality initiatives through the NIET Best Practices Center. Equipped with a staff drawn from education and business, NIET forges partnerships with schools, governments, corporations and foundations to ensure TAP's effectiveness and sustainability in a diverse set of urban, rural and suburban schools across America. The NIET Best Practices Center provides innovative services, support and solutions to schools, districts and states to improve educator effectiveness. Based on more than a decade of experience in teacher quality initiatives in schools across the country, the Best Practices Center works with states, districts and schools to design powerful teacher evaluation systems, deliver job embedded professional development, implement performance based compensation systems based on multiple measures and train teacher leaders in schools.
The Lowell Milken Center discovers, develops and communicates the stories of unsung heroes who have made a profound and positive difference on the course of history. Through student-driven project-based learning, people throughout America and the world learn that each of us has the responsibility and the power to take actions that "repair the world" by improving the lives of others. Founded in 2007 in partnership with Milken Educator Norman Conard (KS '92), the Lowell Milken Center has engaged more than 3,000 schools in all 50 states and several countries.
In 1990, Lowell created the Lowell Milken Archive of Jewish Music to explore the vast panorama of sacred and secular works reflecting 350 years of Jewish life in America. This historic recording project has grown to encompass 700 newly recorded works—500 of them world-premiere recordings—and more than 800 hours of oral history videos. The Milken Archive recently launched a new “virtual museum” website to make this content accessible to people of all faiths and cultures.
Further education efforts championed by Lowell include High Tech Los Angeles, a public charter school that engages students with a rigorous curriculum rich in technology and complemented by real-world internships. Officially dedicated in 2004, HTLA achieved California Distinguished School status in record time.
The state-of-the-art Milken Community High School is a private Jewish day school based in Los Angeles and known nationally for its college preparatory curriculum.
With the recent establishment of the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, Lowell's work in education extends greater opportunities to UCLA law students, faculty, young law practitioners and alumni. Building on UCLA School of Law's already outstanding programs, the Lowell Milken Institute provides expanded studies on business law and policy, clinical experience, additional research opportunities for faculty, along with faculty fellowships, student scholarships and awards. The knowledge, skills and experience available through the Lowell Milken Institute will help ensure that students are prepared to not only assume leadership roles in the practice of law, but also in the areas of business, government, and philanthropy.
Recognition for Lowell's achievements in education has included awards from organizations such as the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Horace Mann League, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Jewish Theological Seminary, Kappa Delta Pi international honor society in the field of education and UCLA School of Law. Hebrew Union College presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Named by Worth magazine as one of America's most generous philanthropists, Lowell is also an involved businessman who chairs London-based Heron International, a worldwide leader in property development, and Knowledge Universe, Inc., a leading company in early childhood education and educational programs and services—with more than 38,000 employees worldwide.
Lowell is a product of California's public school system, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from the University of California, Berkeley, where he received the School of Business Administration's Most Outstanding Student Award. He earned his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, with the distinctions of Order of the Coif and UCLA Law Review. His four sons inspire and deepen his commitment to quality educational opportunities for all young people.
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UCLA School of Law Dean Rachel F. Moran, right, announced a transformative $10-million gift from philanthropist and education reform leader Lowell Milken’73 to establish the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy. (Photo credit: Ken Chernus)
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