California State University, Northridge has announced a $7 million gift — the largest in its history — from the Eisner Foundation to create a new teacher-training program at the university's College of Education.

The donation, to be paid out over four years, will be used to establish the Center for Teaching and Learning, which will focus on preparing teachers to support the educational and emotional needs of all types of learners. The Center will use the methodology of the Schools Attuned approach, a program designed by North Carolina-based All Kinds of Minds that emphasizes understanding and managing learning differences. The gift will also endow the Eisner Chair in Teaching and Learning, a position that will include executive director duties at the Center.

"Every child should be given the opportunity to succeed. Yet in schools across the nation, children with learning differences are often underserved in traditional classroom settings," said Walt Disney Company chairman and CEO Michael D. Eisner, who established the foundation with his wife Jane. "The Eisner Foundation decided to make this gift to CSUN because we know that although teachers understand how important it is to help children learn in their own way, their training does not always give them the tools to address the learning needs of all children."

University president Jolene Koester said she will ask the state university system's board of trustees to rename CSUN's education school the Michael D. Eisner College of Education in recognition of the gift.