By Brian Hiro
“I hope what this grant means is that we can change the landscape of education to be more reflective of students,” said Pat Stall, the director of CSUSM’s School of Education and the principal investigator for the grant. “Almost all of our North County school districts have over 50 percent Latinx students, and the range of Latinx teachers is 12 to 19 percent. Of course, that kind of discrepancy is not unusual; it’s the same around the country.”
- High school teacher preparation pipelines such as the Encuentros Leadership Academy and emerging Educators Rising chapters in local districts such as Vista, Oceanside, Escondido and San Marcos;
- Pursuing bilingual candidates from college programs such as California Mini-Corps and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) as well as through the Latin@ Center and Office of First-Year Programs;
- Aligning with recruitment efforts already underway for various STEM grants focused on math and science education;
- Marketing the new, more flexible four-year Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP) to classified employees, frequently working as teacher aides in partner school districts.
Funding from the grant also will provide academic and relational support through a mentoring component that includes preparation for the state-required entry- and exit-level tests for teacher credentialing. The mentoring approach also involves awareness of financial aid and scholarship packages for teacher preparation. “Clear research suggests that when students have at least some teachers from the same backgrounds, they do better in school,” Stall said. “So there’s a high need for more diversity among teachers.”
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