A College That Cares: COE Outreach Addresses Violence, Academic Excellence

Two collaborations between local schools and CSU Dominguez Hills College of Education (COE) faculty build bridges for young students, giving elementary schoolchildren their first glimpse of a college campus, and teaching adolescent
students how to cope with the pressures of the inner city.

The Watts Learning Center (WLC) was founded in 1997 as an independent K-5 public charter elementary school in Los Angeles, with a student population of 230 inner-city students. This summer, the school connected with COE through teacher education lecturer and mathematics specialist Dennis Dulyea, who brought fourth- and fifth-graders to CSUDH to provide them with algebra training and their first glimpse of a college campus.

“I’ve worked with some of the teachers at WLC,” he says. “I was invited to do some workshops, and a relationship began.”

“We wanted to give them the experience of being on a university campus to remove the fear of attending college,” says Sandra Fisher, WLC co-founder and its executive director.

“The students liked being taught in a college classroom,” says Jessica Johnson, a fifth-grade teacher at WLC. “A lot of them talked about wanting to attend Dominguez Hills when they graduate from high school.”

The students applied their new skills by winning the First Annual Mathematics Bee Competition sponsored by the statewide Connecting Communities Coalition. The kids worked in groups or as individuals, then presented their answers and reasoning
in competitions with other schools and each other.

“It’s rewarding to see the children develop this way,” says Dulyea. “I’ve been chasing this achievement gap for a long time. Watts Learning Center is 99.9 percent African American, and these children are intellectually hungry and bright.
Emotion drives attention and attention drives learning. Get kids emotionally involved, and the attention is there.”

WLC president Eugene Fisher emphasizes the importance of exposing elementary students from underserved communities to the college atmosphere, saying, “The University has made it possible for us to say to the students, ‘Realize a dream.’”

Through a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), CSUDH hosts the Transition Institutes, a six-week program created by COE faculty and designed to teach 9th graders to build better relations between ethnic groups and cultures. Discussions and activities, including a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance, teach diversity, empowerment, and mediation techniques. Last summer, 600 students from Santee High School, New Technology High School, and Ralph Bunche High School attended sessions on the CSUDH campus.

Richard Gordon, professor of teacher education, and Ron Rubine, adjunct professor of teacher education, established Transition Institutes to address the pressures that affect the academic achievement of high school youth and can often lead to conflict or violence. Gordon sees real change in students who participate.

“Some are intimidated by what we expect of them,” he says. “But after it’s over, they become friends and allies by relieving themselves of some of the social faces they need to wear in their environment.”

Rubine hopes that the experience stays with the students beyond the six weeks.

“The key is to keep giving the kids the opportunity to apply their growth and insight,” he says. “By the end of the program, there is a profound difference, and to watch that transformation is a big deal.”

- Joanie Harmon-Whetmore

Photos above, top to bottom:

Watts Learning Center teachers David Mabowe and Jessica Johnson helped lead their students to victory in the First Annual Mathematics Bee Competition. Photo by Joanie Harmon-Whetmore

Dennis Dulyea, lecturer, Teacher Education, brought students from the Watts Learning Center to the CSUDH campus for a taste of college life and the inspiration to excel. Photo by Gary Kuwahara

Faculty and administration at the Watts Learning Center finally get a much-deserved recess. In front, David Mabowe, fourth grade teacher; Sandra Fisher, treasurer and executive director, Watts Learning Center (WLC). Pictured in back, Jessica Johnson, fifth grade teacher; and Eugene Fisher, president and co-founder, WLC. Photo by Joanie Harmon-Whetmore

Ron Rubine, adjunct professor of teacher education, meets with a new group of students on their first day of Transition Institutes. Photo by Joanie Harmon-Whetmore

Richard Gordon, professor of teacher education, helps inner-city students learn conflict resolution and tolerance in the Transition Institutes program. Photo by Joanie Harmon-Whetmore