US Dept. of Education Awards Teacher Education Grant to CSU Dominguez Hills

California State University, Dominguez Hills has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to prepare 120 highly qualified math and science teachers for underserved middle and high schools in the Los Angeles region over the next five years.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Quality Partnership Grants Program, which seeks to improve student achievement by improving the quality of new teachers, awarded the university $748,991.64 in this initial year of the grant. The grant is expected to be renewed annually through 2014 for a total of $6.9 million. CSU Dominguez Hills was one of three universities in the Los Angeles region to receive this grant.

The CSU Dominguez Hills School of Education will use the grant to create an Urban Teachers Residency program. Candidates in the program will pursue a rigorous graduate-level course of study that will allow them to earn a single-subject credential in math or science within 12 months and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction in 18 months. Concurrently, they will be in a year-long residency alongside a mentor teacher at one of seven high-needs schools in Los Angeles Unified School District and Green Dot Charter Schools. The residency comes with a $20,000 stipend.

After completion of their credential, candidates would be hired by LAUSD or Green Dot and receive continued support through a two-year induction program developed jointly by CSU Dominguez Hills and the schools.

“We were very pleased to have received this prestigious grant from the Department of Education, which will provide us with the necessary resources to develop a third teacher education pathway that will train dedicated and qualified math and science teachers who can respond to the urgent needs of our urban school partners,” said Sharon Russell, acting director of the School of Education. “We know the coursework and one-year residency will require a full-time commitment, which is why the $20,000 stipend is a key component of the grant and something we are glad we can offer our candidates.”

The School of Education will recruit the first cohort of 30 candidates for Fall 2010.

The schools partnering with CSU Dominguez Hills on this program are LAUSD’s Fremont, Jordan and Washington Prep high schools and Bethune, Gompers and Markham middle schools, and Green Dot’s Locke high school. These schools are located in the South Los Angeles neighborhoods of Broadway-Manchester, Florence, Watts or Westmont.

For more information, call (310) 243-3510 or visit www.csudh.edu/cps/soe.

- Amy Bentley-Smith