Cal Poly announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Education will award more than $8 million in competitive funding to help its School of Education recruit and train bilingual educators for classrooms in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. We announced that we have received two large grants.
With this funding, the faculty will recruit, train and support more than 1,500 diverse teachers to address current classroom challenges and teacher shortages.
Approximately 1 in 10 of all teaching positions in the United States are either unfilled or filled by unqualified individuals, and bilinguals are among the groups with the greatest shortages, according to data from the education research organization WestEd. That includes elementary education teachers and special education teachers.
Cal Poly will partner with local school districts, Cuesta Community College and Allan Hancock Community College, as well as community organizations such as the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project and the California Mini-Corps Program.
The $3.3 million grant will be used to support Cal Poly’s bilingual-ready instructional projects for language learners and novice teachers/educators. BRILLANTE’s goals include recruiting and supporting 80 bilingual undergraduate students and training 135 bilingual educators to complete Spanish bilingual certification to serve diverse students in schools across the state. We are all prepared to deliver.
A separate $4.6 million grant will support Cal Poly’s innovative support and inclusive and resilient educator preparation programs. INSPIRE’s goals include recruiting a more diverse workforce of future teachers and school leaders and refining clinical experiences and curricula to align with research-based inclusive education practices.
“We will continue to provide support to practicing teachers, supporting them throughout their teaching career trajectory, from recruitment to teacher training programs,” said Jess Jensen, Associate Professor at the Graduate School. . Department of Education, co-principal investigator on the INSPIRE grant.
The grants will fund the development of models and programs at various organizational levels and involve educational leadership in the process.
Jensen explained that the partner organizations offer a variety of specializations and that their joint efforts aim to break down education silos and develop and retain high-performing teachers.
