CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

education

CalMatters: $33M to Ease Preschool Teacher Shortage

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CSUDH student doing educational activities with children.

Source: CalMatters

California needs 11,000 more pre-kindergarten teachers by 2025, as lawmakers embark on a huge expansion of free early education in California. 

Could $33 million in donations to two California State University campuses, announced Wednesday, increase the pipeline of educators for these little learners? 

The larger of the two gifts, $22 million, is the biggest-ever donation for Cal State Dominguez Hills. The grant is from the Ballmer Group, a limited liability company and philanthropy co-founded by Los Angeles Clippers owner and billionaire Steve Ballmer. The group also gave $11 million to nearby Cal State Long Beach for much of the same programming. The gifts will be doled out annually at roughly equal amounts for six years; both campuses got their first allotment in June.

The two schools educate a large share of low-income students. The campuses will spend about 80% of the money on scholarships for aspiring teachers and the rest on hiring personnel and expanding teacher training.

While most students at Cal State get enough financial aid from state and federal sources to avoid paying tuition, “the issue is that becoming a teacher is a lot more expensive than just being an undergraduate student,” said Jessica Zacher Pandya, dean of the College of Education at Dominguez Hills.  

Students aspiring to be teachers must pay hundreds of dollars in licensure exams and commit to 600 hours of student teaching. The Ballmer Group scholarship will help students cover those fees, work fewer hours and borrow less so they can focus on completing their studies and teaching credentials.

Dominguez Hills plans to support roughly 1,200 students over a six-year period starting this spring, Pandya said. Students will get awards of $2,500 to $10,000, the largest amount reserved for those fulfilling their student-teaching hours. Some of that scholarship money will fund students who plan to teach in schools with large numbers of Black students, including in high schools, Pandya said.

The university is also developing a credential that will focus specifically on early grades, pre-kindergarten to third grade. The Ballmer Group money will help pay for faculty to develop that curriculum. Right now, the standard credential is for teaching grades kindergarten through eighth grade. The new credential is “much more developmentally appropriate” to teach younger students, Pandya said.

And as the Los Angeles area and California shift more of their early education from private institutions to school districts that pay higher wages, the Dominguez Hills campus hopes to graduate more teachers specifically trained to educate those young kids.

The campus hopes to attract current early-education instructors, who are typically women and people of color, into its programming, Pandya said.

EdSource: New Grants Support Early Childhood Educator Training

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CSUDH student teaching children at an educational event.

Source: EdSource

California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) today announced $33 million in funding from the Ballmer Group, a philanthropic organization, to support programs designed to address the shortage of early childhood educators (ECE). These grants are intended to help close the emerging ECE teacher gap as well as provide living wage jobs for these educators.

California school districts need an estimated 12,000-15,000 credentialed ECE teachers to drive California Gov. Newsom’s expansion of early childhood education such as TK, or transitional kindergarten, experts say.

CSULB and CSUDH both have key programs that train early childhood educators, a profession long dominated by women of color in California. Whereas preschool teachers often exist on meager wages, TK teachers are paid the same as K-12 teachers. That’s why these programs should increase the economic mobility of ECE teachers who can use their new credentials to access jobs with better pay and benefits.

Daily Breeze: CSUDH’s Child Development Center Unveils New Mural

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Muralist in front of new CDC mural depicting baby Teddy, an open book, CSUDH, and a sunrise
Image courtesy of CSUDH Child Development Center

Source: Daily Breeze

The Child Development Center at Cal State Dominguez Hills has a new mural — and it boasts a message:

Education starts early.

The mural, which went up earlier this year and is permanent, features a blue sky, lush grass, chirping birds and a field of wildflowers. In the middle of the painting is the baby version of CSUDH’s mascot, Teddy Toro, with an opened book in front of him.

The mural’s message is that higher education starts at the early stages of childhood, said Child Development Center Director Candace Manansala. It was part of an attempt to revamp the center, which Manansala took over in January 2022.

“The center was mostly known for a play-based kind of mentality and not higher education,” Manansala said. “We wanted to inspire children for higher education.”

With this goal in mind, Manansala started seeking student volunteers who could understand her vision of higher education and create an appropriate mural. After reviewing 15 applications, a sketch by freshman Eric Marquez caught her attention.

“Eric’s values are very similar and aligned with my values,” Manansala said, which are “education starts with our family, ourselves and the institution that you set yourself at.

“You have to set a strong foundation (for education),” she added, “and that starts at our center.”

For more than two months, Marquez came to the center every day in between school and his tutoring job to turn an empty wall into a captivating mural, titled “Dream to Wonder,” Manansala said. His art was unveiled at the center’s preschool graduation ceremony on May 24.

The original idea for the painting, Marquez said, came to him while he was in a sociology class.

“My idea was I’m picturing a higher elevation, like the Dominguez Hills mountains, with children and baby Toros and books in mind,” he said. “It kind of just came to me in class. I felt the force. I said that would be a good idea.”

Marquez and his siblings, as children, loved re-creating scenes from Disney shows and the classic animations from the 1990s, he said.

But he credited his eldest sister, Amber, with instilling in him a passion for arts. He also loves painting portraits.

“When she was in high school, I really looked up to her because she was taking me to dance classes and doing this amazing work,” Marquez said.

Drawing from these experiences, Marquez said, he jotted down his concept in a sketchbook in February and started painting in March.

While painting, Marquez said, he kept in mind how the mural would be seen both from afar and up close.

“I just try to make it fit both of those perspectives,” Marquez said. “So when the kids are on the playground, they could kinda view it and when they’re up close, they can touch it and like, be a part of the painting, touch the flowers and the blocks.”

Marquez said he hopes the kids who come to the center, most of whom are infants and preschoolers, enjoy his artwork.

“We’re getting new, incoming students every year, all the time,” he said, “and it’s gonna be like, if anything, one of their first memories of the Child Development Center.”

LAUSD Superintendent Gives Keynote at Credential Celebration

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Superintendent Carvalho speaking at podium
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho.

“America is only as great as its educational system.”

That was Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho’s message for the aspiring teachers gathered at the College of Education’s 2022-23 Credential Celebration on May 22. Carvalho was the keynote speaker for the event, which celebrated the nearly 300 teacher-students who completed a CSUDH credential program this year.

Before introducing Carvalho to the audience of Toros and their family and friends, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Spagna spoke about the mission of the College of Education (COE) and the central role teachers play in shaping society. 

“We are creating ‘nation builders,’” he said, referencing the term used for teachers in the Republic of Korea. “We are one of the top producers of talent for LAUSD, the second biggest school district in the U.S.”

“Until we pay attention to the larger ecosystem and work with our intersegmental partners to really bolster L.A. Unified, we won’t truly reach equity and get to a social justice agenda—which is what our university is about.”

COE Associate Dean Corinne Martinez, Dean Jessica Zacher Pandya, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, and CSUDH Provost Michael Spagna
Left to right: COE Associate Dean Corinne Martinez, Dean Jessica Zacher Pandya, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, and CSUDH Provost Michael Spagna.

In her welcoming remarks, College of Education Dean Jessica Zacher Pandya also referenced the College’s vision—which includes principles of justice, equity, and critical consciousness, as well as the goal of preparing critical educators to co-create and enact transformative change.

“You are those critical educators, and we are here to celebrate you,” Pandya said.

Carvalho then took to the podium to offer his congratulations, discuss the impact education had on his own life trajectory, and expand upon the idea of teachers as “nation builders.”

“We are a nation at a point of inflection,” Carvalho said. “If there’s one place in America where we have a chance of actually growing, it is in our classrooms. Public education and democracy are two sides of the same coin.

“I am looking not only at nation builders, but the architects of hope and the engineers of opportunity—for teachers are exactly that,” he added.

Carvalho went on to explain that he came from humble beginnings, and that his parents never had the opportunity to attend school past the third grade. Carvalho’s fourth grade teacher took him under her wing, affirming him and giving him the confidence he needed to succeed in school. He implored the teachers present to truly invest in their students and form real, emotional connections with them.

COE Associate Dean Corinne Martinez congratulating Zulema Pettway
COE Associate Dean Corinne Martinez congratulating Zulema Pettway.

“You will not touch the child’s mind without first touching their heart,” he said. “You will create meaningful, magical moments with kids, and take them to places they never dreamed they could reach.

“That was my journey.”

Following Carvalho’s speech, credential program graduates had their names called as they walked the stage. For Zulema Pettway, earning her special education credential marked a great personal achievement.   

“It was a hard road to get here, but worth it,” she said. “I want to be a light for my students and give them the opportunities they deserve.”

View more photos from the Credential Celebration on SmugMug.