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

teaching

EdSource: CSU Dominguez Hills Wins Federal Grant to Diversify Teacher Workforce

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Students walking on CSUDH's East Walkway on a sunny day.

Source: EdSource

California State University Dominguez Hills has been awarded almost $1.6 million as part of a U.S. Department of Education program to increase the number of high-quality teacher preparation programs for teachers of color, strengthen the diversity of the teacher pipeline and address the teacher shortage.

The university was one of 12 nationwide to share $18.7 million in awards as part of the new Augustus F. Hawkins Centers for Excellence Program.

The program was created in 2008, but this is the first year it has been funded, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The grants support teacher preparation programs at universities that serve minority populations, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions.

“Today, more than half of our learners nationwide are students of color, and yet fewer than 1 in 5 educators come from communities of color,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “I’ll never forget the impact that my first teacher of color had on me as a student, and my experience tracks closely with years of research suggesting the profound, positive influence that educators of color have on students of all backgrounds.”

College of Education Receives $1.59 Million to Increase Multilingual and Minoritized Teachers

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Students walking on a pathway on the CSUDH campus

The CSUDH College of Education has been awarded $1.59 million through the U.S. Department of Education’s first-ever Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program, which aims to increase high-quality teacher preparation programs for teachers of color, diversify the teacher pipeline, and address teacher shortages.

CSUDH was the only California university represented among the twelve institutions of higher education awardees, which were announced February 15.

The funds will support Multilingual/Minoritized Educators Networked-Learning and Development (MEND), CSUDH’s project to dramatically increase and retain the number of multilingual and minoritized teachers in Southern California. MEND will specifically target CSUDH’s elementary education teacher preparation program, focusing on pre-service teachers’ wellness, academic pursuits, and high-quality early clinical experiences in schools.

“In Los Angeles County, we have such diversity in language education and language experiences,” says Professor of Teacher Education and MEND Co-Principal Investigator Pablo Ramirez. “We are seeking to transform teacher education so that it’s reflective of the needs of our communities.”

MEND includes Co-Principal Investigators Associate Professor of Teacher Education Edward Curammeng, Associate Professor of Liberal Studies Jen Stacy, and Assistant Professor of Teacher Education Minhye Son, with the College of Education’s Academic Research and Evaluation Center (AREC) leading evaluation efforts. The team is also partnering with Assistant Professor of Teacher Education Stephanie Cariaga and Associate Professor of Teacher Education Elexia Reyes-McGovern, whose expertise round out the project’s focus on multilingual learners, wellness, and Ethnic Studies.

Curammeng says that when the team began their proposal in Fall 2022, the grant parameters seemed to be “written for them.”

“This is the work we already do,” he says. “Our college has undergone invigorating transformations, and it’s exciting that the Department of Education sees value in what we’ve been doing for the past several years.”

In fact, the MEND team earned a perfect score from three independent reviewers–a rare achievement for grant proposals that reflects the trailblazing work of the college.

“The models we are going to co-create with students, teachers, and mentors will be groundbreaking,” Ramirez says. “We need to take teacher education in a different direction, and this is just one step.”

The first MEND Fellows cohort will be recruited from the College of Education’s Liberal Studies undergraduate program, with subsequent cohorts recruited from Ethnic Studies majors and students interested in earning their bilingual authorization. Fellows will be connected with credential program alumni who will serve as MENDtor teachers, and the program will also share best practices with school district partners.

“With so many teachers leaving the profession, we need to provide support structures so that there is a solid sense of community and material resources to ensure our students will be teachers for the long haul,” Curammeng says. “­­They need to be sustained throughout the trajectory of their careers.”

The MEND award marks CSUDH’s second major Department of Education grant this academic year. Last fall, the College of Education was awarded $2.571 million for Project MEDALLA (Multilingual Educator Development Advancing Language Learning Achievement/Activism), which aims to create a network of certified bilingual educators in the greater Los Angeles area.

“These awards are a testament to the critical work CSUDH has been doing for years in teacher education,” says College of Education Dean Jessica Zacher Pandya. “With these additional resources, we can continue to produce the passionate, dedicated, and culturally-conscious teachers that Southern California needs.” 

Toro Alumna Named California Teacher of the Year

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Toro Alumna Named California Teacher of the Year
CSUDH Alumna Bridgette Donald-Blue, 2023 California Teacher of the Year.

CSUDH alumna Bridgette Donald-Blue never intended to have a career in teaching. When the Florida native completed her bachelor’s degree in English at Howard University in Washington, DC, she planned to go on to law school.

The words of a favorite professor echoed in her ears, though. “I remember he said, ‘I know all of you are going to do amazing things, but I don’t want you to just write a check. I want you to be involved and affect change.’”

Taking those words to heart, Donald-Blue decided to postpone law school for two years and committed to spend that time in the Teach for America program. The nationwide program fights educational inequality, signing up engaged citizens from across the professional spectrum and asking them to spend two years of their lives teaching in under-resourced schools.

Donald-Blue moved out to California and started teaching at an elementary school in Compton–and never left. “I found myself becoming an integral part of the community,” she recalls. “Teaching in Compton at that time, I saw the need and I wanted to be part of changing the educational landscape for the kids in my classroom.” Donald-Blue ended up teaching in Compton for a decade, before moving to the Los Angeles Unified School District to continue her career, which now spans over three decades.

Her thirty years of uplifting students was rewarded this winter when Donald-Blue was named California Teacher of the Year for 2023. Currently serving as a K-3 Math Intervention Teacher at Coliseum Street Elementary in downtown L.A., Donald-Blue is one of five educators to win the award this year.

It was while serving in Teach for America that Donald-Blue was introduced to the CSUDH credential program. “Somebody came and gave a presentation about getting your credential at Dominguez Hills,” she says. “Working in Compton at the time, the ease of getting to the campus was what originally attracted me to the school.”

Upon starting classes at CSUDH, Donald-Blue found much more to like. “I always found that the school has great instructors who were also practitioners. They had been, or still were, in the classroom,” she says. “They were all doing the work themselves. You didn’t get this ‘ivory tower’ feeling when you spoke to them. They were teaching us real skills and methods that they were using successfully in their own classrooms.”

Donald-Blue found herself leaving classes at CSUDH with applicable skills and strategies that she could then try out in her own classes. After obtaining her multiple subject teaching credential from CSUDH, she continued on and got an administrative credential and a master’s degree in educational administration from the university, as well.

Throughout her teaching career, Donald-Blue has been both fascinated and delighted at watching her students learn. “It’s so interesting to watch their minds work,” she says. “When you’re working with a kid and they’ve been practicing sight words or practicing letters, and all of a sudden they blend a word… or you put a book in their hands and there’s a word that they knew orally, but suddenly they can read it in a book–there’s nothing like that feeling.”

Donald-Blue describes her teaching style as reflective. “I’m constantly looking at data, at how students are understanding a lesson, then seeing where it can be tweaked or changed. I always think I could have done something a little better. If I give a lesson to 30 kids and 17 kids are right there and ready to go, that means that I’ve got 13 that are not quite getting it–and that’s absolutely not acceptable.

“So I always try to figure out: what can I do? To help make sure every student is learning, I end up including lots of different modalities. So if I’m teaching a particular topic one day, it might be taught via a lot of listening strategies; another day it might be taught through a lot of speaking strategies. I’m trying to ensure that all my kids can enter in and understand the subject matter, no matter what their learning style is.”

For Donald-Blue, “The greatest joy is knowing that at the end of the day, you have served the child well and served the community well.” Among her biggest thrills is being invited by former students to birthday parties or graduations, which let her know that her students still remember and appreciate how she helped them.

“It’s so great when people look you up years later and say, ‘You were my first great teacher, and you taught me to read. I really want you to come to my high school graduation!’ Those are big highs.”

When asked why she thinks she won the Teacher of the Year award, Donald-Blue is humble. “It was just an opportunity for somebody to peek into my classroom, see what I’ve been through in the last 30 years, and honor me. That’s the only thing I can say. Someone took time to honor me and say, ‘You know, what you’ve been doing is kind of cool and you’ve been helping people and it’s fantastic. So we’re going to name you California Teacher of the Year!’”

All five Teacher of the Year winners were honored with a reception in Sacramento on Jan. 23. “It was amazing. I feel like every teacher should be honored like that at least one time. It’s a celebration of the hard work you’ve been doing. It says ‘thank you’ for putting in the time, the long hours. It says ‘thank you’ for surviving rainy days with first graders, which is a test of any teacher’s strength and dedication,” she laughs.

For Donald-Blue, “The best part is now when you Google my name, videos about me winning this award will pop up. A couple of weeks ago, one little kindergartener told me, ‘ I have your video saved on my screen and I can play it any time I want to.’

“He said, ‘Thank you, Mrs. Blue, for being a teacher leader. We really appreciate you.’ But when he told me he had the video saved and liked to watch it over and over–that was really fantastic. To me, that means I’ve really made a connection and a difference in his life.”

CSUDH Receives $1.59 Million to Increase Multilingual and Minoritized Teachers

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Students walking on a pathway on the CSUDH campus

The CSUDH College of Education has been awarded $1.59 million through the U.S. Department of Education’s first-ever Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program, which aims to increase high-quality teacher preparation programs for teachers of color, diversify the teacher pipeline, and address teacher shortages.

CSUDH was the only California university represented among the twelve institutions of higher education awardees, which were announced Feb. 15.

The award also marks CSUDH’s second major Department of Education grant this academic year. Last fall, the College of Education was awarded $2.571 million for Project MEDALLA (Multilingual Educator Development Advancing Language Learning Achievement/Activism), which aims to create a network of certified bilingual educators in the greater Los Angeles area.

“These awards are a testament to the critical work CSUDH has been doing for years in teacher education,” said College of Education Dean Jessica Zacher Pandya. “With these additional resources, we can continue to produce the passionate, dedicated, and culturally-conscious teachers that Southern California needs.” 

The funds will support Multilingual/Minoritized Educators Networked-Learning and Development (MEND), CSUDH’s project to dramatically increase and retain the number of multilingual and minoritized teachers in Southern California. MEND will specifically target CSUDH’s elementary education teacher preparation program, focusing on pre-service teachers’ wellness, academic pursuits, and high-quality early clinical experiences in schools.

“In Los Angeles County, we have such diversity in language education and language experiences,” said Pablo Ramirez, CSUDH Professor of Teacher Education and MEND Co-Principal Investigator. “We are seeking to transform teacher education so that it’s reflective of the needs of our communities.”

The first MEND Fellows cohort will be recruited from the College of Education’s Liberal Studies undergraduate program, with subsequent cohorts recruited from Ethnic Studies majors and students interested in earning their bilingual authorization. Fellows will be connected with credential program alumni who will serve as MENDtor teachers, and the program will also share best practices with school district partners.

Associate Professor of Teacher Education and MEND Co-Principal Investigator Edward Curammeng said:

“With so many teachers leaving the profession, we need to provide support structures so that there is a solid sense of community and material resources to ensure our students will be teachers for the long haul. They need to be sustained throughout the trajectory of their careers.”

About the August F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program

The Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program (Hawkins Program), named for Augustus F. Hawkins, the first Black politician elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from west of the Mississippi River, supports comprehensive, high-quality teacher preparation programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). A priority in President Biden’s FY 22 budget proposal, this year marks the first time the Hawkins Program has received funding since its creation in 2008. In the 2022 omnibus, Congress appropriated $8 million for the grants under Part B of Title VIII, and the Department redirected an additional $10 million to bring the total for the Hawkins Program to over $18 million.

CSU Research Project Nurtures STEM Faculty

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Two people wearing white lab coats in a laboratory, with a microscope

Faculty often face a steep learning curve when they begin their careers. In addition to juggling courses and research, they must navigate the complex maze of academia, its power structures, and its demands. For faculty from underrepresented populations, the experience can be especially isolating and discouraging. To address this, a collaborative CSU research project aims to improve retention and tenure for early-career, underrepresented, faculty in STEM by providing strengths-based training and personalized support. 

“CSU AGEP Alliance for Diversity and Strengths of STEM Faculty” implements, evaluates, and scales the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Alliance model of increasing the number of historically underrepresented STEM faculty. It also addresses “the very specific issues that every early career faculty member faces,” says Associate Professor of Psychology Philip Vieira, who serves on the CSUDH campus leadership team with Professor of Sociology Kara Dellacioppa and Professor of Marketing Kirti Celly. 

CSUDH was one of four pilot campuses for the project when it launched in 2019 through a five-year grant from National Science Foundation. Now in its fourth year, the project has supported 32 faculty members, including seven at CSUDH, and has spread to nearly every CSU campus. 

“A university is only as strong as its faculty are strong,” says Dellacioppa. “If this model is adopted on an institutionalized level, perhaps we will see better retention from faculty in STEM from underrepresented communities.”  

Graph depicting: CSUDH faculty is 42 percent White, 18 percent Hispanic/Latinx, 14 percent Black, 14 percent Asian, 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, 3 percent two or more races, and 8 percent not specified. Campus STEM faculty is 41 percent White, 20 percent Hispanic/Latinx, 15 percent Asian, 12 percent Black, 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, 9 percent not specified, and 2 percent two or more races.
The project team is also currently examining faculty hiring practices, and exploring how the university can hire more STEM faculty of color.

Program coaches guide new faculty through understanding their strengths and identities, and how those interact within the classroom or laboratory. There is also an emphasis on culturally informed teaching practices, which help faculty better empathize with students and understand how students’ upbringings might influence their approach to learning.  

The result, Vieira says, is better outcomes for both faculty and students.  

“Students are the direct beneficiaries,” he says. “We want to do a better job of keeping our students in STEM and helping them succeed by supporting the faculty that are engaged directly with them.”  

Dellacioppa agrees, and says that early-career faculty should take the time to grow their skillsets and self-understanding.  

“As faculty, you have students, colleagues, and research opportunities vying for your attention,” she says. “I wish every faculty member had this. It’s an investment in yourself I’ve not seen anywhere else in academia. This [one year] time commitment has payoffs in how you experience your career.”  

Assistant Professor of Psychology Ashley Membere, who has taught at CSUDH since 2019, says that being a participant helped her to leverage her strengths in teaching, service, and research, and also led to personal growth.  

“I know myself better as a person after completing the program,” she says. “It gave me a more holistic view of myself, and how all the little pieces of me fit together. I would tell any faculty member of color to do it, because it is very enriching personally and in terms of teaching.”  

CSUDH is still accepting applications from early-career, underrepresented STEM faculty members interested in participating for the 2022-23 academic year. For more information, contact Kara Dellacioppa or Philip Vieira.