Two grants totaling nearly $750,000 will help Fresno Pacific University more quickly prepare highly qualified teachers for Valley classrooms.
The California Commission for Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) grants will help FPU consolidate its teacher education-credential training from five years—four years of instruction for the B.A. and one for the credential—to four years for both. This will be accomplished through direct-transfer partnerships with regional community colleges including Reedley, Clovis, Fresno City, College of the Sequoias and others.
FPU is already highly respected for its School of Education programs. “It’s exciting that FPU students who want to become teachers will be able to save time and money, ultimately beginning their careers a year sooner! This partnership with California Commission on Teacher Credentialing is a crucial investment in FPU, its students, and a synergistic way for FPU to connect with our local community colleges and together inspire future generations of Central Valley teachers,” says Anna James Miller, director of grant funding support and foundations relations, who provided project management, budgeting and editing support for both grants.
A $499,055 Integrated Teacher Preparation Program Implementation and Expansion Grant was awarded for nine credential pathways. The grant was written by Laura Gonzalez, Ed.D., liberal arts program director, and Whitney Wall Bortz, Ph.D., assistant professor of liberal studies.
The timeline for the implementation grant is for planning to take place during the 2023-24 academic year, with the integrated program launching in the fall of 2024. “Removing cost and time barriers for those interested in entering the teaching profession will allow for a more diverse teaching workforce and more representation in classrooms all over the Valley,” Gonzalez said. “Although our focus with this grant will be our work in the Central and South Valley—Fresno, Clovis Reedley and Visalia—our hopes are that the planning and beginning implantation stages will help us learn how to create programs like this all over the valley and eventually branch out from Bakersfield to Merced and everything in between.”
A $249,995 Integrated Teacher Preparation Program Planning Grant was awarded for the Integrated Early Childhood Development BA/PK-3 credential. The grant was written by Carol Gossett, Ed.D., associate professor and program director of early childhood development, and Sandy Frisby, Ed.D., assistant professor and associate program director of early childhood development.
The CCTC made $20 million available for the planning grants as well as implementation and expansion grants, all designed to help regionally accredited institutions of higher education to develop plans to create four-year integrated teacher preparation programs to produce credentialed teachers in areas where there are shortages: special education, bilingual education, science, health, computer science, technology, engineering, mathematics, transitional kindergarten or kindergarten. FPU is one of 19 institutions to receive a planning grant and one of 15 to receive an implementation grant in this round of funding.
More on both grant programs at ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/grant-funded-programs/Integrated-Undergraduate-Teacher-Prep-Grants
Read about a $20,000 grant from the Calvin Institue of Christian Worship at https://news.fresno.edu/article/04/25/2023/calvin-institute-christian-w…