Federal money is on its way to Cal Poly to help train its students to become teachers.
The $8 million in federal grants are meant to support 1500 prospective educators who want to specialize in supporting bilingual students or students with disabilities across the state.
Associate Professor Briana Ronan said the grant will address a critical need in education.
“Our students go out and teach everywhere in the state of California and locally,” said Ronan. “We service a number of districts that have a high percentage of English language learners and multilingual students, including Santa Maria and Paso Robles, and it's important that teachers know how to best support them.”
More than 2 million students in California speak a language other than English at home. About 80% of those students are Spanish speakers, according to the state’s Department of Education.
The Cal Poly students will train alongside teachers in K-12 classrooms.
Ronan said the program will also provide a mentorship program and help bilingual scholars complete their credentials to teach to Spanish speakers.
“We have General Educators, special Educators, and administrators all working together to think about how to best support teachers in the field from very beginning, novice teachers to teachers, who are been out there and their first or second year of teaching, but still need additional support,” said Ronan.
Ronan said the university expects to implement the new program in the next couple months.
