ACT-R Program Awarded Funding From Bechtel Foundation

The California State University Residency Year Service Scholarship Program

CSU Chancellor’s Office

April 1, 2019 – July 31, 2020

Executive Summary

The California State University (CSU) has received funding from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation for the CSU Residency Year Service Scholarship Program. This prestigious scholarship program is particularly important for CSU candidates as the system produces half of California’s new teachers, averaging over 7,500 candidates annually. Our candidates are highly diverse, with nearly one-third Hispanic/Latino. More than two-thirds are Pell grant recipients.

The scholarship program is a model that can be replicated by other foundations well into the future. In structuring the program, the CSU Chancellor’s Office has drawn upon research regarding the most effective teacher preparation programs nationally (Learning Policy Institute, 2016a). Consistent with this research, the scholarship program is designed to serve candidates in teacher residencies. Programs based on a residency model are reported as being successful across sites in preparing highly effective new teachers (National Center for Teacher Residencies, 2017). Particularly notable are the high retention rates of residency programs as well as consistent school district reports of the outstanding preparation of candidates in these programs.

The first objective of this work is to develop and implement a program of 300 service scholarships in the amount of $10,000 each for teacher candidates participating in CSU residency programs in the 2019-20 academic year. The second objective is to design a data collection process suitable for determining campus program eligibility for comparable residency scholarships on an ongoing basis. The third objective is to plan and execute a process to assess the scholarship program’s effectiveness in supporting candidate success.

Policy studies suggest the efficacy of service scholarships as one component of comprehensive new teacher recruitment and retention strategies, including those addressing candidate diversity. CSU experience has demonstrated the attractiveness of service scholarships for 5^th year credential programs when at a level of $10,000. This is, for example, the level of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Robert Noyce Scholarship for STEM candidates. It is one of the nation’s longest-standing scholarships for teacher candidates, established in 2002. The sustainability of the program is particularly significant. Consistent with the Noyce scholarship, the CSU Residency Year Service Scholarship includes a service requirement of two years in a high need school.

The scholarship level of $10,000 recognizes other potential sources of financial aid, such as Pell grants and Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grants, which this scholarship will augment and not replace. A primary effect will often be to lessen student debt incurred by teacher candidates, reducing a barrier to program completion and to new teacher retention (LPI, 2016b). The scholarships will also enable candidates to dedicate the extra time needed for success in residency programs by reducing long hours of employment.

On the majority of CSU campuses, teacher candidates are able to participate in residencies and/or in clinically oriented programs having the central features of residencies (CSU Teacher Residencies, 2018). Many of these programs build on the significant success of the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI). In these programs, CSU campuses provide teacher candidates with a yearlong clinical experience teaching alongside an expert mentor.

Campuses included in the service scholarship will offer preparation programs that have the fundamental features of residencies. Criteria for participation in this scholarship program are:

1. the programs are preparation partnerships with one or more high need school districts that include collaboration with the district in candidate selection, mentor teacher recruitment and selection, and in identification of prioritized skills, knowledge, and dispositions of graduates to prepare them for effective teaching in the district on day one;
2. candidate learning and feedback is organized around the set of collaboratively identified and measurable skills, knowledge and dispositions; coaching and feedback is provided and candidate progress is assessed throughout the program
3. candidates work with a qualified mentor for the full arc of the school year, engaging in teaching practice of high priority skills and receiving feedback throughout the clinical component of the program; and
4. Program leadership and district partners use data are used on a routine basis to ensure programmatic changes are improvements and that resources, time and talent are being used effectively to advance candidate mastery of skills.

Candidates eligible for the scholarship will: (1) have demonstrated financial need; (2) make a commitment to teaching in a high need school for two years; (3) demonstrate a belief in the ability of all children to succeed and in the centrality of a teacher’s role in this success; and (4) have an interest in working with English Learners, earning a bilingual credential, working in urban and/or high need schools, or supporting students with special needs.[1]

The recipients will participate in a cohort support group during the scholarship year. The cohort support will be focused in large part on equipping scholarship recipients to contribute to the process of disrupting inequities historically found in schools. Significant attention will be given to fostering culturally sustaining pedagogies and to preparing the recipients as new teachers for relating to and working effectively with students of all backgrounds.

For additional information, please contact Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Educator Preparation and Public School Programs, mgrenot-scheyer@calstate.edu