CED and CA Mini-Corps Migrant Ed Partnership

The CSULB College of Education and California Mini-Corps are strengthening their partnership by providing a clear pathway for migrant education students to earn a California Teaching Credential with Bilingual Authorization. College of Education Dean Dr. Marquita Grenot-Scheyer has welcomed this partnership over the past two years by providing an office and technical support for Josephino Gonzalez, Regional Director of California Mini-Corps. Dean Grenot-Scheyer remarked that this new phase of the partnership “holds great promise and serves the needs of the college, and ultimately our school partners as we recruit talented and diverse students into our educator preparation programs. I am very grateful to Dr. Boyd-Batstone for his leadership of this effort.”

The California Mini-Corps Program started in 1967 as part of Title 1, P.L. 93-380, and is sponsored by the State Department of Education Compensatory Education Migrant Section office. The Mini-Corps' program objectives are twofold:

1. To provide direct tutoring services to migrant children performing below grade level; and
2. To increase the number of professional educators who are specially trained, experienced and committed to working with migrant children.

Educators in the Mini-Corps Program strive to fulfill the following purposes:

• To provide direct and categorical services to migrant children while working in classrooms as aides or teacher assistants;
• To develop a corps of bilingual teachers who are highly skilled and sensitive in teaching children of migrant farm workers;
• To serve as role models for migrant children;
• To help classroom teachers better understand migrant children and their culture;
• To provide a communication link between migrant children, their parents and schools.

Dr. Paul Boyd-Batstone, Chair of the Department of Teacher Education, developed a new pathway course, EDEL/EDSE 058 Learning Foundations for the Teaching Profession, in collaboration with Josephino Gonzalez and State Director of California Mini Corps, Guillermo Castillo. The course, which will be offered for the first time in Fall 2015, is designed to provide structured oversight and advisement for migrant education students in a specific credential program pathway to earn a bilingual teaching credential. Dr. Ruth Piker, Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, will serve as the faculty mentor for the course.

This partnership with California Mini-Corps mirrors the mission of the College of Education of Equity and Excellence for migrant education students. The real benefit of this kind of collaboration is shared with children and their families throughout public schools in California.

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