Grant to fund pre-K teacher preparation program at CSUCI

Camarillo, California (June 27, 2023) — CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) has received $250,000 to develop an affordable program where students can complete bachelor’s degrees and preparation requirements for California’s new early-childhood teaching credential in four years to address a critical shortage.

The Commission on Teacher Credentialing awarded the $249,942 grant as part of an effort to support shortened teacher-preparation programs in fields where there are shortages. CSUCI’s program will help fill the critical need for transitional kindergarten, or prekindergarten, teachers, particularly those with bilingual education credentials.

The need for credentialed early childhood teachers has been growing in recent years as the state has expanded transitional kindergarten. Legislation approved in 2021 calls for all 4-year-olds to have the opportunity to attend transitional kindergarten programs by the 2025-26 school year.

CSUCI’s program, which is scheduled to launch in August 2025, will prepare students to earn the new Pre-Kindergarten Early Childhood Education Specialist Instruction Credential at the same time they complete their bachelor’s degrees, a process that would typically take five years.

The School of Education will base the new accelerated program on its bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Studies, which already meets the requirements for preparation needed to earn the state’s new credential. The program focuses on preparing children for early literacy with an emphasis on dual-language learners and children with special needs. Student teaching and additional experience in children’s classrooms are required.

Students in the new program will have the option to also complete requirements for the Multiple Subject Bilingual Authorization by adding an additional semester to their studies. In a 2017 study completed by Californians Together before the expansion of transitional kindergarten, a majority of districts already reported a shortage of bilingual teachers and anticipated that elementary schools would have the biggest need in the future. There is a particularly strong demand for bilingual early-childhood teachers in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

CSUCI’s School of Education is working with local community colleges so that transfer students with associate degrees in child development or early childhood education/studies won’t have to repeat courses and can complete the program in two years.

The program is being designed with a focus on affordability that goes beyond quicker completion rates. It will be the newest of CSUCI’s zero-textbook-cost programs, so all learning materials for the major classes will be accessible online or from the campus library for free. CSUCI also plans to provide students with stipends for internships, apprenticeships and residencies.

“This program will help ease the financial burden that sometimes prevents students from pursuing a credential within the counties of Ventura and Santa Barbara,” said Aura Pérez-González, the Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Studies overseeing the program’s development.