Kern Master’s Upskilling Program – Now Recruiting!
The Kern Masters Upskilling team met in Bakersfield recently to announce start up of the recruitment phase at a Kern County Superintendents meeting: Ángel Ramírez, CVHEC; Jessica Gladney, National University; Nathan Lynes, Fresno Pacific University; Dr. Manjula Joseph, Fresno Pacific University; and Dr. Gary Gramenz, Fresno Pacific University.
Master’s Applications Available for Kern County Math/English HS Teachers
(This article was updated Nov. 4 with additional info session dates. Also see Fresno Pacific press release).
A recruitment campaign is underway for Kern high school math and English teachers to enroll in a new program leading to a Master’s degree that qualifies them to teach dual enrollment courses. Information sessions are underway in October and November.
The Kern Dual Enrollment Teacher Up-skilling Pathway for English and Mathematics – a partnership of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative — is part of an $18 million statewide competitive grant awarded to the Kern Collaborative in June to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce.
The Kern Teacher Up-skilling component, which CVHEC first implemented in Fresno County last year with similar state funding, received $1,738,975 to produce, over three years, up to 100 qualified dual enrollment teachers to teach English and Math. The grad degree also qualifies teachers to work as adjunct instructors in a community college.
Fresno Pacific University will offer a master’s degree in Mathematics education while National University offers a Master’s degree program in English. Each cohort student may also be paired with a math or English professor mentor from a local community college district.
The next virtual information session for the FPU math component is set for Oct. 25 at 4:30 p.m. Additional sessions will be held Nov. 1, 8, 15, and 29. Register for the Math Education Information Meeting Zoom link at: https://bit.ly/3PSPesc.
The virtual NU English information sessions are set for Oct. 27, Nov. 10 and Dec. 1 at 5 p.m. with registration available at www.tinyurl.com/MAENGLISHNU.
The program will help provide more opportunities for Kern high school students to enroll in dual enrollment courses – college courses for high school students — on their respective campuses that in turn increases college success rates, said Dr. Benjamín T. Durán, CVHEC executive director.
“Dual enrollment continues to increase in the region but one of the deterrents of dual enrollment opportunities is the lack of high school teachers who have a Master’s degree to teach these gateway English and Math courses,” Durán said.
“Schools in the Kern K-16 Collaborative service area deserve to have the capacity to partner with their local community colleges so their students can use dual enrollment classes as one strategy for completion of their degrees in a timely manner,” he added. “This Master’s Upskilling Program is a major step in equipping our hard-working secondary teachers with this great academic opportunity that ultimately benefits their students.”
For the Fresno Pacific University math program, two cohorts of 20 to 25 teachers each will begin in the spring and fall 2023 semesters. Courses will run five semesters total with two 3-unit courses per semester. Synchronous class meetings will be held on Tuesdays from 5:15-9 p.m. with two hours of asynchronous reading and assignments per class.
They will cover a range of mathematics topics such as advanced algebra, geometry and calculus. The program includes courses like Teaching Math for Social Justice and Data Science. Students will read the research in math education and complete a series of three comprehensive exam papers embedded in the coursework.
“The majority of tuition costs are covered by the generous funding from Kern’s Regional K16 Education Collaborative, CVHEC and the AIMS Education Foundation,” said Dr. Manjula Joseph, FPU’s program director. “Rich and rigorous content, equity and technology training will better prepare you to serve your students.”
The math application deadline is Dec. 9, 2022.
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The National University program is for English Single Subject credential holders who are interested in pursuing a Master’s degree in English with a specialization in Rhetoric.
The program will take 12-months or less to complete with classes beginning January, March and June 2023: ten courses; (45 quarter units); fully online, asynchronous instruction; one course per month format; cohort-based model with 16 students per cohort.
English cohort students receive a $14,000 each from Kern’s Regional K16 Education Collaborative and CVHEC and a 15 percent ($2,990) employee tuition reduction per student from the Small School Districts’ Association (SSDA) partnership with National University.
The English application deadline is Dec. 12, 2022.
For more information about the English cohort and information sessions, contact Program Coordinator Jessica Gladney at jgladney@nu.edu.
For more information about the math cohort and information sessions, contact Dr. Manjula Joseph at manjula.joseph@fresno.edu or 559.453.2096; or Nathan Lyness,
Graduate Outreach and Recruit Rep, Customer Care Coordinator at nathan.lyness@fresno.edu or 559.453.7183.
See program details
For media inquiries, contact:
CVHEC – Tom Uribes at 559.348.3278 (tom@uribes.com)
FPU – Wayne Steffen at 559.453.3677 (wayne.steffen@fresno.edu)
NU – David Hicks at 619-481-7802 (dhicks2@nu.edu).
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