North Valley Masters Upskilling Program begins recruiting — info sessions set

WE Will! funding helps North Valley high school teachers

offset tuition for Masters Upskilling Program  

[UPDATE 10/31/24: Additional information sessions have been added Nov. 5 and 19 — both at 4:30 p.m. REGISTER]

Recruitment is now underway for a cohort of North Valley high school teachers interested in earning a master’s degree that will qualify them to teach college dual enrollment. Information sessions are available this month.

The North Valley Master’s Upskilling Program is presented by the  Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC)  thanks to a $400,000 grant by the WE Will! K-16 Workforce and Education Collaborative. 

In partnership with two CVHEC-members — Fresno Pacific University and National University along with CVHEC member community colleges and their service-area high schools — the program recruits and helps fund tuition for existing high school math and English teachers to earn a master’s so they can teach dual enrollment courses in those subjects on their high school campuses.

The grant is one of two awarded to CVHEC that will serve northern CVHEC member counties over the next three years. It  supports 12 high school English and 12 high school math teachers to offset much of the cost of this upskilling coursework and provide them with community college mentors to support them in their role as college instructors, said Tom Burke, CVHEC’s  Master’s Upskilling Program coordinator.

CVHEC is now working with Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties Superintendent of Schools Offices to recruit high school teachers seeking this opportunity as well as with regional community colleges to identify mentors for the participating teachers.

The first cohorts are set to begin in spring 2025 and high school teachers may learn more about admission at these upcoming information sessions:

For its online MA degree program in Mathematics Education, FPU has set information sessions for Oct. 8 and 22 from 4:40-5:40 p.m. each session: Math Info Session registration. [UPDATE 10/31/24: Additional information sessions have been added Nov. 5 and 19 — both at 4:30 p.m. REGISTER]

Courses cover a range of mathematics topics such as advanced algebra, geometry and calculus. The program includes courses like 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 cohort will take two courses per semester for completion in summer 2026 with synchronous Zoom meetings on Wednesdays from 5:15 to 9 p.m.

The We Will!/CVHEC funding provides $12,500 per student and AIMS Education foundation provides an additional $5,000 per student. Students are also eligible to apply for the Federal TEACH grant.

Contact: Manjula Joseph, Ph.D., program director at manjula.joseph@fresno.edu or 559s.453.2096. (Also: Graduate.Studies@fresno.edu or 559.453.3690).

For its online Master of Arts degree program in English, National University has set information sessions for Oct. 8 and 23 from 5:00-6:00 p.m. each session:  English Info Session registration

The program curriculum covers major approaches to literature, including theoretical, historical, comparative, thematic, multicultural and genre studies. Coursework provides students with the critical vocabulary, tools and research ability to produce literary scholarship of professional quality and to participate in ongoing scholarly discussions of issues in literary study.

The Rhetoric specialization offers a program of graduate study in literature, as well as a wide range of cultural productions—from classical oration to contemporary cinema—with a particular emphasis on how language and image are used to produce various effects and meanings. The curriculum contains several variable-topic courses, allowing students to pursue broad program goals in topic areas matched to their interests.

With 12 students per cohort, the program offers 10 courses (45 quarter units) in a one course per month format with fully online, asynchronous instruction for program completion in 12-months or less.

The WE Will!/CVHEC funding provides $12,500 per student and a $3,978 (20%) tuition reduction scholarship per student from National University due to its partnership with  CVHEC.

Each cohort student will be paired with an English professor from a local community college district.

Contact: Jessica Gladney, program director, at jgladney@nu.edu or text 310.968.5805.

CVHEC and its partners are aiming to accomplish the success it has already had throughout the valley with the Master’s Upskilling Program which is the result of CVHEC’s dual enrollment task force, Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

The innovative program has produced over 160 master’s graduates qualified to teach dual enrollment college courses in partnership with the Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative in the mid-valley region and the Kern K-16 Collaborative in the south valley area.

 

 BACKGROUND

Established in 2019 to identify and establish the best elements of an intentional and sustainable strategy for dual enrollment, the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force is made up of more than 150 Central Valley secondary and postsecondary education leaders who gather annually for CVHEC dual enrollment convenings.

The Master’s Upskilling Program was the outcome of CVDEEP’s second convening in 2022 where participants from member colleges throughout the 10-county region identified an urgent need showing that many high schools, especially rural schools, are unable to offer dual enrollment courses on their campuses because they lack teachers who meet the community college minimum qualifications – a master’s degree.

(NOTE: CVDEEP’s valley-wide convening is set for Nov. 14 in Fresno open to educators, administrators with free registration [reg link to come ] now available).

The other $400,000 state grant CVHEC received from the WE Will! Collaborative will expand the Central Valley Math Bridge Program presented in partnership with College Bridge which has established the imitative that involves in the mid-valley area.

Funding for both consortium projects, which involve improving access to dual enrollment college courses for high school students, is from a $18 million grant the WE Will! Collaborative received from the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Programs last fall as part of the statewide drive to strengthen the K-16 education-to-career pipeline.

The dual enrollment aspect supports CVHEC’s mission to increase college degree and certificate attainment rates for valley students throughout the nine-county Central Valley region as well as helps fulfill the collaborative’s education-to-career pipeline goal, said Dr. Benjamín Durán, consortium executive director.

ABOUT The North Valley Tri-County Workforce and Education (WE Will!) K-16 Collaborative

 The North Valley Tri-County Workforce and Education (WE Will!) K-16 Collaborative is a multi-sector and intersegmental collaboration uniting Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties with CVHEC-member University of California, Merced as the lead agency and includes four other fellow CVHEC members: Merced College, Modesto Junior College, San Joaquin Delta College and California State University, Stanislaus. The collaborative also includes K-12 school districts, county offices of education, economic development agencies and local and regional employers.