A Cal State Long Beach credential program has gained international recognition for its work on enabling laid-off teachers to find employment again.
CSULB’s Foundational Level Math and Science General Credential program has earned the distinguished program award from the Association of Continuing Higher Education (ACHE), a network of professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada who encourage excellence in higher education, according to the ACHE website.
In selecting a program for the award, ACHE looked at numerous aspects of the program, including its originality or innovation in program design, delivery and ability to meet established goals and objectives, according to the ACHE website.
Chair of the ACHE Awards Committee Mary Bonhomme said one of the “key elements” in choosing a winner is whether a program “sounds like something we [ACHE] might be able to offer our community of learners.”
Bonhomme said she also noticed that CSULB’s program “was cost-effective [and] replicable.”
According to Regina Cash, director of professional programs in the College of Continuing and Professional Education, the program was created after 700 employees, mostly within the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), received layoff notices in May 2011.
Cash said the program sought to help these employees find jobs again.
“All of these different entities got together to see how we can help, not only the laid-off teachers, but the economic need that was going to be needed in the City of Long Beach,” Cash said.
The program developed through a partnership between the LBUSD, the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network (PGWIN) and several colleges on campus, according to a CSULB press release.
Through the partnership, these entities aimed to give laid-off LBUSD teachers the opportunity to earn single-subject credentials in math or science.
“It was wonderful that all these big, big machines were able to move swiftly and efficiently to support this effort and to have it be so successful,” said Math Education Graduate Adviser Babette Benken, who helped to create the program.
The courses, supplies, textbooks and parking were provided to program participants at no cost, according to the press release.
ACHE awarded the program for its first cohort of participants, Benken said.
For the first science cohort of participants, 20 science single-subject credential participants completed the program, which saw a pass rate of 85 percent, according to Chair of the science education department Laura Henriques.
First cohort participant Devi Nathan, who was laid off by the LBUSD three years ago, said that after completing the program, she found a permanent teaching position at Avalon School in Avalon, Calif.
“I’d like to say I’m still sad that there are still teachers that haven’t been re-employed through this program, yet,” she said.
Sherri Gonser, also from the first cohort, received her lay-off notice at Longfellow Elementary two years ago. She was hired again at a middle school last week, after having earned a science credential through the CSULB program.
“If I would have not gone through the program, I wouldn’t have been hired right now,” Gonser said. “So, it’s definitely a good thing.”
The ACHE award will be presented at the national 2013 ACHE Annual Conference and Meeting in Lexington, Ky. in November.
