Mission College Receives .9M Grant to Improve Transfer Rates for Future Educators

Los Angeles Mission College has received a $2.98-million-grant from the US Department of Education to improve transfer rates for future teachers, with an emphasis on STEM and Ethnic Studies teachers, college officials announced.

 The five-year grant, part of the Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program (Title V), will help Mission College support students in completing their lower-division coursework by strengthening their education and career pathways, enhancing faculty support for future teachers, and focusing on future STEM and Ethnic Studies teachers.

“I am pleased to announce that Los Angeles Mission College has been selected to receive the Title V grant,” said Mission College President Dr. Monte Perez. “This funding will help us improve success rates for students completing our Teacher Education program by providing them with the support and resources they need.”

“We recognize that we need more K-12 teachers of color so that elementary and secondary school students have role models to encourage them to succeed,” Perez said.

Some of the key strategies outlined in the Education Career Pathway project are specialized counseling, a teacher resource room, peer mentoring, teacher credential articulation agreements and exam preparation, field work experiences, and more, said Carlos Gonzalez, a student services dean who worked on the grant.

“In order to help our teaching students succeed, it’s important that we provide an integrated experience that combines excellent classroom curriculum with early career guidance and preparation,” Gonzalez said.

The Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, also known as Title V, provides grants to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to expand opportunities and improve the attainment of Hispanic students. The grants also enable HSIs to expand and enhance their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability.

The HSIs program was advocated by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), an organization representing 550 institutions of higher education that have 25 percent or more Hispanic enrollment.