Released on: September 16, 2008, 2:20 am

Press Release Author: Nick Johnson

Industry: Education

Press Release Summary: Phase Two Targets Training Of Personnel To Teach Students
With Moderate/Severe Disabilities

Press Release Body:
Claremont, CA, September 16 , 2008 -- Claremont Graduate University received a new
four-year $800,000 grant from the US Department of Education’s Office of Special
Education Programs to support CGU’s recently-accredited CCTC special education
internship program to prepare teachers for students with moderate/severe
disabilities.

The PULSE Pipeline Project: Phase Two (Preparing Urban Leaders in Special Education)
is led by Project Director Susan M. Robb, professor of education in the School of
Educational Studies, who guided the initial PULSE Phase One 2004-2008. Phase One,
which concludes its funding in September, targeted “Teachers of High Incidence
Disabilities,” supporting over 90 intern teachers toward full Mild/Moderate Special
Education credentials over the last four years.


PULSE: Two will place project participants as moderate/severe intern teachers in
schools in the culturally and linguistically diverse Los Angeles basin and the
Inland Empire (San Bernardino and Riverside Counties). This project specifically
recruits and supports individuals from this dense urban area, CGU’s prime service
region. Project elements include concentrated recruitment efforts for those from
historically under-represented groups to help improve the delivery of special
education services to students with moderate to severe disabilities. According to
state data, the enrollment of these students has increased by 22% in California over
the last five years.


How the program works: Project participants will be college graduates who take
coursework leading to the California State Credential for Education Specialist-Level
I and Level II: Moderate/Severe, an English Learner California Authorization, and a
Master’s in Education. After initial pre-service fieldwork and course instruction,
participants teach with an intern credential with intense field support (meeting
highly-qualified requirements), before becoming fully employed in special education
in predominately diverse, urban elementary and secondary schools.


CGU monitors and advises subject matter compliance for each candidate and each
teaching position. Partnerships with the administrators and special educators in 10
districts have been developed to guarantee appropriate teaching placements, ensuring
maximally supportive placements and opportunities for applied research and continued
learning.
Background on the Project

In 2006-2007, the Department of Education data indicated that more than 679,600
students with disabilities lived and learned in California with an estimated 110,314
students with moderate or severe disabilities needing to be aligned with the new
teaching standards required by No Child Left Behind. Since 2002, there has been a
minimal increase (.06%) in total number of K-12 special education students in
California. However, during that same time, students with moderate or severe
disabilities (autism, emotional or behavioral disorders, intellectual disabilities)
increased from 90,512 students to 110,314 students, a 22% increase.


In addition, The Center for Teaching and Learning, a nation education research
group, reports that high-minority schools have an average of 18% under-prepared
special education teachers when compared to 7% in low minority schools. California
ranks highest in state population diversity and is three times more diverse than the
national average.


What makes PULSE: Two so important is that the need for fully-qualified special
education teachers in the LA Basin and the adjacent Inland Empire is even more acute
than it is either nationally or across other regions of CA. Twenty-five percent of
the state’s special education students learn in one of the 64 school districts where
CGU has intern partnerships. Eleven of the districts in this region are among the 40
largest school districts in the state (CDE, 2007). The CGU campus is located
strategically in this region, “straddling” both the LA Basin and the Inland Empire.
It is estimated that conservative estimate of the number of teachers needed annually
for M/S placements in the CGU area would be 23% of county need totals or 322
teachers in the three county CGU service region.
PULSE: Two targets the following objectives

• Recruit quality personnel from under-represented groups to serve the diverse
cultural and linguistic needs of students with moderate/severe disabilities;
• Prepare 66 high-quality special education teachers using a standards-based
curricula and evidence-based pedagogy inclusively with general education candidates;
• Instill participants with core competencies in special education that merge
principles of social justice and accountability, ensuring subject matter
concentrations necessary for compliance with NCLB and IDEA ’04 and the preparation
of high-quality teachers;
• Integrate effective coursework for K-12 students who have unique culture,
linguistic, and diverse exceptionalities (CLDE skill competencies) so interns earn
an EL Authorization and can accommodate culturally diverse students with
moderate/severe disabilities in inclusive settings;
• Provide optimum support for beginning special educators through a proven, highly
effective internship model designed after original PULSE One Project; and
• Create an institutionalized pipeline of moderate/severe special education
leadership personnel for the CGU special education doctoral program.
Project outcomes will include

• 66 project graduates who have completed their Level I Credential, EL
Authorization, and Master’s degree requirements complying with NCLB and IDEA
requirements and competencies;
• 45 of the 66 project graduates will also complete the additional Level II
credential requirements during the project;
• recruitment of select participants to pursue a PhD in special education at CGU,
building a perpetual pipeline ladder for leadership in the area of moderate/severe
disabilities
• budget designation of over 65% annually for student support; and
• the institutionalization of the Moderate/Severe Education Specialist Internship
Program, a structure to credential 15 candidates annually, targeting some 50% whom
are from under-represented groups.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is one of the top graduate schools in
the country. Our nine academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award
masters and doctoral degrees in 22 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not
simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across
the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the
major problems plaguing our world. An independent institution devoted entirely to
graduate research and study, Claremont Graduate University is the top graduate
school in Southern California.
Press Release submission By PressReleasePoint(http://www.pressreleasepoint.com)




Web Site: http://www.cgu.edu/

Contact Details: Nick Johnson
Claremont Graduate University
Asst. Dir. Media Relations
150 E. 10th St,
Claremont, CA 91711
909.621.8396
nikolaos.johnson@cgu.edu
http://www.cgu.edu/