California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
CAMPUS ACTION PLAN

The objective for Cal Poly Pomona's action plan is to enhance the all-university commitment to teacher preparation. Our goal is to produce more quality teachers in a shorter period of time. There are many obstacles which must first be overcome in order for the campus to reach this objective:

• The biggest obstacle is the current culture of the academy that does not value teacher preparation, the liberal studies major, interdisciplinary studies, ethnic and gender studies, service learning, clinical studies, or service to K-12 schools

• Liberal Studies must not be marginalized

• Faculty are teaching in academic majors without knowing what is happening in K-12 schools, nor do they understand what a teacher must know in order to teach the subject matter to diverse learners

• We need early service learning/clinical experience

• Faculty must have access across the different disciplines in order to be involved and disengaged based on attraction and interest

• Incentives are necessary in order for participation across the disciplines

• There must be University-wide support explicitly for teacher education

• There is a need for a multi-college collaboration that is supportive of teacher education and the overall quality of undergraduate education, including general education
  

A major element to any strategy for enhancing a university-wide commitment to teacher preparation is to have all of the deans working together in order to achieve the following:

• increase access to teacher preparation programs

• involve more faculty in K-12 schools

• advise students, especially liberal studies majors

• develop a Center for Integrative Studies for faculty involved in teacher preparation and interdisciplinary studies

The Cal Poly Pomona team came up with four short-term goals towards the university's achieving its objective:

• Integration-subject matter, content, and pedagogy, and a well-articulated program plan for students

• Incentives across the different colleges and disciplines for faculty to become more involved in teacher preparation

• Standards and improvement of the quality of undergraduate education, including general education, and articulation agreements with community colleges

• Collaboration and partnerships with K-12 school system and communities
  

In order to achieve these goals and help overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of achieving the objective, what is most needed are appropriate funding resources.

The Cal Poly Pomona team wants to develop the concept of hosting an educational summit that would include representatives from school districts and the faculty from the School of Education and Integrative Studies and the Colleges of Science and Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences. The highlight of this summit would be case studies of included and collective actions which address the problems, challenges, and solutions to all the barriers that stand in the way of our working across disciplines for teacher education.

The group also committed to organizing several focus group discussions to get a better understanding of the issues from the perspective of alumni, administrators, or teachers in local school districts. In addition, other focus groups that would include Cal Poly Pomona faculty would help determine what barriers exist to their participation and their exposure and understanding of what it is like to work in a K-12 classroom setting-what do teachers need to know in the classroom today, and how well is Cal Poly Pomona preparing teachers to meet these requirements?