With initial support from the Ford Foundation, the University of Southern California (USC) began the Latino and Language Minority Teacher Projects to increase the number of Latinos and language minority teachers in the teaching profession. We recruited prospective teachers from the ranks of paraeducators, and provided them with financial, social, and academic support to complete the requirements needed to become credentialed bilingual teachers. Funds from the U.S. Department of Education, currently from the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs and formally from the Office of Post-secondary Education, continue to support the project.

The project currently involves a partnership between four colleges and universities in the greater Los Angeles area, five Los Angeles county school districts, the county office of education, and the major labor unions representing paraeducators and teachers. As the project has matured, the partner organizations have streamlined the "pathway" to teaching for participating paraeducators. We try to transform the teacher education experience into a seamless induction process that involves not only universities, but also school districts, schools, and labor unions. We see the induction process in sequential stages, "Early induction" includes the teacher education course work supplemented by a supervised laboratory experience that paraeducators encounter at participating project schools. "Intermediate induction" extends the apprenticeship model, allowing paraeducators to complete their student teaching while receiving assistance from carefully selected master teachers, individual mentors, and university personnel. "Advanced Induction" provides the support and assessment that have been lacking for new teachers to both improve instructional performance and retain this population in a work force that is very susceptible to burnout. "Post induction" involves an advanced integration into the teaching profession through graduate study, professional staff development support, and leadership development.

Developmental Stages

Development stages of the project will be chronicled as phases that represent given periods of elapsed time and funding cycles. Phase I of the LLMTP lasted about fourteen months. Consortium members collaborated to build the project's infrastructure. In Phase II, which represents the period occurring approximately fifteen months into the project, the central objectives were to expand the program within existing schools, to new schools, and to begin capacity building. This involves the process by which consortium partners collaborate to continue the LLMTP when initial Ford funds have ended. Phase III represents the period approximately three years into the project. Activities in this phase focused on further project expansion, project refinement, and institutionalization. Policy initiatives addressing teacher education, teacher recruitment, and faculty retention were also major areas of focus in this phase. Phase IV, about six years into the project, came about as a result of the project director's work with California's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Project, an induction program for new teachers. Phase IV leads us to view paraeducator training as part of an extended induction project, and to incorporate and adapt the California Standards for the Teaching Profession for use by paraeducators.

Components of Support

In this section we turn our attention to components of support that streamline the paraeducator to classroom teacher pipeline. These components were designed to help participants overcome the key obstacles that paraeducators often face in completing their undergraduate degrees and obtaining teaching credentials. Included are: (1) financial assistance, (2) academic and social support, and (3) professional development support.

Financial Assistance

The LLMTP provides each paraeducator with a $1500 scholarship paid biannually providing they maintain normal progress toward degree completion, i.e., a 2.75 GPA and twenty semester units annually (including summer school). For those paraeducators who attend school on a full-time basis (a minimum of 30 to 32 semester units a year), the LLMTP works with the financial assistance office to secure a range of scholarships, grants, and federal loans so that even enrollment in a private university is affordable. The scholarship functions as a "scholastic bribe" to facilitate dialogue between paraeducators and faculty advisers.

Academic and Social Support

There is reason to believe that Latino paraeducators attempting to become teachers will run into more academic difficulties than most other teacher education candidates, including a lower than average pass rate on admissions tests for teacher education, on teacher competency tests, and on teacher certification exams. Because paraeducators are typically the first generation in their families to attend college, Latino paraeducators often feel insecure in higher education settings and frequently experience a sense of isolation, particularly when they attend predominantly white colleges and universities. We have also found that the demands of a full-time job and part-time studies tend to create family tensions for a significant number of females who are the majority of the paraeducator population served by the Latino and Language Minority Teacher Project. To address these academic and social concerns, the project has developed a creative network of support that includes a cohort structure, on-site faculty mentors, adjunct classes, project socials, and school site presentations and meetings.

Paraeducator Cohorts are formed for building cooperative, interactive support systems to assist participants. Cohorts might include participants who have completed a similar number of units and are enrolled in the same teacher education program at the same college or university, participants who live in the same geographic area, and those working as paraeducators in the same or neighboring schools. These cohorts meet at local school or college sites class and other activities. Such interactions promote a sense of group membership and support that has enabled many to overcome difficulties along their path to becoming teachers. On-site Faculty Mentors at the home schools are assigned to each participant for purposes of assuring that routine and non-routine problems they encounter can be addressed. Faculty Mentors function as program's catalysts, cheerleaders, staff developers, and problem solvers. Because mentors serve a critical role in the project, they are carefully selected. To qualify for this position, an individual must be recommended by experienced educators from the participating schools, hold a valid bilingual California teaching credential, and show evidence of instructional leadership.

Adjunct Class Sessions are provided by some of the universities participating in the LLIVITP to those paraeducators who need academic assistance. Adjunct class sessions differ from more traditional forms of assistance available to college students in that the adjunct sessions combine learning strategies with course content and explore the application of such content to applied teaching. The leaders of the adjunct sessions are learning or content specialists with backgrounds in education. Participants are assigned university advisors in an ombudsman capacity. They assure that paraeducators are taking appropriate courses, facilitate enrollment in required courses, provide tutoring as needed, and streamline the university's bureaucratic maze for first generation college students,

The University LLMTP advisers also facilitate the transition from community college to four-year university. All LLMTP paraeducators attending community colleges meet regularly with the four-year LLMTP adviser to plan their course work at the community college, to focus only on courses that transfer to the university, and to designate a date when they will leave the community college. The community college students are required to meet the LLMTP faculty adviser at the four-year college site before they take classes at the community college.

Project Socials tie the community to higher education. We find that participants who receive support from their families are more apt to complete the program than those who do not. To secure such support, the Latino and Language Minority Teacher Project initiates a variety of social activities that involve participants' families and friends. These social events are intended to diminish the concerns of spouses, children, and other family members, as well as other social pressures encountered by participants.

School Site Presentations and Meetings are also used in the project. The purpose of these activities is to inform classroom teachers and administrators at participating schools of the problems and pressures that their paraeducators encounter while working toward the goal of becoming credentialed teachers. The underlying purpose of these presentations and meetings is to encourage school personnel to develop strategies for supporting project participants.

Professional Development Support

To supplement the professional preparation that participants receive through their course work, the LLMTP offers special seminars. Seminar topics are selected by consortium members to address educational concerns not traditionally covered in teacher education, including, (1) the use of the internet for instructional planning, (2) the paraeducator and classroom teacher as instructional partners, (3) the role of primary language instruction in accessing English for academic purposes, and (4) instructional strategies. The LLMTP deliberately encourages joint attendance by the paraeducator and a more experienced educator who can mediate the experience for them. We also subscribe to the belief that participation in conferences is essential to promote professional development. The LLMTP sponsors participation at major professional conferences. Attendance at these conferences is viewed as a critical component in the induction of paraeducators into the teaching profession. This also provides the opportunity to meet and interact with other professionals in the field, thereby enhancing their professional socialization, a significant factor in staying in college for Latino students.

Institutional Mission and Context

USC has grown into an international center of learning, enrolling more than 28,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on two campuses and offering degrees through its College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Graduate School and 16 professional schools. It ranks in the top 10 among private research universities in the United States in federal research and voluntary support, and is only one of four private research universities in the western United States elected to membership in the Association of American Universities, a group that represents the top one percent of the nation's accredited universities and accounts for nearly two-thirds of all federally sponsored research.

The School of Education offers a Bachelor of Science in General Studies for students who plan to become skilled elementary classroom teachers and it offers an undergraduate education in a pluralistic society minor. Graduate Programs are offered in the Division of Counseling Psychology, Division of Educational Policy, Planning, and Administration, and the Division of Language and Instruction. Graduate programs lead to the Doctor of Philosophy, the Doctor of Education, the Master of Science in Education, and the Master of Marriage, Family and Child Counseling.

Key Consortium Representatives

California State University, Dominguez Hills
California State University, Los Angeles
Loyola Marymount University
The University of Southern California
Occidental University
Los Angeles Unified School District
Baldwin Park Unified School District

Montebello Unified School District
Lennox School District I
Little Lake City School District
United Teachers Los Angeles
Local Union 99
Los Angeles County Office of Education

For more information, contact:

Dr. Reynaldo Baca
Research Professor of Education
School of Education - WPH 402
University Park
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031
Telephone (213) 740-2360
Fax (213) 740-7101
E-mail: baca@usc.edu

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