County Awarded Grant for Safety
The County of San Luis Obispo Public Health Department was recently awarded two grants totaling $373,707 from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) to support ongoing efforts to improve the safety of children riding in cars and people walking and biking. The campaign kicked off education outreach with a focus on tips for drivers and parents to make sure children were safe on Halloween.
“Everyone deserves a safe environment to travel, regardless of how you get places,” said OTS Director Barbara Rooney in a news release. “Education is a big part of creating a culture of road safety locally, especially for our most vulnerable road users. That includes everyone from children walking after dark to students riding bicycles and older adults crossing the street at crosswalks.”
The OTS grants will fund initiatives such as on-foot safety training for youth, bicycle helmet fittings, child passenger safety seat inspections, and outreach programs for all ages.
Cuesta Celebrates First-Generation Students and Student Parents
Cuesta College student Ruby Hernandez (right) with her
daughter (center) and mother (left).
Cuesta College invited the community to join a special celebration honoring the achievements of its first-generation college students, faculty, and staff on November 5 and 6. Organized by the Office of Student Equity and Success, this year’s celebration events shone a spotlight on first-generation student parents who are making strides toward their educational goals while setting inspiring examples for their families.
“My kids keep me motivated – they are my everything,” said Cuesta College student Zuleima Gonzalez Perez. “Last semester, they saw that I got a Certificate of Achievement, and they got to see me at graduation. Seeing their faces, and mom getting her work done and achieving her goals keeps me going.”
The celebration marked Cuesta College’s second annual event dedicated to first-generation students. By focusing on the unique achievements and challenges of student parents, the college aims to highlight the determination and resilience required to balance academics and family responsibilities.
This year’s events are particularly timely, as they follow the recent passage of Assembly Bill 2458, which now includes childcare costs in the financial aid calculations for student parents, offering critical financial support to help them succeed.
Poly Receives Big Grants to Address Education Challenges
Cal Poly education students discuss core education principles in the course “Historical, Philosophical, and Social Foundations of Public Education” at Cal Poly. Photo by Alexis Kovacevic
Cal Poly’s School of Education received two highly competitive grants, totaling more than $8 million, from the U.S. Department of Education to help address a variety of critical issues and areas of need in education.
With the funding, School of Education faculty and staff will recruit, train and support a diverse pool of more than 1,500 teachers; help address current classroom challenges and teacher shortages; better serve bilingual students and students with disabilities; and continue to encourage long-term career success for program graduates.
About one in 10 of all teaching positions across the U.S. are unfilled or filled by individuals without certifications, according to data published by the educational research organization WestEd, a partner organization on one of the grants. Bilingual elementary and special education teachers are among the most prevalent groups with shortages.
“I hear from superintendents all the time about the need for teachers, including in specialized teaching areas such as special education and English learner instruction,” said Chance Hoellwarth, director of the School of Education. “We’re really trying to change the local educational environment in a variety of synergistic ways that I believe will be impactful for students, teacher candidates and teachers.”
Cal Poly will partner on this work with school districts in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, Cuesta and Allan Hancock community colleges, as well as community organizations including the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project and the California Mini-Corps Program.
A $3,342,565 grant will be used to support Cal Poly’s Bilingual Responsive Instruction for Language Learners and New Teachers/Educators project. BRILLANTE’s goals include recruiting and supporting 80 undergraduate bilingual scholars and training 135 bilingual educators to complete their Spanish bilingual authorization — equipping all to serve diverse student populations in schools across the state.
A separate $4,676,106 grant will support the Cal Poly Innovative Support and Preparation of Inclusive and Resilient Educators program. INSPIRE’s goals include: recruiting a more diverse pool of prospective teachers and school leaders; refining clinical experiences and curricula to align with research-based practices in inclusive education; and creating opportunities for additional certification via specialized micro-credentials.
The grants will fund development of models and programs at a variety of institutional levels and involve educational leadership in the process.
“We’re going to be involved in supporting the entire trajectory of the teaching career, from recruitment all the way through our teacher-training programs and continuing to provide support for practicing teachers,” said Jess Jensen, an associate professor in the School of Education, and a co-principal investigator of the INSPIRE grant. “The school districts, community colleges, Cal Poly and partner organizations all offer different areas of expertise, and we want to break down silos and effectively improve the system to sustain a successful teaching workforce.”
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