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The Center is an organized research and information dissemination unit at the University of Southern California, facilitating the research collaboration, dissemination and professional development activities of faculty, students, and others across School of Education, university and outside organizational lines. Faculty in the Rossier School of Education developed the USC Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research (CMMR) in the Spring of 1983, as a result of deliberations of the Dean's Task Force for Bilingual Crosscultural Education. The Center has provided a base for those interested in multilingual education, English-as-a second language, and foreign language instruction, multicultural education and related areas; and the opportunity to come together for research and program collaboration.
There are four principal activities the Center has strived for: (1) research; (2) publications; (3) training; and (4) public service.
Current Faculty and CMMR Research Associates have engaged in research interests covering numerous areas including but not limited to: language and literacy acquisition; bilingualism and biliteracy; language proficiency testing; integrating language and content instruction in the classroom; non-mainstream dialects of English; teaching, learning and schooling in social context; teacher education; language and literacy in the workplace; minority teacher recruitment and retention; language policy and planning, and literacies acquisition including multimedia literacy through global learning networks.
The Center throughout its' history has mediated School of Education participation in numerous programs, grants and initiatives including:
The
USC Latino and Language Minority Teacher Projects"Striving To Make Language And Culture Part Of The Solution". The overriding goal of the nationally recognized USC Latino and Language Minority Teacher Projects is to increase the number of Latinos(as) and language minorities in the teaching profession by creating a career pathway for practicing language minority paraeducators. This has also been the home for the National Clearinghouse for Paraeducator Resources.
The
Ford Foundation Minority Teacher Education ProgramThe Ford Foundation supported eight statewide consortia, involving nearly 50 colleges and universities across the nation. The effort was aimed at developing new models of teacher education focused on drawing more minorities into programs preparing them to teach in kindergarten through 12th grade. These consortia organized meetings with policy makers at the state level to determine ways in which successful approaches might be replicated.
U.S.
Department of Education Office of Post Secondary Education Minority
Teacher Recruitment ProgramThe purpose of the Programs to Encourage Minority Students to Become Teachers has been to improve recruitment and training opportunities in education for minority individuals, including language minority individuals; increase the number of minority teachers, including language minority teachers, in elementary and secondary schools; and identify and encourage minority students in the 7th through 12th grades to aspire to, and to prepare for careers in elementary and secondary school teaching.
Center
for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE)Funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, CREDE has been a multi-organizational research collaborative whose mission has been to assist the nation's diverse students at risk of educational failure to achieve academic excellence. Central to its mission, CREDE's research and development has focused on critical issues in the education of linguistic and cultural minority students and those placed at risk by factors of race, poverty, and geographic location. The CMMR's research program has focused on Latino paraeducators as teachers and the influence and interaction of family, peers, and community on the education of their linguistically and culturally diverse students. Project goals have been to design effective learning environments for low SES English learners and to design professional development programs and practices for this neglected group of educational practitioners.
USC/Bank
of America Beginning Support and Assessment Induction Program
For K-3 Teachers of Language Minority StudentsIn response to the Bank of America Foundation call for the professional development of new K-3 teachers resulting from California's class size reduction, the Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Education developed a Beginning Support and Assessment Induction Program for K-3 Teachers of Language Minority Students. The program's focus has been on beginning teachers with an emphasis on language, math, reading, and diversity. The CMMR also launched a Clearinghouse for Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Resources.
The
U.S. Department of Education Title VII Fellowship ProgramsDoctoral fellowship program in Bilingual Education Policy and Language, Literacy and Learning.
ARCO
Foundation / LAAMP Language Acquisition ProgramMulti-university collaborative sponsored by the ARCO Foundation and the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) to develop a language acquisition model of staff development for novice and practicing teachers to meet the needs of language minority student populations.
The
American Association of Colleges for Teacher EducationAACTE's minority teacher policy initiative.
Recruiting
New Teachers Inc.Recruiting New Teachers, Inc. (RNT), a national non-profit organization which was formed in 1986 to raise esteem for teaching, expand the pool of prospective teachers, and improve the nation's teacher recruitment and development policies and practices. RNT and the CMMR have worked hand-in-hand to provide an equitable represenation of cultures in America's teaching force.
The
University of California Linguistic Minority Research InstituteThe University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute (LMRI) collaborates with other institutions in research, dissemination and professional development activities that promote the understanding and improvement of language minority students in the schools. LMRINET provides information accessible through the Internet to researchers, students, and practitioners interested in issues of language, education, and public policy, especially as they relate to linguistic minorities.
The
Doris Westcott - "Helen of Troy" ScholarshipScholarship award for exceptional Latina paraeducators pursuing teaching as a career.
The Leo Buscaglia ScholarshipScholarship effort for Los Angeles area high school minority students committed to becoming teachers.
For further information on the center contact:
Dr. Michael Genzuk, Co-Director
or
Dr. Reynaldo Baca, Co-Director
or
USC Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research University of Southern California Rossier School of Education Waite Phillips Hall Suite 604 Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031 Phone: (213) 740-2360 FAX: (213) 740-7101 e-mail: rbaca @usc.edu
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