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Pacific Oaks College Selected to Take Part in National Diversity Cohort

Published on Monday, September 20, 2021 | 3:12 pm
 
Pacific Oaks College. courtesy PacificOaks.edu

Staff at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena have been selected to take part in a unique nonprofit cohort designed to better prepare teachers to address the needs of students of minority status, the school announced Monday.

National Teacher Preparation Transformation Center Cohort is hosted by the Texas-based Branch Alliance for Education Diversity, or BranchED, Pacific Oaks said in a written statement.

Its goal is “to foster high-quality educators within minority serving institutions (MSIs) across the United States,” the statement said.

Pacific Oaks will join three other minority serving institutions across the nation in this year’s program.

“Through the cohort, Pacific Oaks College and school district partner, Pasadena Unified School District, will have access to enhanced resources and professional development, networking opportunities, and will share data and learn from the other institutions in the cohort to move forward with sustainability and innovation,” the statement said.

“This research-based framework sets a higher standard for teacher preparation by including approaches to ensure teachers can address students’ racial, cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds effectively,” according to the statement.

Dean of Pacific Oaks School of Education Jerell Hill said the college hopes to improve students’ experiences through the program.

“The Transformation Center will allow Pacific Oaks College to examine how the complexities of culture, diversity, and academic achievement impact identity formation and long-term success because learning extends beyond cognitive development,” he said.

“Pacific Oaks will benefit from the Transformation Center because we will have ongoing support and continuous improvement coaching to improve Student Learning Outcomes. The opportunity to implement humanizing pedagogy, develop partnerships, and understand others in terms of their beliefs, values, attitudes, and actions will have a lasting impact on our college,” he said.

Promoting diversity at the institution is vital in order to “move beyond ‘tolerance’ toward true inclusion and acceptance,” said
Pacific Oaks College President Jack Paduntin.

“Such promotion needs to be done intentionally and sensitively to enable students to learn how to relate to differences. Differences do not have to be a problem, barrier, or threat,” Paduntin said. “Understanding diversity has multiple benefits for personal development. Funding from the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity will allow us to enrich our curricula, to prepare educators who will be ready to teach and further promote diversity and inclusion for the next generation.”

BranchED CEP Cassandra Herring welcomed Pacific Oaks to the cohort.

“We know that minority-serving institutions train more diverse educators at a disproportionate rate, so we are glad to have Pacific Oaks College joining our third Transformation Center cohort to build equity-empowered, high-quality programs,” she said. “Through this partnership, we can equip more future educators with the tools needed to enter, persist, and graduate as teachers who can implement a high-quality education for all students.”

More information on Pacific Oaks College is available on the school’s website at pacificoaks.edu.

More information on BranchED can be found on the organization’s website at educatordiversity.org.

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