Santa Monica College (SMC) has been selected to participate in a four-year Integrated Teacher Preparation Program in partnership with UCLA. A grant from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) will make it possible for the UCLA Teacher Education Program to partner with SMC in developing a pathway for SMC students to earn a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a preliminary teaching credential in four years, followed by a bilingual authorization certification within six months.
“Our partnership with SMC is an exciting opportunity for UCLA’s Center X to advance our efforts to prepare highly skilled, caring, social justice-oriented teachers for high needs schools across Los Angeles,” said Annamarie M. Francois, Executive Director of the UCLA Center X which encompasses two graduate credential programs including the Teacher Education Program, “and to enact our shared belief in the transformational power of preparing community teachers for community schools.”
“Santa Monica College has long enjoyed a valuable relationship with UCLA,” said SMC Superintendent/President Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery. “We have had the highest transfer rate to the University of California for 26 years—with UCLA being a top destination for students. The SMC STEM Science and Research Initiative came into being and flourished along with UCLA. This new partnership is exciting, because it symbolizes another way in which two great institutions can combine forces to create opportunity for a wonderfully diverse student body.”
The new program—called the UCLA Integrated Program (UCLAIP)—builds on the successful UCLA Teacher Education Program (TEP), which is fully accredited by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and part of one of the nation’s top-ranked schools of education, the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.