Funding Sought to Credential Viet Teachers for State Schools

Helen Le makes a decent wage as a health-care specialist, but the former math and science teacher longs to teach again.

“I love teaching--to see the look of marvel on a child’s face once they’ve learned, understood and discovered something new,” said Le, 43, of Garden Grove. She taught high school for 10 years in her homeland of Vietnam, but because of credentialing problems has not continued her profession here.

But the chance to teach again may come for Le and scores of other highly qualified Vietnamese American teacher candidates, whom California educators hope to recruit and integrate into schools.

To help bring that about, educators--led by Cal State Long Beach--have applied for a five-year, $1.25-million federal grant to get Vietnamese American teachers credentialed.

“There’s a tremendous shortage of teachers who mirror the ethnicities of the student population in certain school districts in the state,” said Sandra Frank, a state Department of Education consultant involved with minority recruiting. In Orange County, that shortage is most critical in the Westminster and Garden Grove districts, which are largely Vietnamese.

The proposal, which earmarks $250,000 each year for the Vietnamese American Teacher Preparation Project, would help as many as 80 teachers obtain their credentials through training and mentoring from schools and universities. The Asian and Asian American studies department and Center for Language Minority Education and Research at Cal State Long Beach are the leading agencies.

The funding would allow educators to tap a pool of teacher candidates with qualifications for addressing the needs of Vietnamese American students.

“There’s no doubt that Vietnamese American teachers are greatly underrepresented in California, especially compared to the number of Vietnamese American students in schools,” said Wayne Johnson, president of the California Teachers Assn.

Johnson said about 80% of teachers in California are white. “There’s a real social and education need for Vietnamese American teachers, and we need to do more recruiting for these teachers.”

Previous grants have been used to recruit members of other ethnic minority groups--including Latinos and African Americans--as teachers.

“Bilingual Vietnamese teacher candidates would bring valuable resources to the teaching profession” because they share the cultural and linguistic background as many of the students enrolled in Orange County schools, said Associate Dean L.Y. “Mickey” Hollis of Cal State Fullerton’s School of Education.

Many teacher candidates are Southern California working professionals who hold a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in computer science, engineering or literature. They are active in the Vietnamese American community, acting as community liaisons, interpreters and volunteer support staff at schools. Some have already worked as bilingual teachers’ aides.

Le has done just that, volunteering to teach 16 to 20 hours a week at private schools and Vietnamese cultural centers just to be close to students.

“If I can teach full time, that’s what I really want to do,” she said. “I see so many students here who can use my help.”

Like Le, many other former teachers and scholars tend to be in their 40s and 50s. They have not been able to return to their professions because they’ve lacked support when they’ve run into unfamiliar rules and regulations, said KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, a professional development specialist at the Cal State Long Beach Center for Language Minority Education and Research.

The Vietnamese American Teacher Preparation Project would evaluate the degrees and credentials each candidate has earned in Vietnam or the United States. Qualified applicants would get assistance with enrollment in state-approved credential programs with flexible course schedules.

Stipends for tuition and materials would be provided through a collaborative effort of the Assn. of Vietnamese Language and Culture Schools of Southern California and six California State universities, including Cal State Fullerton. Together, they will also help recruit, place and support the teacher candidates.