(a) (1) An integrated program of professional preparation shall enable candidates for teaching credentials to engage in professional preparation, concurrently with subject matter preparation, while completing baccalaureate degrees at regionally accredited postsecondary educational institutions. An integrated program shall provide opportunities for candidates to complete intensive field experiences, including student teaching, in public elementary and secondary schools early in the undergraduate sequence. The development and implementation of an integrated program shall be based on intensive collaboration among subject matter departments and education units within postsecondary educational institutions and local public elementary and secondary school districts.

(2) A postsecondary educational institution may offer a four-year or five-year integrated program of professional preparation that allows a student to earn a baccalaureate degree and a preliminary multiple or single subject teaching credential, or an education specialist instruction credential authorizing the holder to teach special education, including student teaching requirements, concurrently and within four or five years of study.

(3) The commission shall encourage postsecondary educational institutions to offer integrated programs of professional preparation that follow the guidelines developed pursuant to this section. In approving integrated programs, the commission shall not compromise or reduce its standards of subject matter preparation pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 44310) or its standards of professional preparation pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 44259.

(4) The commission shall, as part of its accreditation process, collect information about integrated programs of professional preparation, including which postsecondary educational institutions offer integrated programs of professional preparation and the number and type of credentials the programs produce.

(b) (1) Commencing with the 2005–06 school year, an integrated program offered by the California State University shall be designed to concurrently lead to a preliminary multiple subject or single subject teaching credential, or an education specialist instruction credential authorizing the holder to teach special education, and a baccalaureate degree. Recommendation for each shall be contingent upon satisfactory completion of the requirements for each.

(2) By July 1, 2004, the Chancellor of the California State University, in consultation with California State University faculty members, shall develop a framework defining appropriate balance for an integrated program of general education, subject matter preparation, and professional education courses, for both lower division and upper division students, including an appropriate range of units to be taken in professional education courses. In developing the framework, the Chancellor of the California State University and California State University faculty members shall consult with the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges on matters related to the effective and efficient use of, and appropriate role for, lower division coursework in an integrated program.

(c) (1) By January 1, 2005, the Chancellor of the California State University and the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall collaboratively ensure that both of the following occur:

(A) Lower division coursework completed by a community college student transferring to a California State University integrated program is articulated with the corresponding coursework of the California State University.

(B) The articulated community college lower division coursework is accepted as the equivalent to the coursework offered to students who enter that integrated program as freshman students.

(2) Commencing with the 2005–06 school year, each campus of the California State University shall invite the community colleges in its region that send significant numbers of transfer students to that campus to enter into articulation agreements. These articulation agreements shall be based on a fully transferable education curriculum that is developed pursuant to the framework developed under paragraph (2) of subdivision (b). Approval of one or more of the articulation agreements will enable the coursework of a community college student to be accepted as the equivalent to the coursework offered to students who enter that integrated program as freshman students.

(d) A postbaccalaureate program of professional preparation shall enable candidates for teaching credentials to commence and complete professional preparation after they have completed baccalaureate degrees at regionally accredited postsecondary educational institutions. The development and implementation of a postbaccalaureate program of professional preparation shall be based on intensive collaboration among the postsecondary educational institution and local public elementary and secondary school districts.

(e) (1) The commission shall develop and implement a program to award grants of up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) each to postsecondary educational institutions for the development of transition plans to guide the creation of four-year integrated programs of professional preparation including student teaching.

(2) A postsecondary educational institution awarded a grant under this subdivision may use the transition plan to create a new four-year integrated program of professional preparation or to adapt an existing integrated program of professional preparation to a four-year integrated program of professional preparation.

(3) A postsecondary educational institution awarded a grant under this subdivision may use grant funds for any proper purpose in support of planning for a four-year integrated program of professional preparation, including, but not limited to, any of the following:

(A) To provide faculty release time to redesign existing courses.

(B) To provide program coordinators to assist in collaboration with subject-matter professors and pedagogy professors.

(C) To create summer courses for students in a four-year integrated program of professional preparation.

(D) To recruit individuals for participation as students in four-year integrated programs of professional preparation.

(4) In awarding grants pursuant to the program, the commission shall grant priority to proposals for the establishment of four-year integrated programs of professional preparation designed to do both of the following:

(A) Produce teachers with either an education specialist instruction credential authorizing the holder to teach special education or a single subject teaching credential in the areas of mathematics or science, or teaching in the area of bilingual education.

(B) Partner with a California community college to create a four-year integrated program of professional preparation.

(5) As a condition of the receipt of a grant, a postsecondary educational institution shall provide to the commission program and outcome data for at least three years after receiving the grant. The information shall include program design and features, the number of graduates, the number and type of credentials earned, the time taken to earn a degree and credential, and any other information the commission may require for the purpose of documenting the effect of the grant and identifying effective practices in program design and implementation.

(6) The requirements of this subdivision are contingent upon the appropriation of funds for the purposes of this subdivision in the annual Budget Act or another statute.

(7) The commission may use up to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to administer the grants pursuant to Department of Finance approval.

(Amended by Stats. 2017, Ch. 561, Sec. 33. (AB 1516) Effective January 1, 2018.)