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About Us

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Funded by the state of California through the CSU Chancellor’s Office, the Mathematics and Science Teachers Initiative (MSTI) Project is an innovative partnership of the Colleges of Education and Natural Sciences and Mathematics at California State University Fullerton to provide strong, collaborative, and comprehensive efforts to improve practices in the areas of mathematics and science teacher candidate recruitment, pre-service preparation, induction, beginning teacher professional development, and retention.

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Mission Statement

The Mathematics and Science Teacher Initiative (MSTI) at CSU Fullerton is committed to transforming Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science (STEM) education through practices that disrupt historical patterns of exclusion. Aligned with the College of Education’s Justice, Equitable, and Inclusive Education (JEIE) principles, MSTI cultivates a community of critically conscious STEM educators who recognize and nurture the cultural wealth, multilingual assets, and diverse ways of knowing that all students bring to the classroom.
We prepare teachers who understand their dual role as educators and advocates, professionals who see STEM not as a gatekeeper but as a tool for liberation and social transformation. Through targeted support for historically marginalized communities, authentic partnerships, and justice-centered programming, MSTI develops educators who will create classrooms where students’ backgrounds become integral components of curricular and pedagogical development.


Our initiative centers on anti-racist practice and critical consciousness as the foundation, not an add-on, for reimagining excellence in STEM teaching. We reject deficit narratives and instead prepare teachers who make community-based knowledge visible in mathematics, science, computer science, and engineering, ensuring that educational outcomes are no longer predicted by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language and languaging ability, or other markers of identity. Through MSTI, future STEM teachers learn to transform not just what they teach, but how STEM education itself can serve as a vehicle of freedom, language justice, and possibility.

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Objectives

The MSTI project at CSUF aims to:

  • Strengthen/expand
    • Current Science, Mathematics, Computer Science, Foundational Level Math (FLM), and Foundational Level General Science (FLGS) programs;
  • Recruit/support
    • Multiple Subject (MS) and Single Subject (SS) candidates and teachers to add authorizations in FLM or FLGS;
  • Recruit/support
    • science, math, computer science, and math/science/engineering-intensive majors into the teaching credential pathways;
  • Improve coordination and articulation of
    • The MSTI continuum of programs that recruit, train, and support mathematics, science, and computer science teachers by identification and the closure of gaps.
  • Ensure Credential Program growth.
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Collaboration

Our university-wide initiative involves faculty and staff from:

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  • Six departments and programs: 
    • Secondary Education,
    • Elementary and Bilingual Education,
    • Geology,
    • Mathematics,
    • Computer Science,
    • Center for Careers in Teaching
  • In collaboration with nine local school districts/community colleges, including
    • Anaheim Union High School District,
    • Fullerton Joint Union High School District,
    • Fullerton City School District,
    • Corona Norco Unified,
    • Santa Ana Unified,
    • Capistrano Unified,
    • Fullerton College,
    • and Santa Ana College. 
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MSTI Faculty and Staff

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Director: Dr. Theodore Chao

FLM Coordinator: Dr. B Waid

FLM Ally: Dr. Bridget Druken

FLGS/Natural Sciences Minor Coordinator: Dr. Freddi Bruschke

PRISE Coordinator: Dr. Maria Grant

AMIELA Coordinators: Dr. Fernando Rodríguez-Valls and Dr. Julián Jeffries

Future STEM Teachers of Color Coordinators: Dr. Amelia Stone-Johnstone and Dr. Mallika Scott

Math Teacher Coordinator: Dr. Cherie Ichinose

NSTA Coordinator: Dr. Antoinette Linton

Computer Science Liason: Dr. Doina Bein

MSTI Administrative Coordinator: Leticia Collins

MSTI Student Assistant: Vicky Pulido

 

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