Educational & Instructional Services

Migrant programs at Millersville University provide the following educational services:

Student Support Specialist

Student support staff work together with the administration and classroom teachers in the schools in our four-county area to maximize services to migrant students.  They monitor student grades and attendance, liaison with parents, participate in interdisciplinary meetings and assist the student and family to access existing programming. Extended Day and Saturday instructional programs are available for migrant students.  At the secondary level, they assist parents and students with credit accrual and promote post-secondary education by helping to build student motivation and by assisting with college forms and applications.  These staff members are the key contacts for services for K-12 students.

Preschool

Preschool Specialists assist migrant parents to locate and register their preschool children for local developmentally appropriate programs in their communities.   They also provide both in-home and center-based instruction for our migrant preschoolers to help them to gain the social and readiness skills they will need to enter school.  Migrant preschool centers exist in all three project areas.

Extended Day Programs

These programs are held after school or on Saturdays to offer supplemental instructional support for migrant students.  These formats are generally organized in conjunction with the school districts and represent a coordinated effort with the school district and with 21st Century, EAP and other supplemental programming.

Summer School Programs

Each of the project areas prepares a comprehensive summer school which is a campus-based program for migrant students ages 4 through high school.  The campus programs emphasize English language development in a thematic context that helps students improve language proficiency while developing vocabulary and improving their reading and math skills.  There are summer campus programs in Bethlehem, Lancaster and Reading.

Special Projects Summer

MU College Experience
High school students attend a week-long residency at Millersville University.  They participate in workshops, computer classes, college preparation and English As A Second Language.  They stayed in the dorms and learned about college life.

MU Tech Camp
Migrant Education partners with the MU Lego Robotics summer initiative to provide scholarships to migrant students.  They attend sessions in which they use legos to build mechanical devises and computers to control them.  The purpose is to expose students to manufacturing techniques and careers and, at the same time, bring them to a college campus to learn about college life.  Students also participate in life skills workshops and stay in the dorms.  This was a week-long program.

Stevens College of Technology
The MU Migrant Program partners with Stevens College of Technology to develop a week long residency program during which the students learn about technical careers.

In Home Support

is provided to families who cannot attend our campus-based programs or who live in rural areas which do not support large scale programming.  In Home support also focuses on the development of skills within the domains of language arts – reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as mathematics and related content area subjects.  Families are invited to take part in program wide activities such as field trips and educational experiences for secondary education.

Student Leadership

These programs are provided through partnership with colleges and universities to give migrant students exposure to campus life and to encourage them to prepare for higher educational opportunities.  Middle and High School students are invited to participate in leadership activities at Thaddeus Stevens College, Millersville University, Penn State University and other local four-year and community college.

CAMP (College Assistance Migrant Program)

The College Assistance Migrant Program offers migrant students financial and academic aid to attend Millersville University.  CAMP students receive individual guidance and support to insure academic success for future career opportunities.

Out of School Youth

Students who are not attending and have not graduated from high school fall into this category. The following services may be offered to them:  Help finding GED or Adult Basic Education classes; provide information about attending High School Equivalency Program (HEP); help finding possible job training programs; RIF books and ESL instruction

Parent Involvement

Parent involvement is an essential component of the Migrant Education Program at MU. A Parent Advisory Council (PAC) is developed in each of the three project areas.  Parent boards are elected to represent parent concerns in each of the areas.  Capacity building activities that will enable parent to become involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of our programs are provided at multiple training sessions during the year.   Representatives of the local project areas attend State PAC meetings and trainings.  Parents on the boards conduct interviews with other parents in the program and to complete a comprehensive evaluation of the program.