![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
Project developers designed ELBE to prepare bilingual teachers to work productively in the context of shared decisionmaking and site-based management. The project's guiding philosophy is that teachers' behavior, although formed initially by their own experiences and professional education, is significantly affected by the school environment. Teachers must therefore acquire the knowledge and skills to understand how the environment influences their practice and accept some responsibility for creating an environment that influences practice positively. This philosophy infuses program planning and delivery in the Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies and in its collaborative activities with other teacher education faculties at UTSA.
UTSA and the Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies plan professional development activities with a view to serving the particular needs of the San Antonio community. The metropolitan area of San Antonio is about 50 percent Hispanic, and many students enter school with the need to add English to their language repertoire. More than 80 percent of the students enrolled in San Antonio Independent School District (the largest of 20 serving the area) receive free or reduced-price lunches.
According to program developers, all four ELBE programs stress the importance of elements identified in the literature on general teaching effectiveness and language acquisition. These elements include: using a diverse repertoire of active teaching strategies, communicating clearly the expectation that students will achieve high standards of performance in academically challenging work, using both English and the students' primary language, promoting second language acquisition within content instruction, drawing on students' cultural background to mediate learning, and using research and reflection to improve professional practice.
At all four levels, programs also examine the roles and relations of educational institutions and organizations, so that participants enter new professional positions with a kind of "resource and authority map." This knowledge of how the system works--or is intended to work--facilitates problem solving and further supports a proactive, responsible approach to developing and maintaining effective educational arrangements that ELBE makes its goal.
Participants. ELBE developers advertised widely for applicants, using many media resources, especially those targeted to the Spanish-speaking community. They responded to 550 inquiries to clarify the basis of selection and received 269 applications. Ultimately, 65 students completed the full application process to fill up to 35 undergraduate slots; and 34 postbaccalaureate candidates and teachers applied for about 30 slots in the other three programs. Twenty-three undergraduates and 13 others were selected (three masters candidates, three administrators, and seven teachers desiring a bilingual endorsement). Of the 23 undergraduates, all had completed the 58 credits of required general education; 21 were classified as sophomores and two as juniors at the time of their admission. Replacement students are selected when participants drop out or finish the courses. District personnel officers and supervisors nominated teachers they thought would be successful in the ELBE program.
The selection criteria for the program were: (1) academic potential, including a 2.5 GPA on a four-point scale; (2) proficiency in English and Spanish; (3) experience working with language minority children and parents; (4) cultural awareness; (5) evidence of community involvement; and (6) commitment to bilingual education. University personnel based selection of the undergraduates on interviews and application packets. School district personnel decided which of the postbaccalaureate applications to forward from their own districts, with university personnel making the final selection. The screening committee chose only those candidates who had strong credentials, leaving some slots empty for a time rather than filling them with applicants who had less-than-adequate preparation.
Project activities. All programs include courses related to the candidates' career goals; some courses have been developed especially for this project. In addition, project activities for undergraduates cover seven areas: (1) extended field experience; (2) computer applications for bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction; (3) parent involvement; (4) cultural understanding; (5) professional enrichment, such as conference attendance and presentations; (6) certification test preparation; and (7) Spanish language enrichment. Postbaccalaureate certification candidates also take some of the preparation courses. Graduate students and administrators attend seminars, courses, and workshops related to planning and managing bilingual education programs.
All participants must attend and report on cultural events in the community--which most have found to be illuminating experiences, even when the subject is already familiar. They also attend seminars that provide a context for cultivating and maintaining the capacity to discuss professional interests in Spanish, as well as present materials developed for use in field placements or in their own classrooms, and receive feedback from peers. Undergraduate participants must attend 10 seminars a year, at least four in each semester, and each of them presents a report to the class at least once. First-year participants focus on the social use of Spanish and make presentations on content that is familiar to them, such as crafts or recipes. Second-year participants' presentations focus on interactions and might cover topics related to politics, literature, or music that engage classmates in conversation or debate. Third-year participants focus on classroom Spanish, usually consisting of lesson presentations in core subjects, followed by peer critiques, also in Spanish.
Whenever possible, preservice ELBE participants do more fieldwork than do regular teacher education students. In addition to the seminars and cultural events, they complete at least 24 hours of observations and at least 10 hours of afterschool tutoring in the same school. Their extended fieldwork is often done with other ELBE participants or graduates, who report that the contact is stimulating and rewarding. In one of ELBE's cooperating schools, the faculty's active engagement in a variety of instructional and organizational innovations makes an exciting context for preservice field experiences. This school has initiated a two-way bilingual program that begins in preKindergarten. By kindergarten, students are writing their own stories with IBM's Writing to Read programs in Spanish and English. ELBE project faculty members use school-based project activities to promote new collaborations with non-ELBE school personnel focused on innovative programs for children. This generative approach stimulates each school to become an even better site for teacher candidates and aspiring Teacher Leaders to learn.
Graduate students in ELBE decided to adopt a version of the Funds of Knowledge for Teaching model and each conducted home visits with the families of all the students in their classes. They used a structured interview to learn about families' language and cultural resources, talents, membership, life histories, and other information that might suggest ways to enrich the regular school curriculum. One participant used these interviews to initiate dialogue journals with parents. She and parents use the journals to communicate about areas of common interest, such as children's progress and school activities.
Spanish language maintenance. Students are required to develop lesson plans and conduct lessons in Spanish from the time they enter the program. The professional seminars for undergraduates are conducted in Spanish, as are parent involvement activities at field sites. Students take at least one advanced methods course taught in Spanish. This course, required for ELBE participants, also includes English-dominant student volunteers from the ESL certification program with varying levels of Spanish proficiency. In this course, students with different language abilities work in cooperative learning teams to complete course assignments and expand their understanding of the challenges presented by an unfamiliar language of instruction.
Funding and support. A Title VII grant covers most project expenses, although some part of the staff members' salaries is paid by the university. Title VII provides tuition and stipends for participants. UTSA has an institutionalized bicultural-bilingual studies program that operates even without Title VII support, but most of the ELBE participants would not be able to attend college without the assistance made possible by the Title VII grant.
Active leadership is the hallmark of ELBE participants. Undergraduate juniors meet with sophomores completing core requirements at community colleges and give them tours of the university campus to ensure their easy transition to upper-division work. At UTSA, the Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESO), promoted by ELBE participants, has won awards for its contribution to the quality of university life. In addition, BESO members make presentations at local, state, and national meetings of bilingual educators and are respected advisors in the national network of bilingual student educator organizations. Graduate participants lead project-related initiatives at their schools, and ELBE administrators have gained local prominence for the educational innovations they have launched from their school or central office positions.
Project staffing has been a challenge. In part to avoid the problem of occupying the time of tenure-track faculty with all of the implementation work, ELBE's plan includes provisions for non-tenured professional positions to provide coordination and some supervision. Although this plan resulted in tenured faculty's having time to participate in the institutional and research activities expected of them, it was not immediately successful in producing a stable professional support staff. Those whose professional qualifications meet the high standards demanded by the project either have other, higher-paying, long-term career options or, having accepted a position, discover that its scope leaves little time to pursue their own university studies. This problem was eventually resolved, but it served to underscore an area of concern for many university-based projects.
-###-
[ESOL Inservice Project]