A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Bilingual Professional Development Program

The Bilingual Professional Development Program consists of three competitive grant programs to meet the need for fully certified bilingual and ESL teachers and other educational personnel, and to help ensure the availability of well-prepared personnel to provide services to limited English proficient students.

• Teachers and Personnel: Inservice and preservice training for teachers and other educational personnel preparing to serve limited English proficient students;
• Career Ladder: Training for non-certified school staff, especially paraprofessionals, preparing for careers as bilingual teachers;
• Training for All Teachers: Ongoing professional development for regular classroom teachers. Professional development designed to ensure all teachers are prepared to effectively serve limited English proficient students.

Grantees: Local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state educational agencies

Examples of activities funded in 1999:

• Intensive professional development for veteran teachers that emphasizes academic content, involves active learning and encourages teachers from the same grade levels, departments, and schools to work in teams;
• Development and implementation of formal induction programs for new teachers that include activities such as mentoring, team teaching with experienced teachers, and observation of and consultation with experienced teachers;
• Improvement of preservice teacher preparation programs in institutions of higher education, including professional development for higher education faculty.

Indications of Need

• 80 percent of school districts in the nation report difficulty in finding bilingual teachers.
• Only 30 percent of teachers of limited English proficient students have received any formal training in bilingual education or English as a Second Language.
• 20 percent of teachers feel well prepared to address the needs of limited English proficient students in their classes.
• Nine states experienced increases of 50 percent or more in the number of limited English proficient students from 1993-1996.

Emphasis for technical assistance:

• Improving documentation of program effectiveness.
• Linking ongoing professional development to improved student achievement.
• Follow-up and assessment of program graduates.

For more information, contact Cindy Ryan at (202) 205-8842, or visit the Web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OBEMLA/fy2000.html.

Examples

The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Project Abstract:
The University of Southern California, Dominguez Hills and California State University at Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles Unified School District and other area school districts, and includes representatives of the local unions representing teachers and paraeducators, respectively. South Central Los Angeles has the highest concentration of limited English proficient students in the nation. In response to an increasing shortage of teachers prepared to teach limited English proficient students, the project taps into the area's paraprofessional workforce as a recruitment source for bilingual teachers by creating a career track for Latino bilingual paraeducators in South Central Los Angeles and beyond. The project builds social and team-building skills by organizing participant cohorts to encourage participants to work and learn together. In addition, project-sponsored family gatherings provide necessary support for participants--many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. Academic support workshops assist participants in preparing benchmark tests and with individualized tutoring needs. Participant progress is regularly monitored and students still in community college are carefully advised to be sure they progress and take appropriate courses for transfer to the university. Finally the project creates a network of professional support and professional modeling through the use of teacher mentors. Participants, mentors and often the participants' school principals meet regularly for professional development meetings, conferences or seminars, in which participants are encouraged to make presentations, and network with other professionals.

International High School, New York City Public Schools, New York

Project Abstract:
The International High School is a multicultural alternative educational environment for recent arrivals, serving students with varying degrees of limited English proficiency. A collaborative project between the New York City Board of Education and La Guardia Community College, this school offers a high school/college curriculum combining substantive study of all subject matter with intensive study and reinforcement of English. The school's mission is to enable each of the students to develop the linguistic, cognitive, and cultural skills necessary for success in high school, college and beyond.

The school's comprehensive professional development plan focuses on shared leadership, diversity of philosophy and teaching styles, and consensus. Half of the school's discretionary budget is allocated to professional development. The curriculum and assessment committee, which includes student representatives and teachers from every instructional team, leads the development of assessment standards, organizes teacher meetings to test the rubrics on actual student work, supports team efforts to revise curricula to ensure that every student has adequate learning opportunities to put together a satisfactory senior portfolio, and prepares guides for faculty mentoring seniors and chairing graduation portfolio panels.

International High School assesses students using multiple objective measures, judging itself in relation to previous years, as well as compared to other students in the district. Dropout rates are well below those for New York City (1.7 percent compared to 16.4 percent). Between 92 and 95 percent of the school's limited English proficient students apply and are accepted to college. Two-thirds attend four-year colleges, and one-third attend two-year colleges.

United Program for Bilingual Educators as Teachers and Trainers
Project (UpBEATT): Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas

Project Abstract:
Project UpBEATT, a five-year collaborative effort between Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and three independent school districts (Aldine, Cypress Fairbanks, and Conroe) in the Houston and Conroe, Texas, areas, trains (1) preservice teachers to become elementary bilingual education teachers and (2) inservice teachers to become trainers in the areas of curriculum, administration, technology, reading, or special education. This teacher training program blends academic coursework, field-based experience and professional development opportunities to deliver a quality training program, while in pursuit of a bachelor's or master's degree, as a means to integrate pedagogy and theory with authentic experience and practices used in our public schools to educate limited English proficient students. Participants are either preservice or inservice teachers interested in collaborating with a field-based teacher training program. Project UpBEATT's design intertwines three theoretically based components; academic coursework, field-based experiences, and professional development to build capacity within the critical shortage teaching area, bilingual education.

Publications

For more information on the Bilingual Professional Development Program, please visit:

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OBEMLA/fy2000.html
or
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/library/profdev.htm

• Model Strategies in Bilingual Education: Professional Development

• Training, Development, and Improvement (TDI): A New Approach for Reforming Bilingual Teacher Education

[ Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program (PT3) ]

[ GEAR UP for College Program ]