News release
Public Information Office
SLU 10880 Hammond,
LA 70402 phone:
985-549-2341 fax:
985-549-2061publicinfo@selu.edu
www.selu.edu/news
Contact: Christina Chapple
Date: 11/8/02
| SLU’S PROJECT TEACH WILL TRAIN ESL TEACHERS
HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University has received a $1.2 million federal grant for “Project Teach,” a five-year program to improve and increase the number of teachers qualified to work with students who speak limited English. The U.S. Department of Education grant initially will impact 600 teachers and 1,000 limited English proficient (LEP) students in schools in Livingston, East Baton Rouge and Lafayette Parishes, said Project Director Rossana Boyd, coordinator of the English as a Second Language (ESL) and Internet Alternative Certification programs in Southeastern’s College of Education and Human Development. Additional parishes may be added as grant partners in the future, Boyd said. Boyd said that $577,500, more than half of the Project Teach grant funds, will go directly to teachers as stipends ranging from $200 to $1,600 for tuition, fees, textbooks, software and ESL instructional material. The grant will also pay for teachers’ substitutes when training sessions take them away from the classroom. Southeastern is the only Louisiana university, and one of only a handful nationwide, that offers add-on ESL certification entirely on the Internet. During each of the grant’s five years, 90 teachers will receive two days of ESL training in the fall with follow-up sessions in the spring. The teachers will be networked by a Southeastern ESL listserv that will keep them informed about ESL issues and resources. Also each year, 20 pre-service and in-service teachers will complete the four Southeastern Internet courses (12 credit hours) leading to ESL add-on certification, and 10 master teachers will be given the option to either earn the add-on certification or complete 12 credit hours toward a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with ESL emphasis. Teachers will also participate in summer follow-up workshops and have the opportunity to attend state and national conferences. Boyd said Southeastern’s ESL certification courses and the Project Teach training will provide teachers with effective instructional and assessment strategies and ways to adapt lessons so that LEP students can comprehend the material. "LEP students learn fast, but they are often overwhelmed at first," Boyd said. "Teachers will learn how to use visuals and hands-on activities that help students connect concepts with words." Southeastern has offered ESL certification, which is added to a teacher’s basic certificate in elementary or secondary education, since 1992, said Martha Thornhill, interim dean of the College of Education and Human Development. For the past two years, the program has been offered online, allowing mainstream teachers who serve LEP students to use their classrooms for field experiences. “Project Teach will make a significant impact on the teachers who deliver the instruction and the students who need it,” Thornhill said. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with our partner parishes.” Boyd said Louisiana is home to approximately 7,000 LEP students of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Around 2,000 of those students, representing 40 different languages, live in the southeast Louisiana parishes surrounding Southeastern. “Some students arrive from war-torn countries, while others come from stable, well-educated households,” Boyd said. “Some are literate in their native language and have some proficiency in English while others are totally pre-literate in English. These factors challenge teachers on a daily basis because they need to feel better prepared to address the needs of the LEP students.” She said East Baton Rouge Parish public schools have approximately 1,400 LEP students. The parish houses a refugee resettlement center with an increasing number of students from countries such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Yugoslavia and Somalia. Lafayette Parish, with more than 400 LEP students, also has a refugee resettlement center. Also, the parish’s ESL middle school program has been moved to a new site where teachers have no ESL training. Boyd said Livingston Parish reported 60 LEP students in 2001-2002, a number that has increased 70 percent over the last two years. The students, she said, are served by one itinerant ESL teacher and two paraprofessionals. Boyd said the ESL training for the four parishes’ teachers will help LEP students succeed on crucial Louisiana Education Accountability Program (LEAP 21) tests. “LEP students are required to take and pass the LEAP 21 test after only one year in the United States,” Boyd said. “In general, if students fail the test, they are allowed to take the test one more time. If they fail after the second attempt, they are retained. Failure doesn’t help address the problem.” LEAP tests are challenging to the LEP students “because they are expected to acquire English language and core content area skills at the same time they are adjusting to a new culture,” Boyd said. “It is also challenging for teachers because they are required to prepare students to demonstrate competency. “It takes one to two years for students to acquire a social language,” Boyd said, “but it takes five to seven years to acquire the academic language they need to be on par with English speaking peers.” “Project Teach will benefit the teachers in these parishes, but, ultimately, it is the children who will benefit,” Boyd said. Participating schools are Livingston Parish’s East Side Elementary, French Settlement Elementary, Holden Elementary, Louis Vincent Elementary and Maurepas School; East Baton Rouge’s LaBelle Aire Elementary, Park Forest Elementary, Park Forest Middle, and Kenilworth Middle and Lafayette Parish’s Broadmoor Elementary, Edgar Martin Middle and Lafayette High School. |
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