Grant will help train teachers to teach ESL students

A new grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help UW Tacoma’s Education Program better prepare student teachers to serve English as a Second Language learners in public schools.

A consortium of King and Pierce County educators, led by a team of faculty from UW Tacoma, recently received the nearly $2 million, five-year grant to establish the Communities of Practice for Teaching English Language Learners program. The group hopes to use the money to establish a dual-track English Language/K-8 teacher certification program at UW Tacoma, providing student teachers with an opportunity to earn English Language (EL) certification and their teaching certificate at the same time.

“The fact is, very few of our teachers have received training to teach ESL students,” said Professor Belinda Louie, the project’s director and principal investigator. “With this grant, we are not training ESL teachers. We are training all teachers to teach ESL students, which will better serve the English learners in our region.”

By the end of the 5-year grant period, Louie and her colleagues hope to increase the number of teachers endorsed to teach English Language by 35 percent.

Communities of Practice for TELL will include a new dual-track English Language/K-8 teacher certification program at UW Tacoma, providing student teachers with an opportunity to earn EL certification and their teaching certificate at the same time. The program will be developed by restructuring existing course content and fieldwork available to Education students at UW Tacoma.

An advisory board of educators and parents of EL children will guide development of the program. The group hopes to start with a class of 15 students in the first year and expand to 35 students by the following year.

Besides UW Tacoma, partners in the effort include the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Puget Sound Educational Service District, Federal Way School District and Tacoma Public Schools. UW Tacoma Associate Professor of Education Greg Benner is also participating in the project.