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October 2007 $3 Million Grant to Boost Teacher Training in Bilingual Special Education
Grants totaling $3 million will enable GW’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development to educate more than 150 local teachers on how to better meet the needs of the dramatically increasing population of students for whom English is a second language. Awarded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition, the funds will be used to enroll public school teachers from Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in either GW’s bilingual special education graduate certificate program or its curriculum and instruction master’s degree program with an emphasis on bilingual special education. The grants provide substantial tuition support with additional assistance from the public school partners over a five-year period. Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, as well as GW, contributed financially to the grant. Participating teachers will enroll in GW classes beginning in October; the graduate certificate in bilingual special education is offered online as well as on campus. “We are delighted to receive this award and to partner with our local public school systems,” says Amy Mazur, professor of special education and director of GW’s bilingual special education programs. “Upon completion of the programs, Maryland educators at high-need schools will have the skills and competencies to collaboratively address the needs of the growing population of bilingual students, with and without special education needs.” Teachers completing the certificate program in Montgomery County will learn how to tailor their instruction for non-native English speakers and will serve in their respective high schools as content-English speakers of other languages specialists for the year following their coursework. In Prince George’s County, uncertified teachers at elementary, middle, and secondary schools will become fully credentialed through the master’s degree program. Mazur says the focus of the county’s Communities of Practice program will be to assess the cultural, academic, and linguistic issues English language learners face as they transition between school levels and to establish a system of support for these students and their families. Jay Shotel, chair of GW’s Department of Teacher Preparation and Special Education, says the grant programs will address a vital and often overlooked area of education. “We tend to over-identify or misidentify second-language learners as special-needs students because of teachers’ lack of knowledge,” says Shotel. “Knowledge is power in meeting the needs of students for whom English is not the primary language. Training a critical mass of teachers to respond to this special set of needs will have a tremendous impact on successful outcomes for these students.” Patty Rice Doran, part-time GW faculty member and project coordinator for Montgomery County’s Bridges to Curriculum Access program, points to GW’s big-picture approach to bilingual education as a major factor in securing the grant. “GW is one of only seven bilingual special education programs in the nation,” she says. “I think the University received these grants in large part because bilingual special education, unlike other programs that focus only on ESL or only on special education, is really able to speak to the variety of needs students have.”
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