Project Teach Them All
Project Teach Them All is being implemented by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas, in partnership with three middle schools, three junior high schools and two high schools in the Springdale School District in Springdale, Ark., and with support of the Arkansas Department of Education. Need for the project was demonstrated by the fact that the English Language Learner (ELL) population in the school district increased by 121 percent over the past seven years, yet the pool of qualified and English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsed teaching force has remained stagnant.
The project is providing an ESL endorsement program, specifically targeting services for teachers in a school district with the highest population of ELL students in the state of Arkansas (Priority 1). Project staff and University of Arkansas faculty will collect post-training data on the effectiveness of program completers in order to determine the impact of the project on the academic achievement and English language development of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students.
This ESL endorsement program is successful for two reasons. First, the program is being offered as an on-site program in Springdale, a community where the growth rate of the ELL population has outpaced the district’s ability to train teachers to educate these students. Second, the program requires that participants engage in practicum that is embedded in courses. Through supervised practicum, faculty is provided first-hand opportunities to observe the degree to which teachers provide services to their LEP students.
The 2008-09 school year is the second year of implementation for this program. Fifty teachers are currently enrolled in the program and over a five-year period, 100 teachers will earn a state-recognized endorsement in English as a Second Language. As a result of this project, the University of Arkansas is the first institute of higher education in the state to develop an on-site ESL endorsement program for teachers.
