Bilingual Rural Inclusive Development
for General and Exceptional-educators

BRIDGE is a federally funded (OSERS) field-based collaboration in special and general education between Northern Arizona University and Arizona rural school districts with a focus on training teachers to serve children with high-incidence disabilities from Native American (Navajo and Hopi) and Mexican-American backgrounds. Over the three years of the project, BRIDGE will train 20 Tuba and 20 Yuma-area pre-service bilingual special education Masters Degree students to improve results for rural Culturally/Linguistically Diverse Exceptional (CLDE) students with high-incidence disabilities. In addition to receiving a Masters Degree in Special Education with an emphasis on serving CLDE Students with High-Incidence Disabilities, BRIDGE graduates will be eligible for Arizona Special Education Cross-categorical Certification and will qualify for provisional Endorsement in ESL. BRIDGE students, through the OSERS grant, are provided with tuition, books, a laptop computer and a printer.

BRIDGE is designed to ensure that both special education and general education professionals possess the specific knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to design and implement highly effective programs for rural CLDE children with high-incidence disabilities with a focus on inclusive collaborative methods of delivering special education services. The BRIDGE project is currently implementing a Distance Education Masters Degree Program with delivery via the WEB and Interactive Instructional Television (IITV), as well as on-site supervision of practicum/internship experiences so that rural teachers can remain in their local communities wile participating fully in a Masters Degree Program in Special Education.

If you would like more information about BRIDGE please send E-mail to Dr. Peterson