Limited-English-proficient-students
Education for All Professionals

The Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University is currently working with a consortium of four rural school districts serving Mexican-American students in the Yuma area on the border of Mexico to prepare and support general education teachers in obtaining a Bilingual Multicultural Education/English as a Second Language Endorsement. The project provides credit-bearing coursework leading to a Bilingual Education and/or ESL endorsement that will have an infusion of special education and technology modules integrated into all courses. The Title VII federally funded LEAP program provides Fellows with tuition, books, a laptop computer, and a printer.

Participating teachers from Gadsden Elementary, Somerton Elementary, Crane Elementary, and Yuma I Elementary School Districts, are provided with training in best practice strategies for working with limited English proficient (LEP) students and limited English proficient students with disabilities. Recognizing the importance of the role that administrators and counselors play in the students' education, counselors and administrators will be included in the four Cohort Groups receiving training in the LEAP project. Over a period of three years, 96 educators (80 teachers and 16 counselors and administrators) in four Cohort Groups of 24 Fellows each, will complete a Bilingual Education or ESL Endorsement and collaborate with 12 Mentor Teachers and 8 Faculty Mentors in co-teaching in K?8 classrooms and in development of ESL inclusion/technology rich curriculum materials. In addition, LEAP Fellows also participate in a yearly Trainer of Trainers (TOT) Inservice Professional Development Program in which 200 additional educators from the consortium districts are included in training related to instructional strategies for LEP students developed by the LEAP program Fellows.

In this way, the Fellows not only be receiving training, but they are also becoming the future consortium district trainers in the area of best practice for teaching LEP students and LEP students with disabilities. The LEAP project will provide this Bilingual/ESL Endorsement Program utilizing a Distance Education approach with service delivery via the Web, Interactive Instructional Television (IITV) and on-site, so that rural teachers can remain in their local communities while learning endorsement skills and competencies to enable them to provide high quality education to limited English proficient students and limited English proficient students with disabilities within the local community.

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

LEAP Program Application
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