Webster University’s Teaching English as a Second Language program has received a $2.7 million National Professional Development (NPD) grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition. This is the largest grant that Webster University has yet received.
This five-year grant will allow 120 St. Louis area public school teachers to complete the coursework required by Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for English Language Learner (ELL) Certification. For this special grant project, Webster University has partnered with three school districts, Parkway School District, Ritenour School District, and St. Louis Public Schools, in addition to two community partners, the International Institute and St. Louis Mosaic Project. This project will be under the leadership of Webster University associate professors DJ Kaiser and Yin Lam Lee-Johnson, who will serve as co-project directors and co-principal investigators.
“When we submitted the grant application, these three districts had only 90 ELL-certified teachers,” said Kaiser, who is also the program coordinator for the MA in Teaching English as a Second Language at Webster University. “Thanks to this grant, these numbers will more than double by the end of the five years.”
The new NPD project, “Increasing Teacher Capacity through Communities of Practice to Serve English Learners,” will begin this fall semester. Over the next five years, eight cohorts of K-12 teachers will go through a robust two-year program, which will lead to Missouri ELL Certification and complete the majority of coursework required for a master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language. The project’s goal is to strengthen K-12 teachers’ capacity to serve the language and cultural needs of English Language Learners in their classrooms, buildings, and districts. The grant will also support the development of a new curriculum to address parent, family, and community engagement to help better serve the needs of ELLs.
“We know that due to the rich diversity in our region, there is a need for qualified teachers in English as a second language,” said Elizabeth (Beth) J. Stroble, president of Webster University. “This grant allows Webster University and our partners to assure that English Learners develop the skills they need to be successful.”
This is the second large federal grant awarded to the School of Education’s nationally recognized Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program. In 2012, Webster University received another NPD grant for its Kansas City campus in partnership with Kansas City Public Schools. That $1.9 million grant, which has provided ELL Certification coursework to more than 80 public school teachers, finished this August. The School of Education also received a two-year $1 million grant from the PNC Foundation for the project “Mind Full of Words,” designed to help build preschool children’s vocabularies in two St. Louis neighborhoods. Webster University also partnered with St. Louis Public Schools from 2011 through 2013 on a $300,000 state Math and Science Partnership Grant to cross-train K-5 Math teachers to serve the needs of ELLs.
“Research grants such as these allow Webster University to shape the global academic excellence of not only our own faculty and students, but also the communities we serve,” said Julian Schuster, Webster University’s provost, senior vice president, chief operating officer, and steering committee member for grant partner St. Louis Mosaic Project. “We are proud to receive this new federal grant and we look forward to continuing to help shape the education of ESL teachers throughout the community.”
In 2013, Webster University’s program in Teaching English as a Second Language became the first and only program in the state of Missouri to receive national recognition from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, now the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation). The new partnership between Webster University’s strong TESL program, three large area school districts, and two community partners will strengthen the instructional and cultural support provided to thousands of students in the St. Louis area, making an impact in local schools and the community well beyond the five years of the grant.
