Serving ELL Learners through a Grow-Your-Own Teacher Education Program

Success Stories

Rural northeast Nebraska has a rapidly growing minority population. For many new residents, English is a second language. In some communities, public elementary schools have minority enrollments as high as 85 percent of the student body which is in stark contrast from as little as ten years ago. Public K-12 schools in the region struggle to meet the needs of ELL students and to help parents become engaged in their children's education. While rural school districts recognize the need for a diverse teaching staff who can relate to students and parents and serve as role models, they have difficulty recruiting teachers from similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds as the students they serve.

A coalition of six communities and four public higher education institutions in the region seeks to address the problem through a grow-your-own teacher education program. Using distance education technologies, a baccalaureate degree program leading to certification in elementary education as well as English as a Second Language is being offered for minority and bilingual paraeducators employed by local school districts. By the end of the project in 2008, the region will have 1) a pool of qualified minority applicants for teacher vacancies, 2) an increase in the number of highly qualified para educators, and 3) up to 30 additional in-service teachers certified in ESL.

This session will describe demographics supporting the need for the project, goals and anticipated outcomes, the process through which the project was developed, and ways in which it is connected to Extension.