Two programs get federal funding

The College of Education at SUNY Fredonia has been awarded two federal grants totaling $3 million over the next five years to continue its English Language Acquisition (ELA) program and to also establish the new Bringing Resources that Incorporate Development in General Education (BRIDGE) program.

SUNY Fredonia’s Project ELA and Project BRIDGE were two of 150 programs designated nationwide for funding through 2012 under the Title III National Professional Development program. Only three programs, including the two at SUNY Fredonia, will be funded in New York State.

“It’s highly unusual to have two grants funded from the same source to one institution,” said Dr. Barbara Mallette, principal investigator for the Project BRIDGE grant and professor in the Language, Learning and Leadership department at SUNY Fredonia. Both are designed to help schools serve growing student populations whose native language is not English.

Cynthia Jonsson, director of SUNY Fredonia’s Project ELA and Project BRIDGE, was obviously pleased that both programs will be funded for five years. “The number of students that are English language learners continues to increase,” Ms. Jonsson explained, so it is important to have the ability to certify teachers that can work with them effectively so that these students can be successful in school and carry this success into their lives.

The U.S. Department of Education grant will allocate $300,000 each year for Project ELA to serve students enrolled in SUNY Fredonia’s master’s level TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program, which provides tools and individual strategies for teachers who work with English language learners.

The grant will provide partial tuition reimbursement, assist with textbook purchases and help cover the cost of professional development activities and workshops. It will also fund four graduate assistantships annually. The program has an enrollment goal of 25 students.

Dr. John Liontas, an associate professor in the Learning, Language and Leadership department and principal investigator of the ELA grant application, indicated that federal funding for an additional five years represents a strong endorsement of training that this SUNY Fredonia program offers to its own students as well as to teachers throughout the region.

“Another cycle of funding speaks volumes for us,” Dr. Liontas said, and enables the university to provide this specialized training to its own students and also continue in-service training for area teachers through conferences and workshops. More than 100 SUNY Fredonia students have received financial assistance during Project ELA’s inaugural five years.

Ms. Jonsson concurs with Dr. Liontas’ assessment. “Through the close working relationships Project ELA has developed with districts, teachers and regional professional organizations continued funding allows us to build on our foundation.” She also noted that the additional funding of Project BRIDGE provides the means to expand the SUNY Fredonia program and provide long-term training and follow-up with specific instructional strategies.

“We like to believe that we put together a good package, and we like to believe that our past record of success speaks for itself, and we like to believe that what we are offering to the region is very, very important,” Dr. Liontas said.

The TESOL program serves students in three educational tracks: those with a bachelor’s degree in education seeking a graduate degree; those already with a master’s degree who want an advanced certification; and those with a liberal arts background who want teacher certification as well as TESOL training. Enrollment information on TESOL and Project ELA is available at the Project ELA office, 716-673-4725.

SUNY Fredonia designed Project BRIDGE to deliver professional development for teachers and administrators in three urban school districts that have areas of need related to serving students who enroll in middle and high schools with limited English language skills, explained Dr. Mallette. Its focus will be on the core subjects of English, math, science and social studies taught at the secondary level, working with educators and administrators that may not have the educational background to meet the unique needs of these English language learners.

Additionally, Project BRIDGE will focus on training preservice teachers enrolled in SUNY Fredonia’s adolescence education programs.

The program will work specifically with Dunkirk and Jamestown, two districts that SUNY Fredonia has longstanding working relationships with, as well as the Lackawanna school system. “SUNY Fredonia has close relationships with Dunkirk and Jamestown, but this is really a first with Lackawanna,” Dr. Mallette noted, “it’s nice to bring them into the fold.”

The association with the Lackawanna district will also give SUNY Fredonia the added study experience of working with an Islamic student population, a cultural group that differs from the Hispanic population traditionally found in Dunkirk and Jamestown.

The grant will support an intensive one-week summer institute, where most of the training for teachers will be presented, as well as two training sessions during the school year. A total of 30 teachers, 10 from each district, will be enrolled each year.

Dr. Mallette believes Project BRIDGE will further strengthen SUNY Fredonia’s adolescence education programs. Faculty will gain knowledge of strategies and practices that have been demonstrated to positively impact English language learners, so they can pass them onto their own students at SUNY Fredonia. “That’s a piece that has been either missing or underrepresented in our adolescence education program,” she said.

SUNY Fredonia will also incorporate information gained from Project BRIDGE into field-based courses taken by teacher certification candidates. “This will round out the content area professional that we are turning out,” Dr. Mallette said.

“For candidates in our Educational Leadership Program, we will look at supervision practices that have been successful for teachers whose student populations are English language learners,” Dr. Mallette said, and provide new research opportunities for faculty and staff.

The College of Education is in the process of hiring a program coordinator to assist the director in implementing and managing both programs. Notification of Project BRIDGE and Project ELA grant approvals was received in early July.