WMU professors awarded $2.6 million grant by U.S. Department of Education

Sept. 22, 2017

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Drs. Selena Protacio, Susan Piazza, Virginia David and Hsiao-Chin Kuo, of the Department of Special Education and Literacy Studies, have been awarded a five-year training grant by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition for the amount of $2.6 million dollars. Project English Learners and Teacher Education (ELATE) will provide a rigorous and comprehensive professional development program for both pre-service and in-service teachers. WMU pre-service teachers who have an interest in earning their ESL endorsement can apply to be part of a pre-service cohort wherein they would take three out of the seven courses in the program, and these classes would be paid for by the grant. Meanwhile, WMU has partnered with six local education agencies which have high needs in terms of educators with an expertise in working with ELs. Project ELATE will provide substantial financial support for these in-service teachers as they work towards earning their ESL endorsement. In addition, other activities of Project ELATE include hosting an annual ESL conference as well as a Family and Community Engagement Symposia.