SU awarded $1.3 million grant

SALISBURY, MD ---Several counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland are experiencing growth rates above 40 percent for United States immigrants whose native language is not English. Immersion of these students into Delmarva public school classrooms has created challenges for these young students as well as their monolingual teachers.

The passage of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" act will put added pressure on these school systems when the mandate of 100 percent pass rate on statewide standardized tests in reading, writing and science is implemented in 2007.

In response to the obvious need for teachers experienced with students for whom English is a second language, Salisbury University has secured a $1.3 million five-year federal grant to create the Accelerated Career Enhancement (ACE) Master's in English/Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) at SU. The grant coming out of the U. S. Department of Education's, Office of English Language Acquisition utilizes a model of expert training involving

collaborative faculty expertise at SU, UMES and other state and national colleges and universities.

Participants in ACE will come from Caroline, Dorchester, Somerset, Talbot and Wicomico counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

"The ACE model aims to increase the quality and quantity of trained graduate degree-holding ESOL professionals on the Eastern Shore," said Dr. Anjali Pandey, a linguistics professor in the SU English Department who wrote the grant and will supervise its implementation.

"Thanks to the collaboration between SU, UMES and Eastern Shore public school systems," said Pandey, "we have been able to develop a relatively fast-track program that has high incentives for teachers in addition to improving routes of educational accessibility for Shore K-12 students.

"The courses are delivered in longer blocks of time than conventionally sequenced semester classes permitting for more intense continuous study and the eventual creation of 'flexible experts,'" said Pandey.

The 11-month niche-program, beginning in January and ending in November, is limited to 12 participants, two each from Caroline, Dorchester, Talbot and Somerset counties and four from Wicomico. Admission to the program, through a competitive application process, is open to qualified, licensed classroom teachers from various subject and grade levels.

Each qualifying participant receives a full scholarship including tuition and fees for 12 courses plus a stipend for books.

Also included in the scholarship is a "Substitute Teacher Payment" for each participant for his/her respective county for six course meetings (24 altogether) held on weekdays in the program. This is an effort to ensure all participants have enough time to travel and be academically prepared for their course work. Six of the other courses are on weekends and during the summer months.

At the end of the program successful participants will earn a graduate degree in English/TESOL. Subsequent years will also be limited to 12 participants.

The ACE program faculty, who will have a minimum of a doctorate in the area of applied linguistics, TESOL or bilingual education, will be from SU and UMES as well as other colleges and universities. All courses will be taught at SU.

The culmination of each project year is a conference on the "The No Child Left Behind" act as this relates to rural ESOL populations.

"By the end of the grant (November 2008)," said Pandey, "we hope there will be enough ESOL classroom teachers, coordinators and assessment and curriculum specialists in Eastern Shore public school systems to ensure the fair and accountable implementation of the 'No Child left Behind' act as it relates to limited English speaking populations."

"The ACE program is based on two crucial premises of democratic education," said Pandey, "namely, that all children should have equal access to high quality education, and that high quality education comes from highly qualified teachers, administrators and educational practitioners who have augmented their training in the content area beyond the required baccalaureate qualification.

"The ultimate beneficiaries of the grant will be the students, especially those with a limited English-speaking and writing background."

For more information on ACE, please call Dr. Pandey at 410-677-5387.