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ASAP 2 TEACH PROJECT

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Funded by Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education

OUR VISION

Texas A&M University-San Antonio (A&M-SA) will be a national hub and model for preparing bilingual and multilingual teachers to teach in the nation’s increasing population of English Learners (ELs), thus empowering non-native English speakers to be contributing and active citizens of our country.

OUR MISSION

To develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate an action-oriented bilingual and multilingual teacher preparation program that responds to the prevailing shortage of such teachers in high-need local education agencies and hard-to-reach schools in the country.

OUR OBJECTIVES

Through Aspiring Students to Advance Professionally (ASAP) – to (2) Teach project, our objectives aim to serve multilingual English learners, parents, and communities. The project will target four potential participants.

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

  1. Bilingual Education Students – ASAP2TEACH will certify 60 bilingual pre-service teachers over a period of four years. These are students enrolled at A&M-SA who aspire to complete their degrees in education and obtain teaching certifications in bilingual education or English as a Second Language (ESL).
  2. In-Service Teachers – ASAP2TEACH will certify 30 in-service teachers with a Microcredential certificate for English as a Second Language (ESL) certification over a period of four years. These are in-service teachers, currently with an initial teacher certification and working as a teacher of record in a school and who desire to improve knowledge, skills, and abilities and obtain teaching certification in ESL.
  3. Paraprofessionals– ASAP2TEACH will improve the classroom teaching abilities of 15 paraprofessionals, who are also considered in this project as pre-service teachers, by 25% over a period of four years. These are paraprofessional or teaching assistants working at local schools who are currently without initial teacher certification. Paraprofessionals will work towards obtaining their teaching certifications in Bilingual Education or ESL.
  4. High and Middle School Students – ASAP2TEACH will improve the awareness of the bilingual education teaching profession of 120 high and middle school students by 50% over a period of four years. These are high and middle school students who will join the junior Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESITOS) at their schools. They will participate in activities to develop their awareness about the education profession and teaching of English Learners.

Micro-Credential Courses for In-Service Teachers

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Value

The Bilingual Education and ESL program is committed to serving and providing content knowledge to fill the learning gap in working with multilingual communities. The first value is that the micro-credential certificate will enhance the content knowledge and skill for in-service teachers with school partners in working with multilingual learners. Additionally, the microcredential courses will assist in-service teachers to pursue English as a second language endorsement. 

Two microcredential courses are proposed to address the following knowledge and skill in the ASAP2TEACH Project. The first course prepares participating teachers to develop academic language instructions, pedagogy, assessment, inter-cultural competence development, and advocacy for the English Learners, parents, and community. The second course prepare ESL teachers to understand fundamental language concepts, the structure, and conventions of the English language, and receive ESL state exam’s overview and practice.

Microcredential courses in Teaching Multilingual Learners

  • Course 1: Pedagogy for multilingual learners (8 modules)
  • Course 2: Language teaching for multilingual learners (5 modules)
  • Completing ESL 154 review session and practice exam

About the course

The EL population is one of the fastest-growing student groups in the country, and the demand for ESL teachers is particularly high in states with large immigrant and refugee populations. The Microcredential course is a comprehensive program that enhances pre-service and in-service teachers’ knowledge and skills of teaching multilingual learners. Moreover, the course also provides pre-service teachers who are interested in taking English as a second language 154 supplemental state exam.

The course includes the following topics:

  1. Understanding the second language acquisition (SLA) theories and stages
  2. Acquiring linguistic knowledge to teach English Learners (ELs)
  3. Understanding academic language for ELs
  4. Advocating for English Learners (ELs) and their families at the school level
  5. Advocating for EL-Friendly Local, State, and Federal Policies
  6. Analyzing Assessments to Support EL Learning
  7. English as second language approaches, methods, and strategies
  8. Using Formative Assessments to Support EL Learning
  9. Content-based lesson planning

Paraprofessionals

Overview

Paraprofessionals are important members of a school’s staff, and they have provided different kinds of support one-one-one tutoring, assisting with classroom management, conducted parental involvement activities, or instructional support service for all students. The ASAP2TEACh grant aims to Increase teacher capacity of para-professionals’ (pre-service teachers) awareness and motivation to pursue bilingual education certification and/or ESL endorsement.

The Goal of ASAP2TEACH Project

ASAP2TEACH will improve the classroom teaching abilities of 15 paraprofessionals, who are also considered in this project as pre-service teachers, by 25% over a period of four years. These are paraprofessional or teaching assistants working at local schools who are currently without initial teacher certification. Paraprofessionals will work towards obtaining their teaching certifications in Bilingual Education or ESL.

Project Partners

Palo Alto College

Palo Alto College is a public community college in San Antonio, Texas. It is one of five separately accredited colleges in the Alamo Colleges District.

Palo Alto College

Southwest ISD

Southwest Independent School District is a public school district located in southwestern Bexar County, Texas, United States.

Southwest

Harlendale ISD

Harlandale Independent School District is a public school district based in San Antonio, Texas, in the United States. 

Harlandale

Edgewood ISD

Edgewood Independent School District is a public school district based in San Antonio, in Bexar County, Texas.

Edgewood

Nuestra Gente: Mi Futuro™ Cultural Arts Education Program

The Nuestra Gente: Mi Futuro™ Cultural Arts Education Program is dedicated to supporting cultural, educational, and community engagement initiatives. Our mission is to provide leadership and support for cultural arts programming in schools, organizations, and for students. As a part of our commitment to enhancing the quality of life for students and the broader community, we are proud to partner with ASAP2Teach and Beso'itos.

The Nuestra Gente: Mi Futuro™ Cultural Arts Education Program is a division of Miella Media©. Copyrights are reserved by Bernadette Peña and Miella Media©. 

Nuestra Gente

Project Team

 

Professor & PI of ASAP2TEACH

Dr. Esther Garza is full professor and Chair, Department of Educator and Leadership Preparation at A&M-SA. She is principal investigator of ASAP2TEACH Project. She will provide overall direction and guidance to ASAP, including overseeing the development, implementation, and evaluation of all activities and the dissemination of products and lessons learned.

 Esther Garza

Professor and Co-PI

Dr. Hsiao-Ping Wu is full Professor of bilingual education and English as Second Language program in the Department of Educator and Leadership Preparation at A&M- SA. She will assist the PI will all matters and activities of ASAP and will be leading and supporting ASAP activities related to the recruiting, supporting, preparing, and retaining teachers. Especially, she will lead microcredential professional development academy.

 

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Associate Professor and Co-PI

Dr. Myriam Jimena Guerra is associate professor of bilingual education and English as a Second Language program in the Department of Educator and Leadership Preparation. She is Co-PI that that will lead ASAP activities related to the recruiting, supporting, preparing, and retaining paraprofessionals as bilingual education and multilingual/ESL teachers.

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External Evaluator

Dr. Manuel Pina, Jr. will serve as External Evaluator. He has over 30 years thirty years of experience in writing, managing, and evaluating research, education, and extension programs. He has performed formative and summative iterative evaluations with continual feedback loops to contribute to success of projects as they evolve for such institutions as the International Potato Center, Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Texas State University, University of Texas at El Paso, Texas Tech University, Texas Womans University, Houston Community College, and El Paso Community College, among others.

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Project Manager

Ms. Carreon is the program manager that will assist the PI and Co- PIs will all matters and activities of ASAP and will be leading ASAP activities related to the recruiting, supporting, preparing, and retaining high school and middle school students as bilingual education and multilingual (English as a Second Language) teachers. Ms. Carreon will be responsible for connecting ASAP with Palo Alto College (PAC) and the schools in the Harlandale, Southwest, and Edgewood Independent School Districts (ISDs).

Scholarship for Bilingual Students

Scholarship Requirements

  1. GPA requirement
  2. Goal Statement
  3. Organization and logic
  4. Writing skills mechanics
  5. Evidence of social engagement
  6. Evidence of Special skills 

Please apply the scholarship through scholarshipuniverse at tamusa.scholarshipuniverse.com or scan the QR code below

APPLY NOW!

QR code for bilingual grant

How to Apply

Step 1 Log In

By using your Jaguar ID and password, log in to ScholarshipUniverse. Please note: if this is your first time logging in, based on DUO setup, some of the information in the register account screen is prepopulated.

Step 2 Start Matching

You will thenbe directed straight to a series of questions to begin building your profile. After each question, the “Matches” and “Opportunity” boxes in the top right corner will be updated with the new scholarship opportunities you’ve been matched with based on the answers you have provided. At any time, you can view your matched scholarships by clicking on the “Matches” box.

Step 3 View your matches

You can use the Scholarships tab on the left side of the screen to view the scholarships you have been matched with.

For more questions
Email: ASAP2TEACH@TAMUSA.EDU