Focus of $1.2m grant is bilingual students

A $1.2 million grant from the US Department of Education will enable Lesley College to prepare teachers for work with bilingual children in Boston.

Lesley’s new program, the Boston Collaborative Bilingual Project, is part of an effort to boost the academic performance of children with limited English proficiency. These pupils tend to score lower on standardized exams and have higher dropout rates than their peers.

Under the project, the school will prepare 40 master’s-level teachers to work with these students in Boston schools and pre-school programs.

“The Bilingual Project helps fulfill a need that’s becoming more prominent as the population of Boston grows more diverse,” said Lesley’s president, Margaret McKenna. “It’s imperative that we reach these children early in their school lives.”

The five-year program will give master’s-level teachers an emphasis in bilingual education. The participants, who must commit to taking leadership roles in bilingual ed, will then train other teachers.

“What we’re looking at is a ripple effect,” said Thomas Payzant, superintendent of Boston schools. “The impact of this project extends far beyond that core group of teachers and their students.”

The fastest-growing ethnic group in Boston’s schools is Hispanics. Forty-seven percent of these children speak primarily Spanish.



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