How a Federal Grant Program Is Training and Supporting Educators of English Learners
English learners (ELs) are a growing part of the student population in the United States. In 2017-2018, one out of every 10 public school students was an EL and almost two-thirds of public school teachers had at least one EL in their classroom. With an increase in these students comes an increased need for effective EL educators who have the training and preparation to support these students’ academic achievement and help develop their English proficiency.
The National Professional Development (NPD) program, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, aimed to address the nationwide shortage of educators qualified to support EL students. NPD grants support professional development projects to improve both the qualifications and classroom instruction of educators working with ELs. Grantees can serve various types of educators, from current teachers to those in training. The program encourages grantees to focus on evidence-based practices and to engage in evaluation activities that inform improvement and contribute to evidence building.
Drawing from a 2021 survey of 92 NPD grantees funded in either 2016 or 2017, AIR examined:
- The types of educators NPD grantees choose to serve;
- The kinds of professional development NPD grantees choose to provide; and
- The extent to which grantees used rigorous research to design their activities and collected data to support project evaluations.
Key Findings
- While the program allowed flexibility to serve different types of teachers, most grantees focused on supporting general education teachers and EL specialists. All grantees served current teachers while just over half also served participants preparing to become teachers.
- Grantees most often focused their professional development content on English language development and academic content mastery, and used a variety of approaches to deliver the content.
- Almost all grantees used research evidence to inform their professional development, as the program encouraged.
- Limitations in the types of data that grantees collected may have impeded their ability to address the emphasis on performance measurement and project evaluations. However, almost all grantees reported using data in some way to inform project improvement.
