Maine Perspective Front Page
$1.25 Million Grant Funds Project Mainestay
In K-12 classrooms throughout central and northern Maine, you can hear the difference.
French. Passamaquoddy and Micmac. Spanish. Eighteen Asian, 12 African or nearly 50 other languages.
More than half of the state's bilingual students or those who have English as a second language (ESL) are enrolled in Maine's rural schools.
Dedicated teachers and tutors throughout Maine help to meet the needs of non-English heritage language students. However, in the northern two-thirds of the state, 82 percent of ESL/bilingual teachers do not have state endorsement in ESL or bilingual education. Moreover, until recently, no higher education institution in Maine offered a complete ESL endorsement program for educators of limited English proficiency (LEP) and heritage language students.
Now a five-year, $1.25 million Title VII grant under the U.S. Department of Education's Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) has been awarded to the University of Maine, in consortia with 12 local education administrations, to train pre-service and in-service educators who teach English as a second language (ESL) and bilingual students in central and northern Maine.
Project Mainestay is an educational reform initiative. Its goal is to create a training program that will serve as a "mainstay" for helping the state's school personnel provide an outstanding education for Maine's LEP and bilingual students, supporting teachers' efforts in implementing Maine's Learning Results by aligning them with the TESOL (teaching English as a second language) Standards and subsequently training teachers in this process.
"We will be helping teachers network so that they can share strategies, questions and concerns, and solid programmatic information on curriculum reform and materials development," says Tina Passman, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics. "The need is very great. Teachers need support and pragmatic tools for language education in the classroom.
"The value for the individual student is high," Passman says. "Students who are less English proficient will feel validated in their own home language, rather than feeling wrong and different. The message to that student's classmates is that the heritage language is a positive difference, that it is good to have knowledge of more than one culture in a global society. If you multiply that by the students in all grades, and by all the LEP or Franco or Native language families, the great benefit is in more tolerance and understanding."
Passman, Franco-American Centre Director Yvon Labbé and Intensive English Institute Director Janis Williamson are co-principal investigators on the grant, which provides $250,000 a year for the next five years. The natural collaboration brings to bear the expertise of three of the state's leading organizations in language and diversity education.
The Intensive English Institute, established in 1989 and the only program of its kind in New England north of Boston, has increasingly been involved in teacher training. Its programs have included training TESL educators from abroad, and pre-academic training programs for college-bound international and ESL resident students.
The Department of Modern Languages and Classics offers classes in languages, literatures and cultures to prepare UMaine students for a global society. The Department is committed to enhancing bilingual education in the schools and supporting teachers' efforts in implementing the Learning Results for Modern and Classical Languages.
The Franco-American Center at the University of Maine supports bilingual education programs in Maine schools and at the University. Through the years, it has recognized Franco-American legislators who fought to overturn a state statute that prohibited the use of any language but English in Maine schools.Working which the Governor's office and members of the legislature, the Centre has developed research and economic development initiatives that will make the Maine Franco culture and language resources available to business and tourism.
"Maine is finding value in identifying and developing these resources for economic development as awareness is raised regarding the state's francophone neighbors &emdash; more than 10 million &emdash; and la 'francophonie du monde,'" Labbé says.
The groundwork for Project Mainestay is found in the bilingual programs in the state's Franco communities of the St. John Valley. In Madawaska, where there is a deep-seated community interest in bilingual education in the schools, the federally funded program "L'Acadien du Haut St. Jean" has received national recognition for excellence.
Now through Project Mainestay, the University will take a leadership role in advocating and supporting bilingual education efforts statewide. Project Mainestay will coordinate teacher training with the IASA Title VII-funded "L'Acadien du Haut St. Jean."
In addition to helping build the capacity to provide the educational training language and mainstream teachers need to help bilingual and ESL students, the grant is helping to reverse the trend of total assimilation and language loss. The Franco-American bilingual model is expected to be the model for other heritage language groups.
"If the model is successful, viable and inclusive, we can share our knowledge and experience with other communities. The community-based approach like the one in Madawaska is one which other Maine cultural communities may want to replicate. Native American educators have indicated interest. A common goal is to educate people within their identity and their (bilingual and cultural) assets," says Labbé, of the nearly 40 percent of Maine's population who are of French Canadian descent.
Equally important to the grant are the ESL needs of teachers and other education personnel in the grant's consortia of schools and Maine Indian Education. Eventually, the project will work with any Maine school with existing and emerging bilingual or ESL education needs.
"There has not been a lot of attention given to ESL students in Maine to help them be successful and participate in the English-speaking culture. We are trying to reach those children and the districts where needs are greatest through this teacher training grant," says Williamson.
"Often LEP students get assigned tutors and are pulled out of classes rather than using an approach to allow ESL or LEP students to participate in content learning that is managed in a way that is accessible to those still learning English. We hope to enable tutors and mainstream teachers to work together to facilitate this," Williamson says.
For more than a year, Passman has joined other educators on a Maine Department of Education committee to develop materials to assist teachers working with ESL and bilingual students. "We are putting together an ESL toolbox that consists of basic documents and models for teachers with LEP students," says Passman. "Such materials will allow us to reach teachers when and where they need it. For example, the kit will contain cultural information enabling teachers to help guide learners coming from a wide range of backgrounds."
Training through Project Mainestay will be for pre-service and for in-service teachers in language education and in any discipline who may have bilingual or ESL students in their classes. A goal is to increase the number of teachers who receive state endorsement for ESL or bilingual education by offering graduate coursework.
In addition, workshops will bring together educators and community members in an effort to support an education that respects and nurtures the heritage of Maine's LEP students and their families.
"A question is how to effectively involve communities to ensure the kind of education they want for their children," says Williamson. "The bilingual project in Madawaska is a model of such community involvement. But ESL populations are so varied, not only in languages and cultures but in perspectives. We want parents and community leaders to participate to better understand their children's needs. A long-term goal is to educate communities and all in the schools to more fully understand the challenges students are facing in ESL or bilingual situations."
As more teachers are trained and develop in ESL and bilingual education, they will be able to make students with differences feel at home, which supports the basic principles of diversity, Passman says.
"In years to come, I hope Maine will have several more bilingual programs. I hope students who come to school less English proficient than their peers because of immigrant or migrant status feel welcome. The basic awareness of the importance of language teaching and learning will be acknowledged, and we will see Maine begin to come into its own in terms of global awareness of cultural differences, and how those differences can enrich us."