Washington State University receives $2.2M grant

A $2.2 million grant to Washington State University will help put more than 50 bilingual teachers in classrooms in Vancouver and the Tri-Cities.

The five-year grant from the Department of Education will allow WSU to provide full scholarships to at least 52 paraprofessionals — teachers’ aides who already are working in schools with English learners — to get bachelor’s degrees in education with English language learning endorsements.

Washington State University Vancouver’s own Gisela Ernst-Slavit, an English learning professor with the College of Education, will lead the charge with a team of researchers from the WSU Pullman and Tri-Cities campuses. The campuses also will analyze the success of the program for the Department of Education, looking at how successful the new teachers are and how they’re able to help students succeed in school.

The funding will help support paraprofessionals who already may be “outstanding educators,” but who have not received their degrees and teaching endorsements, Ernst-Slavit said.

“With a grant like this, we can build on what they have,” Ernst-Slavit said.

The grant will allow WSU to collaborate directly with school districts, including Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, to find paraprofessionals for the program.

Washington faces a teacher shortage statewide, and in turn a severe shortage of English learning teachers, according to a WSU news release. None of the state’s 295 school districts had their English learning students meet reading or math standards during the 2013-2014 school year, according to a university news release.

While Washington’s diverse student population continues to grow, she said, there’s often a cultural gap between teachers and the children they teach, she said.

“There’s a disconnection between the background experience, the language, the culture,” Ernst-Slavit said.

Evergreen Public Schools, which has 3,400 in English language learning programs, has already made strides in helping their students whose native language isn’t English. The district was recognized by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction after 67 percent of English learners graduated, the fourth-highest rate statewide and 13 percent above the state average of 54 percent.

Catherine Carrison, who manages the English language learning department at the district, said the scholarships will help the district continue to help students grow and succeed in school.

“It’s exciting to explore the ways of building our diverse teacher pool,” Carrison said.

WSU also will work closely with schools in Pasco, Grandview, Kennewick, Prosser and Richland.

That’s huge for the region’s large Hispanic population, according to Judy Morrison, academic director for the College of Education at WSU’s Tri-Cities campus. At some schools, 90 to 95 percent of the students are English learners. It better serves districts to train their own paraprofessionals to stay on as teachers, rather than hire outside the district. Local paraprofessionals know the community, understand the culture and can better work with students.

“These are people who know kids and classrooms, and they know the schools,” Morrison said. “It’s really huge for the small districts because they’re able to grow their own.”

Ernst-Slavit echoed that.

“Paraprofessionals are dedicated,” she said. “They know the trajectories of the students they teach. They have an understanding of the community. They understand the life and circumstances of their students. Growing our own is a great way to address the teacher shortage right now.”