C & I's Al-Bataineh Receives Five-Year $1.28 Million Grant

Illinois State University will be able to assist bilingual paraprofessionals who wish to complete a bachelor’s degree thanks to a five-year $1,283,270 grant from the English Language Association: National Professional Development Program.

Curriculum and Instruction’s Adel Al-Bataineh will direct the project, which will provide training to 75 bilingual paraprofessional who are working in classrooms serving the needs of English language learners.  Participants will complete a bachelor’s degree in elementary K-9 with Illinois State certification and bilingual approval and/or endorsement, allowing them to teach in the English language learners classrooms.

This grant is intended to address future needs for certified bilingual teachers. Illinois State Board of Education projection indicates a huge demand for certified teachers who have bilingual endorsements. The projected numbers show an average increase of about 200 teachers needed per year.

The partnership between the College of Education at Illinois State University and Chicago Public Schools District 299 offers prospective teachers a balanced training program that includes both theory and practice. This project provides a unique process of addressing the needs of candidates to be exposed to subject areas and skills essential for teaching in both a bilingual and monolingual setting. The partnership serves as a platform for providing bilingual paraprofessionals with hands-on experiences for the development of skills related to curriculum theory, student learning styles and assessment as well as first-hand experiences in teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students.