The George Washington University Bilingual Special Education Program Learning through Interdisciplinary Frameworks for Teachers (LIFT) Amy Mazur, Ed.D., Principal Investigator. Contact info:

History and background  Offers graduate teacher preparation at the certificate, M.A., Ed.S., and Ed.D. levels  NCATE recognition in ESOL, special education, and bilingual special education  Established in the 1980s in response to identified school system and national needs  One of only seven bilingual special education programs in the U.S.

History and background (cont’d)  Currently has over 167 enrolled students, including both grant-funded and paying students  Recipient of numerous U.S. Department of Education grants (six professional development grants at present)  Established an online-learning program serving national and international students  Impetus for the LIFT project

Demographics – America’s school-aged children  There are currently 74,548,215 children living in U.S.  951,329 are Native American/Alaskan Native  2,491,422 identify 2 or more races

Demographics – America’s school-aged children (cont’d)  3,480,257 are Asian/Pacific Islander  11,280,366 are Black  16,750,075 are Hispanic  41,225,410 are White Children’s Defense Fund, 2010

Demographics – child poverty in the United States  15.5 million, or 1 in every 5 in America, lived in poverty in 2009 – this is an increase of nearly 4 million since 2000  Almost half of all poor children (6.9 million) lived in extreme poverty (less than half the poverty rate) Children’s Defense Fund, 2010

LIFT project goals  Infuse a cross-disciplinary set of competencies into an existing, nationally recognized teacher preparation program  Institutionalize improvements within the program and share knowledge gained throughout the University  Develop a cross-disciplinary framework to ensure further collaboration

LIFT project goals (cont’d)  Disseminate ideas and knowledge gained from this work to a national audience in order to facilitate similar processes at other universities  Provide technical assistance to other universities seeking to adopt a similar focus

Key stakeholders/advisors  University experts in ESOL, sociology, public health, medicine, nursing, and related fields  Experts from peer universities in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs  Collaborators from advocacy, policy and research organizations (e.g., National Association of School Psychologists, School Social Work Association, etc.)

Activities to date  Collaboration with University ACCESS Institute for ELL Students ’ Success  Development of survey for current and prospective students regarding professional knowledge  Communication with advisory board, stakeholders, and panels of experts

Activities to date (cont’d)  Needs assessment discussions with panel of experts in teacher preparation and English learners  Initial meetings and conference calls with advisory panel scheduled for summer and fall  Meetings with evaluator and consultation on research design

Upcoming/pending activities  Development and deployment of survey  Continued needs assessment activities  Modification of objectives, competencies and activities in core courses  Development of project website and social networking forum

Reference: Children’s Defense Fund. (2010). State of the Children Report. research-data-publications/data/state-of-americas- children.pdf. research-data-publications/data/state-of-americas- children.pdf

Questions or Comments