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For Immediate Release
August 9, 2005
State Board of Education receives federal grant to support
Transition To Teaching bilingual teacher recruitment initiative
Partners include Chicago Public Schools,
Northern Illinois University and Illinois Resource Center
Springfield, Ill. –The Illinois State Board of Education
(ISBE) has received a new federal No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Title II grant for ISBE’s Transition To Teaching
Initiative, which addresses the critical shortage of bilingual
teachers in Illinois. Transition to Teaching’s goal
is to identify and assist individuals from other fields
who wish to change careers and become bilingual teachers
in school districts and early childhood programs that
meet federal requirements for high need. Currently, Chicago
Public Schools (CPS) District 299 is the only Illinois
district to meet all the grant criteria. Participants
must be fluent in English and another language targeted
by the State and must already have a bachelor’s degree
in any subject.
“Along with the Governor, the State Board has a
strong commitment to meet the growing bilingual education
needs in Illinois,” said State Board Chairman Jesse
Ruiz. “Governor Blagojevich has fought for increased
state funding for bilingual education totaling more than
$12 million in new money to bilingual education over the
last three years. This Federal grant will help us build
on that investment to enhance bilingual education by attracting
teachers to one of the state’s area of greatest need.”
Illinois’ Transition To Teaching initiative has
a goal of recruiting 250 participants over the next five
years. It provides financial support for the completion
of an Illinois Elementary or Early Childhood Teacher Certificate
(Type 03 or 04) with bilingual and English as a Second
Language (ESL) approvals. All participants work as bilingual
teachers in CPS schools while completing the required
coursework.
“This program will help us meet the need of the
more than 57,000 English language learners that we have
at CPS,” said Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public
Schools.
Cohorts will be created through fall 2007 to complete
a Master of Science in Education degree at Northern Illinois
University. It is anticipated that participants will have
to pay a portion of the coursework required.
“Building a team of great teachers is critical to
having high quality programs and the Transition To
Teaching initiative will help us do that,” said
Randy Dunn, State Superintendent. “Together with
the Chicago Public Schools, Northern Illinois University
and the Illinois Resource Center, we will work to attract
experienced, bilingual professionals to a career in teaching.”
Identifying Candidates
In order to qualify for the program, candidates must:
- hold a bachelor of arts or advanced degree in a field
other than education;
- wish to make a career change to bilingual education
and/or early childhood bilingual education;
- submit a complete application with transcripts and
required references to Chicago Public Schools;
- pass the Target Language Proficiency Test for Bilingual
Certificate (Type 29);
- successfully pass the Basic Skills Test (test information
and test registration for both the target language proficiency
test and the basic skills test is available at www.icts.nesinc.com.
A person who has a degree from a university in the target
language must take the language proficiency test in
English. Those who hold degrees from English speaking
universities must take the language proficiency test
in one of the 14 target languages of bilingual instruction--Arabic,
Cantonese, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Korean,
Lao, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese);
and
- submit transcripts and meet requirements for acceptance
into the Northern Illinois University (NIU) College
of Education’s Graduate School.
Selection of Candidates
Chicago Public Schools has sole responsibility for the
selection and teaching assignments of candidates participating
in the TTT/BE program in their district. Participants
must fulfill the district’s requirements for coursework
and preparation prior to assignment to teach in the classroom.
Candidates must qualify for acceptance into the NIU Graduate
School. Continued employment in the classroom is required
for the candidate’s continuing participation in the
certification/degree program. CPS has a residency requirement
which must be met within six months of initiating teaching.
Applications are available on line at http://www.cps-humanresources.org/firstclass/program_overview.asp.
Additional information can be obtained by contacting
CPS or by contacting Illinois Resource Center Transition
To Teaching/Bilingual Education Program Coordinator Jack
Fields at jfields@thecenterweb.org
or calling 847-803-3535.
In evaluating school districts statewide, ISBE has identified
districts meet some but not all Title II criteria. ISBE
is exploring the possibility of forming regional cooperatives
that would meet all Title II criteria. In those cases
ISBE would create partnerships to establish cohorts in
those areas of the state.
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