SOUTHEASTERN, TANGIPAHOA PARISH  PARTNER ON PROJECT TEACH – Tangipahoa Parish is one of Southeastern Louisiana University’s school system partners in Project Teach, a five-year program to improve and increase the number of teachers qualified to work with students who speak limited English. The project is funded by a $1.2 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Shown at the signing of the partnership agreement are, from left, front, Rossana Boyd, director of Project Teach and Southeastern coordinator of ESL Add-on Teacher Certification; Andy Anderson, Tangipahoa Parish coordinator of Migrant Education; and Emily Bond, director of Southeastern Sponsored Research and Grants; back, Bill Neal, assistant dean of Southeastern College of Education and Human Development; and Gerald Guidroz, Southeastern dean of Continuing Education. 

PROJECT TEACH COORDINATOR – Earline Clause Buckley, second from right, a veteran English as a Second Language and language educator, has joined the Southeastern Louisiana University staff as coordinator of Project Teach, a five-year, federally-funded program to increase the number of ESL teachers in four southeast Louisiana parishes. Welcoming Buckley are, from left, College of Education and Human Development Assistant Dean Bill Neal, Interim Dean Martha Thornhill, and Project Teach Director Rossana Boyd,  coordinator of Southeastern’s ESL and Internet Alternative Certification programs.

TANGIPAHOA JOINS PROJECT TEACH PARTNERSHIP; PROGRAM COORDINATOR NAMED
      HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University has added Tangiphoa Parish to its list of partners for Project Teach, a five-year, $1.2 million federal grant designed to improve and increase the number of English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.
      Tangipahoa Parish joins previously announced Project Teach partners Livingston, East Baton Rouge and Lafayette parishes, said Project Teach Director Rossana Boyd, coordinator of the ESL and Internet Alternative Certification programs in Southeastern’s College of Education and Human Development.
      Boyd said during each of the U.S. Department of Education grant’s five years participating teachers in the four parishes will receive two days of ESL training in the fall with follow-up sessions in the spring. The teachers will be networked online to keep them informed about ESL issues and resources. 
      Also each year, 90 pre-service and in-service teachers will complete the four Southeastern Internet courses (12 credit hours) leading to ESL add-on certification, and 10 master teachers will be given the option to either earn the add-on certification or complete 12 credit hours toward a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with ESL emphasis.
       Participating teachers will receive stipends ranging from $200 to $1,600 for tuition, fees, textbooks, software and ESL instructional material. The grant will also pay for teachers’ substitutes when training sessions take them away from the classroom.
      In Tangipahoa Parish, four certified teachers, one paraprofessional and two master teachers will seek ESL add-on certification, Boyd said. Each year, 15 teachers will receive ESL
training.
      Participating schools are Tangipahoa Parish's Independence Elementary, Independence 
Middle School, Independence High School, Midway Elementary, Natalbany Elementary and Nesom Middle School.
      “There is a growing need for more emphasis on ESL services,” said Tangipahoa Parish Schools Superintendent Virgil Allen. Limited English proficient (LEP) students, he said, “need these additional services to be successful.”  
      Boyd said Project Teach initially will impact 600 teachers and 1,000 LEP students. Tangipahoa Parish identified 40 LEP students in 2001-2002.
      Veteran ESL educator Earline Clause Buckley has joined the Southeastern staff as Project Teach coordinator.
      Buckley has taught ESL, French, Spanish and religion at Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau since 1986. She has been involved with LEP students for more than three decades since she organized and taught the first ESL classes for Cuban refugees in Belle Glade, Fla., in 1969. 
      Buckley has a bachelor’s degree in French from Nicholls State University and a master’s degree and ESL certification from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She also has attended numerous language institutes and special programs in France and Mexico.
      Since most school systems mainstream LEP students, Project Teach will be invaluable to those students’ teachers, Buckley said. 
      “Project Teach gives teachers an opportunity to be trained in ESL techniques and to share that training with their colleagues,” she said.  
      “The Internet delivery of the courses,” Buckley added, “is a terrific way to use the newest technology to give teachers access to university training.”
      Southeastern is the only Louisiana university, and one of only a handful nationwide, that offers add-on ESL certification entirely on the Internet. 
      The grant program “will appeal to a broad base of teachers who have tremendous sensitivity to the needs of LEP students and a great curiosity about how to make our multi-cultural society a reality as far as democracy is concerned,” Buckley said.
      For additional information about Project Teacher or ESL add-on certification, contact Boyd at (985)549-5736, rboyd@selu.edu or SLU 10671, Hammond, LA 70402. Information is also available online at www.selu.edu/Academics/ Education/TEC/certific.htm.