The State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development-Fast Forward has awarded the School District of Waukesha a grant for $250,000 to support the district goal of increasing the number of licensed and qualified educators.
The project, titled Project GUEPA (Giving, Under certified, Educators, Paths to student, Achievement), the school district will be partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater as well as other institutions to ensure that an additional 31 teachers earn certification in the following areas:
5-MC-EA with Bilingual Endorsement (1777 and 023)
2-Special Education with Bilingual Endorsement (1801 and 023)
3-Special Education(1801)
11-Add on Bilingual Endorsement (023)
6-ESL Additional Licensure(395)
4-Reading Teacher Certification for Bilingual Teachers grades 2-8(316)
Eligibility to participate in this grant is included below the grant proposal; however, details on applying are being developed and should be available by January 2019. To express your interest, complete this form by January 4th, 2019 HERE
Project GUEPA will be running from January 2019 thru December 2020!
*GUEPA is a term used in Spanish speaking South America and other regions to encourage participation. It is often called out in parties and means “join in the celebration”. It is a motivational term that incites action.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
The School District of Waukesha (SDW) is seeking $250,000 in funding to certify 31 teachers who serve students with special needs and/or English Learners. SDW reinitiated its Bilingual Education program in 2009 which now serves 12% of all SDW learners grades 4K-11th grade. In 2018-2019, 12 are teachers serving students under a one-year license with stipulations. Students with special needs and English learners are disproportionately served by educators who are unqualified because they lack full WI teaching licensure resulting in a skills gap that is necessarily filled through the training that takes place in a licensure program. The identified shortage of teachers with special education, ESL, and reading licenses as well as bilingual endorsements results in the employment of teachers who lack the skill under their current license to meet the goals of English learners in learning English and becoming fully literate, and college and career ready.
This proposal seeks to remediate the disproportionality by providing the funding necessary to ensure tuition support for full licensure of 12 teachers, as well as tuition support for an additional 19 teachers serving English Learners who will acquire Bilingual, English as a Second Language or Reading Teacher Certification. Currently, the responsibility for tuition for these programs is mostly funded by the individual, and through a variety of program pathways of differing quality and duration. This fact can make committing to a teaching career challenging due to the ongoing cost of time, courses and testing, specifically when additional expertise is required in Bilingual, English as a Second Language and Reading.
Skilled teachers are a student’s best hope of a preparatory education. Teachers are not coming out of college with a bilingual endorsement, nor ESL or reading, teacher certifications, yet our current students need these qualified teachers today. Due to this skills gap, the results of the 2018 ELA Forward test show that 24% of SDW Spanish speaking English Learners were proficient in 5th grade. These learners are served in bilingual elementary schools where outcomes vary. At one school 13% of English Learners were proficient while 43% were at another school. This gap is indicative of the skill gaps in teaching reading and language development to bilingual English Learners. Outcomes for bilingual English Learners who receive special education were 20% proficiency in Bilingual settings, as opposed to 3% proficiency for 5th grade English learners not served in Bilingual Education. At the Secondary Level, only 10% of teachers have had specific training leading to a Bilingual or English as a Second Language License. According to ACT, 8% of Hispanic English Learners at the Secondary will graduate prepared for College or Career. Skillful bilingual education works and his grant will assist us in reaching our proficiency goals of 77.5% by 2020.
ECONOMIC IMPACT STATEMENT
The Project GUEPA will result in 31 teachers of diverse linguistic, cultural and minority backgrounds becoming licensed and skilled in regular and special education to meet the language and literacy goals of bilingual English Learners as well as student with special needs who are not English Learners. Educators will participate in DPI approved teacher education licensure programs that lead to full certification upon completion. We will specifically target initial certification for regular and special educators, bilingual and English as a Second Language additional licensure and endorsement, and Reading Teacher Certification for Bilingual endorsed educators. Since 2009, 44 Bilingual teachers have been hired to fulfill our commitment of a 4K-12 Bilingual Education and 83% have been retained. Our current need is greater than our region’s supply of skilled bilingual and special education teachers. The Waukesha area, a suburban/urban school district, currently educates 1,600 students in Bilingual Education, yet estimates between 79%-92% are not graduating college and career ready. These numbers indicate a significant loss of talent and engagement that could devastate the lives of individuals and reduces the opportunity to build a skilled workforce for this city. This project will increase and deepen the skill of teachers who serve this targeted student group so that students graduate ready for college and career. Students who remain in suburban Waukesha contribute to the industry and community here and in the region because of their strong multilingual skills and multicultural identities. Offering support in the form of paid tuition or tuition reimbursement for teachers will attract future educators to relocate to this suburban Waukesha area, bringing additional enrollment in schools and greater need for teachers, as well as use of services like health care, child care, construction etc.. Building upon an established reputation for innovation, this community offers students and future teachers’ families pathways for career and industry certification, Advanced Placement Learning and Dual Credit opportunities with our technical school partner WCTC. When students are able to access and experience success as learners, these pathways are available to them and regenerate this community’s future.
The teacher benefit to participating in this project will include paid training, and a higher salary for additional licensure in a hard to fill role. Initial licensure is required to maintain employment as a teacher in our district. The 12 unlicensed teachers employed currently will gain job security upon becoming fully licensed. Those who add a bilingual, English as a Second Language or Reading Teacher certification will dramatically increase their demand in the region and this will lead to long term opportunities in their education career in SDW, SE Wisconsin and adjacent regions.
ELIGIBILITY
We will specifically support initial certification for regular and special educators, bilingual and English as a Second Language additional licensure and endorsement, and Reading Teacher Certification for Bilingual endorsed educators. The shortage of Bilingual and special educators has increased the the employment of unqualified educators. These educators are in very high demand, and the district has already made strong commitments to building the expertise of these teacher groups.
In 2018, the SDW posted 9 nine times seeking multiple bilingual (Spanish) teachers for the dual language program and received 35 applications, only 8 of which had the required licensure and endorsement. Similarly, SDW posted 22 times seeking special education teachers or bilingual (Spanish) special education teachers and received 412 applications. Only 87 of those applications had the required license.
To recruit, the school district will identify and invite the 12 currently unlicensed individuals to participate in the Fast Forward grant activities. Each participant will work with the superintendent’s designee to develop a 2-year plan that leads to completion of educator licensing, including testing. Each trainee’s licensure program cost will be limited to fair and average estimations of their value, including $12,000 for initial certification $5000 for Bilingual and $6300 for Reading Teacher or English as a Second Language. Recruitment of future Reading Teachers will focus on Bilingual certified teachers in grades 2-8 who do not yet have a Master’s degree. Recruitment of teachers who will earn the English as a Second Language License will prioritize those who are already working as staff within our Dual Language Bilingual Program and then those who have indicated interest in ESL Licensure from survey results gathered August 2018.
To express your interest, complete this survey HERE
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