New Program to Prepare Bilingual Paraprofessionals to Become Certified Teachers A College of Education professor’s program to recruit and prepare bilingual paraprofessionals and parent liaisons to become full-time certified teachers could help schools in Clarke and Hall counties better handle their rising populations of children who are English Language Learners (ELLs). Based on two models that have transformed the teaching field in Southern California, Betsy Rymes, an assistant professor in language education, proposed her own program called Teachers for English Language Learners (TELL), and received a $796,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement it. The first of a series of Return-To-School Workshops for bilingual individuals interested in the new program was held May 21. Rymes knows the value of bilingual paraprofessionals from first-hand experience. When she began teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in a Los Angeles junior high school 10 years ago, she did not know a word of Spanish and, as an “emergency-credentialed” English major, was not trained as a teacher.  “Fortunately, I had Ms. Ruiz  an infinitely competent bilingual paraprofessional who ensured that my classes ran smoothly,” she said. Many years later, having moved to Georgia where bilingual teachers are even scarcer than they were in Los Angeles, Rymes began to realize that Ruiz was an underutilized, but invaluable human resource. Because of Georgia’s mushrooming immigrant population, the state has a dire need to recruit and train teachers to educate the rising numbers of non-English speaking children, and quite often their parents. In the Clarke County School District, the population of ELLs has nearly doubled in the last two years. In Hall County, the ELL population is over 50 percent in some schools. Through a series of focus groups she organized in Clarke and adjoining counties, Rymes found dozens of bilingual paraprofessionals overflowing with stories about the children they have helped to educate. “They told me stories of crying, silent, frustrated or struggling children whose teachers, unable to speak their language, would have felt helpless were it not for the bilingual parapros,” said Rymes. “But did they want to become classroom teachers full-time? Yes. They were more enthusiastic than I could have predicted. They wanted to know what they could do right away to begin on the path to teacher certification. Unfortunately, I had nothing to offer them. I realized I had to find a way to fund a program of support for these potential teachers.”      Rymes returned to Los Angeles to study the two programs that had much success providing opportunities for paraprofesionals  the Latino and Language Minority Teacher Project at the University of Southern California and the Career Ladder Office of the Los Angeles Unified School District.      “Bilingual paraprofessionals and parent liaisons are talented, highly skilled individuals who have the potential to be exemplary teachers,” said Rymes. “They are fluent in the language and culture of the students in the communities they serve, have years of experience in the classroom and are well-prepared to meet the challenges that contribute to the high rates of attrition among many novice teachers.”      While this group will potentially make excellent teachers, there are financial, academic and social barriers to their success, she said.   Focusing on high-need schools in Clarke and Hall counties, Rymes hopes the five-year project will result in at least 55 new bilingual certified teachers.     Participants will be enrolled in one of UGA’s graduate certification programs  Teaching Additional Languages (TAL) or Early Childhood Certificate Option (ECCO) or one of UGA’s undergraduate TALs depending on their educational background.     The programs require 30-40 semester hours of work and may be completed in anywhere from three to six semesters. TELL will provide 100 percent of the tuition, up to $5,000 per participant, and the cost of expenses such as books, parking and fees, up to $1,000.     There are already four TELL participants enrolled in teacher certification programs in the College of Education (COE) and more will be recruited through a series of Return-To-School Workshops and in concert with other COE initiatives through the Georgia Systemic Education Program (GSTEP) and the new Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE) as well as with ANSERS (Adult and Non-Traditional Student Educational Resources and Services), a program for returning students based in the Georgia Center. For more information on TELL workshops, call ANSERS at 706/542-6400 or visit: www.gactr.uga.edu/ansers. For more information on TELL visit: www.coe.uga.edu/dev/tell/index.htm. Tuesday, May 20, 2003 WRITER: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu CONTACT: Betsy Rymes, 706/542-4512, brymes@coe.uga.edu