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Collaboration Cubed: Isolated Mainstream Teachers Become ESL Experts to School Systems
Author(s) -
Verplaetse Lorrie Stoops,
Ferraro Marisa,
Anderberg Ann
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
tesol journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1949-3533
pISSN - 1056-7941
DOI - 10.1002/tesj.29
Subject(s) - mainstream , certification , bilingual education , pedagogy , class (philosophy) , mathematics education , sociology , political science , medical education , psychology , computer science , medicine , artificial intelligence , law
This article reports on mainstream teachers who took part in a federally funded master's in teaching English to speakers of other languages ( TESOL ) program and through a series of collaborative efforts have become experts in their own school systems and leaders in English as a second language ( ESL ) teacher preparation throughout their region. Southern Connecticut State University's Training for All Teachers ( TAT ) Program addressed the needs of three medium‐sized urban school districts in the geographically isolated, historically underserved eastern half of Connecticut by offering teachers the opportunity to pursue the master's degree in bilingual education and TESOL via a satellite program. All three districts serve significant English language learner populations and had failed to make annual progress benchmarks. Through this experience, 10 teachers from the three districts earned a master's degree in TESOL and state certification in bilingual education and/or ESL . This article chronicles three programmatic collaborative efforts that played a significant role in this process: collaborative class‐based research projects, ongoing Community of Practice activities, and commitments to pay it forward.