Homegrown talent Program aims to alleviate shortage of bilingual teachers

By Ryan Pagelow RPagelow@scn1.com

Like districts around the country with large immigrant communities — more than 78 percent of students starting kindergarten in Waukegan speak another language at home, mostly Spanish — District 60 has a hard time finding enough qualified bilingual teachers to fill a growing need.

Usually, the district relies on recruiting teachers from abroad and hiring bilingual professionals with degrees in fields outside of education to fill some classrooms.

But a federal program hopes to diminish the shortage of bilingual teachers by training paraprofessionals already working in high-needs districts such as Waukegan, Round Lake, North Chicago and Zion for free as long as they commit to teaching in the district for three years. The first seven graduates start teaching this fall.

By the end of the five-year $1.
5 million program through the Department of Education, 60 bilingual teachers will be added to poor districts in the Chicago area, the largest number going to Waukegan.

On average, it costs a school district about $10,000 to recruit a teacher, said George Torres, director of the Transition to Teaching program through Illinois State University.

"The benefit of the program is basically the school districts have fully qualified teachers without going out and searching for them," George Torres said. "They have the option to hire these teachers right out of the program. Not only do they know them for years as paraprofessionals but they also know the training from our program."

Julie Serrano of Zion graduated from the program in May. She started teaching third grade at Glenwood Elementary School in Waukegan this fall after working nearly 20 years as a bilingual paraprofessional in schools in New York, Beach Park and Waukegan.

She doubled her salary from the $15,000 she earned as a bilingual liaison and teacher's assistant in Waukegan to about $31,900 she will earn as a certified teacher.

In order to qualify for the program she finished up her associate degree at the College of Lake County in 2003 and in 2004 started attending the Transition to Teaching training on weekends and after work at the University Center of Lake County in downtown Waukegan. Instructors from Illinois State University trained the paraprofessionals who included teacher's aides, liaisons and secretaries.

Following the training, Serrano was a student teacher at Little Fort Elementary last spring semester. She knew she always wanted to be a teacher but raising her four kids and holding down a job was previously too hectic for her to get a teaching degree. The free program came at the right moment when she wanted move up in her career and her husband and kids were supportive.

"They knew that once Mommy was on the computer you had to leave her alone," Serrano said.

The free education and short commute to the training classes in Waukegan also attracted Flor De Maria Gonzalez of Mundelein to complete the program.

Originally from Guatemala where she was an elementary teacher, she immigrated to Chicago in 1982. But because she didn't speak English and her teaching degree did not transfer from Guatemala to United States, she went back to school to get her associate degree.

She eventually became a teacher in Mundelein and Round Lake with a temporary teaching certificate, however she did not continue her training to become a fully qualified teacher and had to work as an assistant and substitute teacher.

"I was trying to finish my degree through the university, but it was really hard for me because of financial issues," Gonzalez said. "I heard about this program. The only requirement was to work in a poor district. The financial aspect and the location of the training meant that you don't have to travel far."

She graduated from the program in the spring and is currently a third grade bilingual teacher in Round Lake Area School District 116.

In previous years Waukegan has recruited bilingual teachers in Spain and the Philippines to teach on temporary visas to fill open positions. Some immigrant parents complained their children were accustomed to Latin American Spanish and had trouble understanding Castilian Spanish.

"Instead of recruiting people from outside the community, our goal was to work with people within the community to help them reach their goals to become teachers and fulfill the need," said Karen Moe, project coordinator of the Transition to Teaching program. "It's a win-win for the district and the students.

"It's a program that helps people improve their jobs and salaries," she added, "not to mention that you are already taking people from the community, who know the community and speak the same Spanish. Culturally, they are coming from the same place. It's not costing the district a dime.

"Here we're giving the districts for free, fully certified — not temporary — teachers from within their own community who have been working in the district for years for most cases," Moe said.


08/31/06http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/city/5_1_WA31_BILINGUALTEACH_S10831.htm


The free education and short commute to the training classes

Now maybe it's just me.......but since when has anyone got FREE education to fill a shortage in any area?