Through the proposed project, Kansas State University will collaborate with the Liberal School District to address three acute needs:
1. Persistent academic achievement difficulties among ELL students
2. Address the very limited number of ESL Endorsed educators in this high-need district
3. Address gaps in site-based professional development capable of meeting the identified needs, classroom practices, and district challenges of school educators in this rapidly changing region of the Midwest
Project Goal
Project PEER (Persistent Educational Excellence Response) is a proposed National Professional Development (NPD) program. It is to spearheaded by Kansas State University and will systematically address the acute needs of Liberal, KS a rapidly changing and geographically isolated school district of the Midwest. In particular, the project, will target, observe, measure, analyze, and report persistent, high-quality teaching for, and educational achievement gains among, ELL students in this rural school districts.
The over-arching goal of Project PEER is to provide high quality professional development to school and classroom educators of ELL students in a high-need, Midwestern school district.
Project Objectives
To refine and prepare for implementation of the proposed professional development and curriculum through emphasis on:
1. Alignment with Kansas K-12 standards and assessments, including English language proficiency standards
2. Educators’ preparedness to reach high quality teacher status and to better serve the differential needs of rural ELL/LEP students in K-12 schools.
Districts Impacted
Liberal School District, USD 480, Kansas
Key Outcomes
- A curriculum of teacher education that has been appropriately adapted to meet the professional development needs of school educators in rapidly changing, rural schools
- Course-based professional development designed to build capacities for critically reflective and need-specific practices for two cadres of 50 in-service educators, (total of 100) during the 5-year term of the project
- Professional development that leads to an ESL Endorsement in the State of Kansas
- Teaching strategies specific to ELL student assets and learning needs in grade-level classrooms
- Classroom instruction guided and evaluated by content and language objectives
- Professional development systematically evaluated on an in-process and post-training basis
Invitational Priorities
In Years 2 and 4 of the 5-year project, KSU will organize and deliver two SIOP Summer Institutes for all project educators and for KSU faculty unfamiliar with the method {Addresses Invitational Priority # 1, CFDA 84.195N}. These SIOP Institutes will focus on the classroom-based development, maximization, and use-in-assessment of content and language objectives for ELL (especially secondary-level) students {Addresses Invitational Priorities #1 & #3, CFDA 84.195N}. Regionally and nationally recognized consultants will be employed by Project PEER to deliver research-based informative, practical, and hands-on workshops that professionally prepare school educators and IHE faculty to appropriately maximize content and language objectives in high-ELL classrooms and in the preparation of teachers for these classrooms.
Future Directions
Successful implementation of program objectives with ongoing evaluation of: o Participant enrollment
o Participant cycle completion
o Revision or modification of existing curriculum based on the needs of targeted school districts
o Implementation of the SIOP model in actual classrooms of participants o Delivery of SIOP summer institutes for Project PEER participants
Current Number of Students/Number of Students Served to Date
Principal Investigator
Dr. Socorro Herrera
Project PEER Manager
Lorle A. Bolt
Years of Implementation
2007-2012
Phase of Project Cycle
Second Year
