Feds to fund $2.5M English-learning program locally

The U.S. Department of Education is committing to help improve education for area children whose second language is English at Springfield Public Schools and the Monett and McDonald County school districts.

The federal government is funding nearly all of a five-year, $2.5 million online training initiative through the Improving English Language Teaching in the Ozarks program, according to a news release.

The federal funding would give 75 in-service teachers special credentials to help serve English learners so they have equal access to education. The federal government is slated to pay for its full implementation during the first four and a half years.

Missouri State University English professor Andrea Hellman is leading the effort. She was selected for an initial $504,284 federal grant to launch the program, according to the release.

“We are bringing together people who really care about English language learners in their region and trying to design a program that is sensitive to the local context, within the local curricula and delivered in a way that teachers feel empowered,” said Hellman, whose second language is English, in the release. “We want teachers to feel they can teach English language learners with advocacy rather than feel, ‘This is too overwhelming.’”