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VCU AWARDED $1.2 MILLION GRANT TO HELP CONTENT-AREA TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 26, 2007) -- Virginia Commonwealth University has received a federal grant to train content-area teachers to effectively teach English language learners in the middle and high schools of Chesterfield County, Va.
The five-year, $1.2 million national professional development grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help provide high-quality, focused and sustained training programs that will increase English language learners’ academic achievements.
With more than 58,000 students, Chesterfield County Public Schools is the fourth-largest school system in Virginia and one of the 100 largest school systems in the country. The number of English language learning students there has grown from 400 in 1998 to 2,200 – an increase of more than 500 percent. These students are predominantly from Spanish-speaking countries, such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia, but also come from Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea or Arab-speaking countries.
Virginia requires all English language learners, after their first year, to take state Standards of Learning tests. Although they are meeting state benchmarks in reading and math, pass rates for English language learners in Chesterfield are lower than the county's overall pass rates: 83 percent of all students and 76 percent of English language learning students passed their math SOL test; 90 percent of all students and 75 percent of English language learners passed their language arts SOL test; and 91 percent of all students and 77 percent of English language learners passed their science SOL test.