ICP

Project Director: Faridah Pawan

The Interdisciplinary Collaborative Program (ICP) is a five-year USDOE grant funded through the Office of English Language Acquisition. It offers joint professional development training for licensed and practicing English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and content-area teachers from Indiana school corporations with growing populations of English Language Learners (ELLs). Workshops and graduate courses cover such topics as the acquisition of a second language, models of second language education, interdisciplinary collaboration, content-based language instruction, and alternative assessment. They are delivered through a blended instructional approach which consists of the internet, interactive video-conferencing and on-site visits each fall and spring. Each summer the program culminates with a retreat conference on the Bloomington campus where teachers share successful teaching strategies that they use with their students and engage in discussions on legal issues and parental involvement led by state and nationally-recognized presenters with expertise in these areas. Following the retreat, the ICP staff conducts follow-up observations and interviews with program alumni. The ICP project also operates an online lending library for teacher participants.

The ICP has continually grown in enrollment since its inception in 2001. Last year, 51 content-area and ESL teachers participated in the program, with another 40 teachers wait-listed. At the Summer Language Teaching Institute Workshop in July, 50 teachers from Frankfort, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Ligonier and Lincoln City received certificates of completion for the Year 4 ICP program. Over the five years of this grant, 200 teachers and staff members from more than 20 school districts across Indiana will receive scholarships for 9 graduate credit hours. Participating school corporations reported a 29% increase in ELL student retention, 9% increase in English Language Proficiency scores, and 10% gain in ISTEP scores, and teachers reported 82% knowledge gains in the area of language and content instruction integration. Library collections increased by 18%. ICP staff developed sheltered instruction training DVDs and presented at four conferences and six workshops.

ICP's success has led to an overwhelming number of unsolicited requests from school districts to participate in the program. Unfortunately, due to budgetary limitations, we are unable to meet all the requests. For the final year of the grant, the focus will be on reaching school corporations who have not yet had an opportunity to be involved. New funding avenues will be explored by the ICP and school districts to meet the state need for ESL training. Three of our ongoing research initiatives involve integrated curriculum; interdisciplinary collaboration between ESL and content area teachers; and sheltered instruction and scaffolding for ELLs in integrated classrooms. Results are currently being submitted for publication consideration.