SEMO gets federal grant

SEMO receives federal grant to train teachers to better educate immigrants

Southeast Missourian

Southeast Missouri State University will spend $1.4 million over the next five years to train teachers and school administrators in mid-Missouri to better educate immigrants who have limited English skills, school officials said Thursday.

A $741,642 federal grant will pay part of the cost. The matching money will come from the university and the state of Missouri.

Dr. Maria Ferrier, director of the office of English language acquisition with the U.S. Department of Education, personally presented the grant to Southeast officials at a news conference at the University Center.

The grant will provide training and pay tuition for teachers in the Jefferson City, Pettis County Moniteau County, Columbia and Sedalia school districts who enroll in the program.

Ferrier said the program will help teachers better educate immigrant school children as part of the No Child Left Behind federal education law.

The program is designed to increase the number of trained, certified English-as-a-second-language teachers in grades kindergarten through high school in the mid-Missouri region where there are a large number of immigrant school children.

Dr. Adelaide Parsons, director of the Center for International Programs at Southeast, said the work in mid-Missouri will be a pilot program that she hopes will be expanded to the rest of the state including the Southeast Missouri region.

Parsons said Southeast's various teacher training programs have expanded to many parts of Missouri thanks to interactive television and computer Web courses.

"We are considered a leader in the state," she said.