The U.S. Department of Education has allocated over $11 million in grants to support the recruitment and retention of bilingual and multilingual educators, and provide high quality programming to Native students in an effort to strengthen and revitalize Native American languages.
“Being multilingual is a superpower—a powerful asset that can connect students to their identity and culture, and gives those who speak more than one language cognitive, social, and economic benefits,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, “The investments we’re announcing today advance our goal of providing every student in America with a pathway to multilingualism by supporting the recruitment, preparation, and retention of amazing bilingual and multilingual educators—some of the best teachers in our nation, period. They also support the revitalization of Native American languages, a reflection of this Administration’s commitment to Tribal sovereignty and consultation in education.”
This announcement comes as Secretary Cardona is embarking on his 2024 Back to School Bus Tour with stops in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. This year’s theme, “Fighting for Public Education,” highlights how “school communities are using the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic investments in public education to implement evidence-based strategies, accelerate academic success, and support student well-being.”
National Professional Development Program Grants
The grants include $7.5 million in 13 new awards in the National Professional Development program (NPD) to support educators of English Learners (ELs). The NPD program provides grants to eligible institutions of higher education and public or private entities, in consortia with states or local educational agencies, to implement professional development activities that will improve language instruction for ELs. The program currently serves 94 entities throughout the nation. This 2024 cohort represents the first set of grantees under a new absolute priority to increase the number of bilingual or multilingual teachers through a Grow-Your-Own (GYO) pre-service program that recruits teacher candidates who are bilingual or multilingual.
Of the 13 entities funded, there are two Hispanic Serving Institutions, one Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution, and one Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution. In addition, all entities have indicated their commitment to serving students from first-generation students and/or students from low-income backgrounds.
The Department projects that these grantees will serve approximately 3,700 participants across nine states in four languages: Navajo, Sm’álgyax, Spanish, and Ute.
Native American Language Grants
The Department also announced $3.7 million in grant funding for the Native American Language (NAL@ED) projects. A major emphasis of this program is to fund partial and full immersion programs, in addition to developing new or expanding existing language programs. There are over 200 tribal communities without living speakers making this critical funding even more important for the revitalization of Native American languages. In 2020, the Oneida Immersion School, featured on the bus tour, received a NAL@ED award to serve 434 elementary students as part of their Language Nest Expansion Project (LNEP).
The 12 NAL@ED grants will serve students across seven states. Projects will support language revitalization i: Lakota, Tlingit, Num, Cherokee, Yup’ik, Maskoke Seminole, Diné Bizaad (central, western, and eastern dialects), Unangam Tunuu, Northern Paiute, and Western Shoshoni. Grantees will engage in a number of projects for native language revitalization, including developing proficiency benchmarks, hosting virtual cultural language summits, and summer immersion institutes. More information about the NAL@ED program is available at https://oese.ed.gov/native-american-language-program/
