AMHERST — Enhancements to the dual-language program for elementary school students at Fort River School and creation of a spring and summer program for high school students learning to speak English are among projects that will be funded through a $543,125 state grant.
The Amherst public schools this week were among four school districts across the state chosen to receive an Alternative English Learner Education Programs grant from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“We are excited and grateful for the opportunity these grant funds will provide us to enhance and expand our existing programming and partnerships, as well as to implement an exciting new program that will support our English Language students at all grade levels,” said Superintendent Michael Morris in a statement.
For the Caminantes program that began in fall 2019 with kindergartners learning in both Spanish and English, and which has added a grade level each year since, the grant will go toward a month-long program in July that will provide instructional support and arts integration activities for students.
The money will also buy Caminantes materials and supplies, as well as books written in Spanish, as the dual-language program expands into third grade this fall.
Teacher-led professional development opportunities are being covered by the grant, as well, with Caminantes teachers to attend the Massachusetts Association of Bilingual Educators conference. There will also be continuing collaboration with the University of Massachusetts and the Holyoke and Springfield public schools on having a regional bilingual hub for teacher training, offering the Seal of Biliteracy Program and improving access to heritage languages, such as through parent-child book clubs.
Amherst schools will use a portion of the grant to buy multilingual materials to expand libraries at all grade levels, in addition to accessing more reading materials for students whose first language is not English, and better engaging multilingual families.
Finally, the grant will help develop and implement the new project-based spring and summer program for English Learner high school students. To be known as the ELL High School Academy program, it will enhance English language acquisition and build the leadership capacity for these students by designing programming that they can then offer to younger students over the summer.
To get the grant, Amherst had to meet four goals, including continued development and implementation of an alternative bilingual program for English learners, creation of a bilingual education hub to aid efforts across the state and region, and establishment of multilingual libraries to benefit students from various ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and high school academies that promote academic achievement, with an emphasis on English language skills.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
