The $2.2 million grant lasts for five years. It supports three principal investigators, two grant coordinators and three bilingual graduate assistants to run it, as well as provides funding for five of the participating graduate students. So far, every student in the program is Latino.

Many bilingual teachers are native Spanish speakers, and while they’ve been raised speaking their language, they often aren’t familiar with its rules and grammar.  Further, many bilingual programs in public schools transition students into all English classes early in their school years, resulting in many teachers feeling they need additional Spanish training.

Holly Hansen-Thomas, associate professor of Teacher Education and director of PIONERAS at TWU, said that the idea for the program percolated in 2010 when the Teacher Education staff noticed that a large percentage of bilingual teachers were failing the state certification exam.  “It showed a lack of knowledge in content areas and in academic literacy.  Since about 70 percent were failing, it served as our motivation,” she stated.

The program “fortifies the academic Spanish that these teachers may have gaps with,” Hansen-Thomas noted. Its name PIONERAS fits since it’s aiming to serve as pioneers in bilingual education, she said.

With three locations in Texas in Dallas, Houston and Denton, TWU is a Hispanic-Serving Institution with a multicultural student body consisting of 15,473 students including 42 percent who are White students, 25 percent Latino, 18 percent African-American and 10 percent Asian.

Since the Teachers Education program is based in Denton, Texas, it partners with the Denton public school system.

PIONERAS Program Details

Undergraduates in the program take five courses and graduate student’s three courses.  The curriculum consists of three pre-service courses covering:

• Teaching the Content Area in the Bilingual Classrooms

• Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingual Education and Materials and in-service courses

• Academic Spanish

• Curriculum for Bilingual Education

The program takes a year to complete, though some students may have additional coursework to cover in preparation for obtaining their certificate.

Since all the students are currently bilingual teachers or studying to become one, “they need to make their students have strong skills in Spanish.  It will strengthen their knowledge, make them more confident and make them better teachers,” Hansen-Thomas asserted.

PIONERAS provides students with sound academic research in bilingual education.  Its courses encompass content areas in science, math, social studies and reading to enrich their vocabulary in these areas, Hansen-Thomas suggested.

Hansen-Thomas said one critical factor enabling it to earn the federal grant derives from how the program is being evaluated.  After five years, it will examine the test scores of students in the Denton school system with bilingual teachers who participated in PIONERAS and contrast those results with those students who weren’t in classes with bilingual teachers from the program.

Another innovative facet of the program is PIONERAS undergraduates spend three weeks in Costa Rica during their summer vacation, refining their bilingual skills.  Their trip to Costa Rica is financed by the grant.  “In Costa Rica, they learn in situ or in place,” she explained.  It’s a language immersion program where students take intensive Spanish language classes in grammar and study Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Methods.  “It puts the icing on the cake,” Hansen-Thomas noted.

The program is based on research studies that demonstrate that second language acquisition is strengthened if teachers have a solid foundation in their native language.  A strong foundation in Spanish enables bilingual teachers to “transfer into English in a much easier way,” she noted.  “When bilingual teachers have the skills and knowledge of academic Spanish and pedagogical tools, it strengthens their students' academic knowledge of Spanish,” she added.

To be accepted into the program, undergraduate juniors are required to have a 2.75 GPA and must be committed to taking all five courses and agree to study abroad.   Graduate students must have a 3.0 GPA and must be bilingual teachers or in-service teachers in the Denton school system.

PIONERAS operates in several tiers.   For example, graduate students can take three courses in a non-degree program and then apply for a fully paid graduate degree, and these courses will count.  Undergraduates can participate in PIONERAS as part of their bachelor’s degree in education, which also leads to certification as bilingual teachers.  Hence, Hansen-Thomas explained it serves as either part of a “Master’s or a bachelor's and the courses have been specially designed to strengthen the teacher’s knowledge regarding pedagogy and Spanish language development.”

Personal Story And Thoughts Moving Forward

Sandra Zarate, a fifth grade teacher at Rayzor Elementary School in Denton, Texas, was attracted to joining PIONERAS because “it offered an opportunity for an Hispanic dual language teacher to pursue higher education.”  Besides earning her master’s degree, she was focused on “preparing myself better for my students.  When I heard about PIONERAS, it motivated me to go back to school,” she explained.

A native of Mexico, she emigrated to the U.S. at age 14, lives in Denton and earned her undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from TWU.  Despite being a native Spanish speaker, she was spending so much time mastering English in school that she didn’t have time to pay attention to Spanish.  Her conversational skills are fine, but she’s intent on refining her academic and grammatical skills, writing prowess and improve her science vocabulary.

Zarate expects that PIONERAS “will make me a more complete teacher who can master the academic language, interpersonal skills, and collaborate better.”  Her students will benefit because “they’ll have more opportunities to learn in a meaningful way.”

If any school system wanted to introduce its own bilingual teaching program, Hansen-Thomas recommends taking these steps:

1) partnering with a school district

2) working collaboratively with highly qualified teachers who speak Spanish

3) aligning with state teaching certification standards

Why is the program effective?  “Bottom-line, with the additional pedagogical knowledge in Spanish, it strengthens their academic language and academic literacy.  It makes them more confident, stronger teachers, who can deliver content in a way they haven’t been able to before,” Hansen-Thomas said. •