ECS Faculty Awarded 5-Year Department of Education Grant

Drs. Veronica Valdez, Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez, and Wenyang Sun to Advance Multilingual Learning in Utah Schools

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Veronica Valdez (Principal Investigator), Dr. Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez (Co-Investigator), and Dr.  Wenyang Sun (Co-Investigator) have been awarded a $2,827,368 grant from the Department of Education. This 5-year project, entitled Advancing Pathways toward Equity and eXcellence with Educators of Multilingual Learners (APEX), will 1) increase Utah educators’ knowledge and skills for teaching multilingual learners and promoting literacy and 2) develop curricula, research, and practice briefs for evidence-based strategies for pre- and in-service educators of multilingual learners.

The project consists for four learning pathways: 1) pre-service teachers obtaining an ESL endorsement, 2) in-service teachers obtaining an ESL endorsement, 3) in-service teachers obtaining a 30-credit-hour state and nationally accredited M.Ed. with an ESL endorsement, and 4) summer trainings for non-ESL endorsed educators, paraeducators, parents, and others. All four pathways emphasize evidence-based practices for improving educational and literacy outcomes for multilingual learners.

The College of Education is proud to partner with Canyons School District and Davis School District (Year 3 of the project) on APEX.