Federal Grants
Current Grants  |   Former Grants

Five grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) have served to enhance ESL teacher education at UAB. In addition to promoting UAB's unique distance-delivery model--with the most distant site at 250 miles from Birmingham, these grants have also served in fostering ESL partnerships with targeted school systems such as Shelby County, Baldwin County, Homewood City, and others around the state. Furthermore, by supporting the development of ESL workshops for K-12 educators and university faculty, these grants have also been instrumental in situating UAB as one of the Alabama State Department of Education's premiere partners in the delivery of ESL professional development to mainstream teachers.

 

Current Grants

Shelby STARS (Sheltered Teaching Accommodations for Reaching Success): Shelby Stars is a 5-year collaborative project (July 2007-June 2012) between the Shelby County School System and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Shelby STARS provides tuition stipends for N-12 teachers and aides to take ESL teacher education courses while pursuing college degrees and/or ESL certification in order to improve the quality of instruction for English language
learners (ELLs). Shelby STARS also provides professional development in ELL-related issues for certified and non-certified staff in the Shelby County Schools as well as for university faculty at the local Schools of Education.
Project HEART (Homewood Educators Accommodating, Reaching, and Teaching): Project HEART is a 5-year collaborative project (July 2007-June 2012) between the Homewood City School System and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Project HEART provides tuition stipends for K-12 teachers and aides to take ESL teacher education courses while pursuing college degrees and/or ESL certification in order to improve the quality of instruction for English
language learners (ELLs). Project HEART also provides professional development in ELL-related issues for certified and non-certified staff in the Homewood City Schools as well as for university faculty at the local Schools of Education.

For more information about current grants, contact:
Karen Smith
Shelby STARS and Project HEART Program Coordinator 112 Education Building (205) 934-9689 klwsmith@uab.edu
Brittany Benton
Shelby STARS and Project HEART Coordinator 257 Education Building (205) 975-6710 bbenton@uab.edu

Former Grants

            

	Project EQUAL was a 6-year collaborative project (October 2002-September 2008) between UAB and the Shelby County School System that provided equal access to education for all students. More specifically, Project EQUAL was a comprehensive educational program for supporting the language acquisition and academic achievement of second language learners. Through Project EQUAL, 87 teachers have obtained ESL certification and 19 instructional aides and pre-service teachers have obtained a college degree and/or certification for teaching ELLs. Professional development was also provided to administrators, counselors, and information specialists in the Shelby County Schools as well as to 32 faculty members at the Schools of Education at UAB and at the University of Montevallo.
	New Teachers for New Students (NTNS) was a 4-year collaborative project (October 2001-May 2005) between the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Kansas State University, the Alabama State Department of Education, and the Greater Birmingham Holmes Partnership Public Schools. The purpose of NTNS was to assist public schools in providing trained ESL-certified teachers who were able to work effectively in teaching and developing educational programs for the growing number of culturally and linguistically diverse students, especially those who were limited in their English proficiency. Through NTNS, ESL certification was obtained by 82 teachers from the following areas in Alabama: Baldwin County, DeKalb County, Oxford, Russellville, and greater Birmingham. NTNS was also instrumental in establishing UAB’s distance -delivery approach for the MAE/ESL and its annual summer institute for ESL teachers.
	Project ACCESS was a 3-year grant (October 2001-December 2004) implemented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham with school systems throughout Alabama. Project ACCESS promoted principled educational opportunities for ELLs through the professional development of school system personnel and higher education faculty. Project ACCESS provided training for 95 classroom teachers to make appropriate accommodations in the delivery of instructional content in ways that reflect ESL best practices. It also trained personnel such as administrators, paraprofessionals, office staff, bus drivers and cafeteria workers to employ ESL best practices when working with English language learners and their families. Project ACCESS was also instrumental in creating and maintaining the first website at UAB for ESL teacher education.