With the primary objective to improve literacy outcomes for English learners in schools where the highest growth in the EL population has occurred, project STEP UP aims at achieving the following:

• Implement a literacy intervention software program in eight high-need pre-K and elementary schools for ELs that reaches more than 400 ELs
• Provide funding for 60 in-service teachers to complete graduate coursework in TESOL and achieve their ESOL endorsement
• Provide bi-annual professional development opportunities for up to 50 support staff that work closely with ELs and their families
• Provide English-language “academies” lead by ESOL-endorsed teachers to ELs and their families that take place seven Saturdays each semester.

Project STEP UP is a USDE National Professional Development five-year grant based in the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools.

With a primary focus of building teachers’ capacity for critically reflective ecologies in rapidly changing schools, project INSIGHT provides ESL endorsement to 150 school educators with an emphasis on inquiry based and site-specific learning. This federally funded National Professional Development Project strives to achieve the following expected outcomes:

• ESL endorsement leading to a high level of English learners’ achievement
• Changes in teacher skills, attitudes, and knowledge
• Increased parental involvement in school related activities
• Continued teacher efforts in involving parents in school related activities


Participant educators receive 9 credit hours of graduate-level coursework leading to an ESL (English as a Second Language) Endorsement. The focus of this coursework includes:

• tips and strategies to enhance students’ academic and linguistic competencies
• contextualization of academic concepts within the experience and knowledge that students bring from home, community, and school
• student engagement through instructional conversations and continued parental outreach.

The Go Teacher program, as envisioned by the Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, was designed to prepare educators to be highly qualified teachers of English to students who are learning English as a second language. Through a partnership with CIMA, the following overarching goals were achieved in aspiring towards President Correa’s vision:

• Interact in an intensive English learning environment situated in a native English-speaking context
• Achieve advanced levels of English competency to support their teaching of English to students in Ecuador
• Gain the knowledge and skills needed to be highly effective teachers of English

A partnership project with Mexico focused on enhancing instructional skills of pre-service and in-service teachers from the state of Mexico. Emphasizing Sheltered Instruction, project SUMMIT (Sheltered Instruction Unifying Methodology, Multilingualism, and Innovation in Teaching) helped 40 scholars with their pedagogical understandings, cultural enrichments, and linguistic competencies. Made possible by a collaboration between CIMA and Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) and Agencia Mexicana de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarollo (AMEXCID), this innovative project brought teachers to the Manhattan campus over a period of six weeks to learn from K-State faculty and build on their own instructional practices.

Another project emphasizing Sheltered Instruction brought 99 educators to the K-State community to participate in Project SUMMIT. This intensive, six-week professional development program housed in the College of Education at K-State was designed to bolster students’ skills in English while providing them with cutting edge theory, research, and strategies in pedagogy. In addition to 40 pre-service and 46 in-service teachers, a cadre of 13 administrators also participated in professional development sessions. This diverse combination of participants provided impetus for discussions around educational sustainability and growth for both the United States and Mexico. Made possible by funding through the Comisión México-Estados Unidos para el Intercambio Educativo y Cultural (COMEXUS).

The essence of this project lies in the Arabic translation of the word Khbrat, which means experience. This partnership between the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kansas State University focuses on transforming the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of Saudi education professionals. Through university-guided immersion in US K-12 schools, scholars strengthened their technical, linguistic, interpersonal, and leadership capacities. While enhancing English and pedagogical competency, Saudi educators acquired applicable knowledge during their time at K-State in order to serve as change agents within their areas of practice in their own education system.