New $4.8 million initiative to transform how educators support young English learners

The University of South Florida's College of Education has received a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen how educators across Tampa Bay are prepared to support young English learners.

The five-year initiative, STEEPLE-EL: Strengthening the Training of Early Education Professionals to Enhance the Learning Environment for English Learners, is an interdisciplinary effort with support from the USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. The goal is to bring together USF and community partners to improve language and literacy instruction for English learners in pre-K through third grade. Partners include Hillsborough County Public Schools, Redlands Christian Migrant Association, the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County and the Early Learning Coalition of Pinellas County.

Led by principal investigator Lisa Lopez, professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education, the project will create new pathways for current and future educators to develop expertise in bilingual language and literacy development while also working with education leaders to strengthen the systems supporting English learners.

"The emphasis of this grant specifically was to look at how we can improve the instruction and the outcomes for English learners in early childhood," Lopez said.

One of the project's central components will be a new Graduate Certificate in Bilingual Development in Early Childhood Education. Practicing educators will be able to complete the certificate, while career changers and others entering the teaching profession will have a pathway combining USF's Master of Arts in Teaching in Elementary Education with the graduate certificate. Sophia Han, professor of Early Childhood Education, serves as a co-investigator on the project.

The grant will fund participation in the new certificates for educators recruited through the project's partners. USF expects the grant to cover approximately 110 educators across the two pathways, with the first cohorts expected to begin in fall 2027.

The project will partner with the David C. Anchin Center for the Advancement of Teaching to establish a Leadership Academy for approximately 30 school, district and organizational leaders, providing professional development, collaboration and networking opportunities centered on research-based approaches to English learner education.

"Even if teachers want to engage change in the classroom, they need the support of their administrators and of their leaders," Lopez said. "And so we want to make sure that the information that the teachers are receiving, the leaders are also receiving."

Beyond preparing educators, the interdisciplinary USF team will study whether the approaches taught through the project translate into stronger classroom practices and, ultimately, improved outcomes for children.

Matthew Foster, a co-principal investigator and associate professor with the Department of Child & Family Studies in the College of Behavioral & Community Sciences, brings expertise in assessment development and intervention evaluation to the project. Instructional coaches will work directly with participating educators, observing classroom practices and providing ongoing feedback.

"I would say the main outcome as far as teacher outcomes, are they doing this better? And then does that have downstream effects to students?" Foster said. "At the end of the project, I would love to have the opportunity to continue the work, refine our science and also build the infrastructure so that this can continue."

The project will allow USF to partner with the National Institute for Early Education Research to expand an existing classroom observation tool designed for settings serving bilingual children. The team plans to extend the tool through third grade and broaden its application to classrooms serving children who speak languages beyond English and Spanish. The work could help researchers better connect specific teaching practices with student outcomes and identify where educators may need additional support.

"There's a huge need in the field for an expanded observational tool for multilingual learners, and that's part of what we're doing," Lopez said. "Being able to build on that work is also critical from a nationwide perspective, because that tool can really help evaluate teacher practices, and that'll really open up the science for us to be able to understand what's going on in the classroom and what works and what doesn't work."

Participating educators in the graduate certificate program will also have an opportunity for international learning. The project includes plans for a study abroad experience in the Dominican Republic, where educators will explore local education systems, teacher preparation and the cultural and educational experiences of children in the region alongside co-principal investigator Molly Hamm-Rodríguez, assistant professor of Social Foundations of Education. The experience is intended to help educators better understand the backgrounds of students from the Caribbean whom they may teach in Tampa Bay classrooms.

For Lopez, the ultimate measure of the project's success is straightforward: Improved instruction for English learners.

"Our educational systems are set up for monolingual speakers, and teachers are often trained to work with monolingual speakers, and these systems don't always align with the needs of the multilingual children served in the schools," Lopez said. "A goal of this project is to create sustainable capacity for teachers to work with multilingual students, making sure that their students' needs are being met and they are developing the skills they need to be academically successful. Reviewing child outcomes, observing teachers' practices in their classrooms, and providing continued professional development through the graduate certificate and instructional coaching will help us update our local educational system to meet the needs of these children."

While the initial project will focus on educators and leaders connected to its Tampa Bay partners, the team sees opportunities for the work to eventually reach neighboring school districts and inform English learner instruction more broadly.

"Being able to extend some of this work to neighboring districts, I think is going to be a good first step in the process of expanding this beyond just the scope of the work that we're doing and the work that we're being funded for," Lopez said.