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From http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140323/ARTICLES/140329853/-1/entertainment?Title=UF-researchers-helping-to-change-ESOL-education

UF researchers helping to change ESOL education
By Alexa Volland
March 23, 2014

In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education awarded $1.2 million to three University of Florida bilingual education professors to create Project DELTA — Developing English Language through Teacher Achievement.

The goal was to study the effects in the classroom of teachers who have the state-mandated English for Speakers of Other Languages — ESOL — endorsement.

Since then, Ester de Jong, Maria Coady and Candace Harper have been studying the link between UF’s elementary teacher preparation program and ESOL students’ achievement in the classroom and on the FCAT.

…After poring over data involving more than 24,000 Florida elementary school teachers and 72,000 students and comparing elementary ESOL students taught by UF graduates and by non-UF teachers, de Jong said the team found that teachers who completed UF’s program, ProTeach, had ESOL students who performed better in the classroom and on the FCAT.

Read the full article at http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140323/ARTICLES/140329853/-1/entertainment?Title=UF-researchers-helping-to-change-ESOL-education