Contact: Phyllis Hardy, MABE Executive Director 

PRESS RELEASE 

MABE Partners With DLNeM on National Professional Development Grant
Project SEMBRAR To Support Multilingual Educators in MA, RI, CT, NM 

Ashland, MA (September 6, 2024) — The Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast (MABE) has been awarded a highly competitive grant to collaborate with Dual Language Education of New Mexico (DLeNM) and Educators for a Multilingual Multicultural America (EMMA) on Project SEMBRAR (Sustaining Equity through Mentorship for Bilingual Teacher Recruitment and Retention).  This grant is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Professional Development (NPD) program, the Biden-Harris Administration’s $11 million initiative to “support the recruitment and retention of bilingual and multilingual educators,” said the U.S. Department of Education’s Press Office. 

Project SEMBRAR is a Grow-Your-Own (GYO) model that aims to increase the number of certified bilingual and Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) teachers, creating new supportive pathways for both pre- and in-service educators in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Mexico. Through Project SEMBRAR, MABE will further its mission of identifying, promoting, and disseminating research-based programs and practices that support multilingualism and multiculturalism for educational success. Anchored in the National Dual Language Education Teacher Preparation “EMMA” Standards (Guerrero & Lachance, 2018), Project SEMBRAR will employ mentorship and Professional Development (PD) as key levers of change to recruit, support, and retain bilingual teachers. 

“MABE is energized and inspired by the opportunity to collaborate with DLeNM to support the multilingual teacher pipeline through Project SEMBRAR,” said MABE’s Executive Director, Phyllis Hardy. “Our innovative mentorship model creates the conditions for bilingual teachers to be better supported and for experienced bilingual teachers to advance their PD by becoming mentors. Importantly, the project not only addresses the bilingual teacher shortage but also launches the EMMA Standards, which propels our field forward by outlining and defining the competencies that make a quality bilingual teacher. We are honored to have been granted this opportunity and are ready to start work with our partners to continue supporting bilingual educators, and therefore, our English learners.”

DLeNM’s Executive Director, Michael Rodríguez, said, “This grant will help us strengthen efforts to effectively recruit and retain bilingual educators, ensuring that all students have access to the high-quality DLBE programs they deserve.” 

MABE’s involvement in this prestigious consortium is a significant milestone in the organization’s ongoing commitment to inclusive educational practices, and addresses a critical need to equitably serve diverse educational landscapes and the growing number of multilingual learners in DLBE programs.  

For more information about MABE, please visit mabene.org.

   

View PDF Press Release here.