The Endorsement in Bilingual Education prepares educators to strengthen students' native languages while building English proficiency and mastery of grade level academic content to English language learners. Most states require bilingual educators to demonstrate language proficiency in both English and a target language.
Throughout this program, educators will examine high-impact bilingual programs and learn additional strategies to help their students and families become more integrated into the school and community. Furthermore, students will examine research in the areas of literacy, first and second language acquisition, and transfer of content knowledge between first and second languages.
Educators examine the application of relevant learning and assessment standards to their teaching in bilingual/bicultural classrooms to meet the individual needs of English language learners.
BE501 Foundations of ESL and Bilingual Education¹ BE505 Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students* BE504 Cross-Cultural Studies for Teaching Limited-English-Proficient Students BE503 Methods and Materials for Teaching English as a Second Language BL506 Methods and Materials for Teaching Bilingual Education² BE502 Assessment of ESL and Bilingual Students ES506 Linguistics for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) BL510 Internship Experience for Bilingual Education**
In addition to the above courses, students must successfully complete a language examination in the non-English language to be taught.
**Illinois requires an internship unless you submit an internship waiver. There is no charge for the internship. *If you waive your internship, instead of taking BE505, your program will include: ED512 Diverse Learners: Developing Classrooms to Support Learning for All Students
¹, ² Satisfies LA BIL course requirements for BIL Specialist
For Illinois students, the Bilingual Endorsement consists of 28 credit hours in 7 courses (each course is worth 4 quarter hours). The tuition cost is $4,060.
In order to request an approval, complete the top portion of the form ISBE 73-49 Request for Approval as a Bilingual or ESL Teacher (.PDF). There is no fee for the approval application. The approval application may either be mailed directly to Springfield or may be submitted to a Regional Office of Education. All evaluations are completed in the Springfield office.
In order to apply for an endorsement, complete the form ISBE 73-52 Application for Endorsement of Issued Certificate. All endorsement applications must be accompanied by a $30 fee. Once an endorsement has been granted, the certificate will be reprinted to include the addition of the new endorsement(s). All middle grade endorsements require six semester hours of middle grade coursework in addition to the subject content requirement.
For Louisiana students, the Bilingual Endorsement consists of 2 courses (tuition cost: $1,160).
Students who have completed the Bilingual Endorsement should fill out the Request for Vertification form.
Each student will be responsible for obtaining the appropriate endorsement certificate from his/her respective State Department of Education.