Designed for Bilingual Education, this program 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. Languages are explored and applied in this program which focuses on strengthening what bilingual practitioners do with their students and their families each day.

In Illinois, the full Bilingual endorsement consists of 28 graduate credit hours in 7 courses (each course is worth 4 quarter hours).

BE501 Foundations of ESL and Bilingual Education
BE502 Assessment of ESL and Bilingual Students
BE503 Methods and Materials for Teaching English as a Second Language
BE504 Cross-Cultural Studies for Teaching Limited-English-Proficient Students
BE505 Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
BL506 Methods and Materials for Teaching Bilingual Education
ES506 Linguistics for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages required elective for BIL endorsement candidates

In addition to the above courses, students must successfully complete a language examination in the non-English language to be taught.

IL Endorsement students must complete a 100-hour internship.

Illinois Bilingual Endorsement – 7 courses (Tuition cost: $4,060)
Louisiana Bilingual Endorsement– 2 courses (Tuition cost: $1,160)

NOTE: The above tuition figures are tuition only. Costs do not include application fee or per payment processing fees.

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.

Each student will be responsible for obtaining the appropriate endorsement certificate from his/her respective State Department of Education.