Nuestros Niños Program
About Us
The Nuestros Niños program is a federally funded project that provides professional development to teachers and paraprofessional/assistant teachers in school districts in Massachusetts and Colorado until 2027. It aims at educators meeting high standards in the early education of the youngest English Learners (ELs). In Massachusetts, this professional development is being offered by Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, and in Colorado, it is provided by the University of Colorado, Denver.
Our Goals
The Nuestros Niños program’s goals are
- To improve language and literacy education for young bilinguals in PreKinder classes.
- To enhance parents’ abilities to promote their children’s language and literacy by supporting teachers in strengthening home-school partnerships.
Professional Development
The Nuestros Niños Professional Development (NNPD) program consists of four courses leading to an academic certificate:
- Working with Families, Professionals, and Communities
- Young Bilingual Children’s Development and Learning
- Methods for Teaching Young Bilingual Children
- Fieldwork in Education: ECE for Young Bilingual Learners
Participant teachers will obtain an academic certificate in Teaching Young Dual Language Learners with tuition paid for by project funds. The program will provide supplemental instructional materials for use in the classrooms and to be sent home for families to use with their young children in conjunction with classroom activities.
Program Evaluation
Nuestros Niños has a program evaluation of the effectiveness of implementing the professional development program to prepare teachers to work with bilingual children. This evaluation involves volunteer teachers of Spanish-English young bilingual children, students, parents/caregivers, and coaches. Participating teachers will complete a teacher questionnaire and their classrooms will be observed by a project team member. Some teachers will be invited to participate in an interview about their experience in the program. Spanish-English young bilingual students randomly chosen to participate in the study will have their language and literacy knowledge assessed in both languages. Parents will answer a questionnaire and some will be interviewed. Then coaches will also be interviewed.