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District outlines ESOL credentialing options and estimated costs; staff recommend targeted cohorts and incentives
Summary
District staff presented options to increase ESOL credentialing for staff, outlined current investments and estimated costs for expanded incentives and cohorts, and noted the district’s June 2023 resolution on multilingual-learner support.
Portland Public Schools staff outlined options and preliminary cost estimates to increase the number of educators with ESOL credentials, citing a June 2023 board resolution directing progress on multilingual-learner support.
Director of Elementary Schools Dr. Atkinson Dwina reviewed the district’s requirements for serving multilingual students and summarized four directives from the June 2023 resolution, including offering credentialing pathways for non-ESOL teachers and prioritizing recruitment and retention of multilingual educators. "The June 2023 resolution directed the superintendent to support teachers to become effective multilingual learners," Atkinson Dwina said.
Nut graf: Staff presented three tiers of action: (1) maintain existing, mostly asynchronous and lower-cost options (status quo, roughly $67,000 annually); (2) expand summer training and cohorts and fund SIOP workshop options (estimated incremental cost to about $147,000); and (3) add targeted incentives and bonuses tied to course completion/hiring and retention (proposed additional $35,000 in incentive design funds, bringing a sample total to about $182,000).
Staff described the current spending in FY25: approximately $67,000 for ESOL-related professional learning and supports, including $30,000 covering university courses toward the ESOL 660 endorsement (enough to fund roughly 4–6 staff through an endorsement depending on how many courses each person must take). The district also uses WIDA modules (no cost via consortium participation) and an online platform for strategy modules. Staff estimated an expanded pathway (covering roughly 60 graduate courses) could support endorsement for 12–20 staff at an estimated $147,000, and that a suite of incentives and summer SIOP training might require an additional $35,000 to design and pilot.
Committee members asked about timelines and delivery models. Staff said endorsement completion typically requires roughly 3–5 graduate courses for many already-certified teachers; some employees may need fewer. Staff indicated they have discussed on-site cohort arrangements with area universities and are open to summer, cohort-based models to accelerate credentialing.
Ending: Staff asked the committee for feedback on whether to include expanded cohorts and incentive pilots in FY26 planning; no final FY26 funding decision was made at the meeting.
