edCount President Ellen Forte to Serve as Principal Investigator
Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Department of Education today announced it is awarding a team comprised of edCount, LLC and Synergy Enterprises, Inc. (SEI), a contract to study well-designed and implemented Language Instruction Education Programs (LIEPs) that will provide practical guidance to local educators on selecting, designing, and implementing such programs.
edCount president and founder Ellen Forte will serve as the project’s principal investigator, and SEI senior associate Rhonda Crenshaw will serve as project director. The study will provide a foundation to support further research and informed dialogue among local educators, state coordinators and the U.S. Department of Education.
The phrase “language instruction educational programs” (LIEPs) refers to any type of systematic approach to providing services that support the development of English language proficiency and academic achievement among English learners (ELs).
The project will research, observe, and describe LIEP characteristics that may influence the quality of programs delivered to English Learners in grades K through 12.
The study, scheduled for completion in September 2012, will review the literature on characteristics of high-quality LIEPs, as well as case studies of 20 promising schools and/or school districts. Site visits will take place in districts across the country between August 2011 through November 2011.
The LIEP project will produce a Program Implementation and Evaluation Guide on LIEPs for local education practitioners. The Guide will outline best practices and challenges identified during case study site visits, and will discuss the challenges and barriers that prevent successful implementation, as well as actions that schools and districts have taken to overcome such challenges.
edCount’s Senior Associate Dr. Sara Waring, Senior Associate Roberta Schlicher, Associate Laura Kuti, and Policy Associate Molly Faulkner-Bond will be supporting Dr. Forte on the project.
About edCount
edCount is a woman-owned professional services firm providing education consulting services to federal, state, district, and school clients centered around instructional systems and capacity building, assessment implementation and evaluation, and policy evaluation and support. For more information please visit www.edcount.com.