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Risa Muñoz teaches a Spanish Dual Language Immersion class at Rigler Elementary School in this 2017 photo. Munoz is now principal at César Chávez K-8 School. (Photo by Beth Conyers)

Risa Muñoz teaches a Spanish Dual Language Immersion class at Rigler Elementary School in this 2017 photo. Munoz is now principal at César Chávez K-8 School. (Photo by Beth Conyers)

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Are you a bilingual college graduate or near college graduate who would like to make a difference in students’ lives? Portland Public Schools is recruiting candidates for its Dual Language Teacher Residency Program. The program helps prepare prospective educators for careers as bilingual teachers.

As part of our commitment to closing the opportunity gap for historically underserved students, PPS recruits and trains bilingual candidates from our community and staff to participate in our alternative licensure program. It provides a pathway for future teachers to pursue a graduate degree in education, with the opportunity to be hired for a position with PPS.

The program, which was previously called the Portland Dual Language Teacher Fellows Program, was started to address what had been double-digit shortages of bilingual teachers. Residents will need to be accepted into a teacher preparation program at Portland State University or Oregon State University.

As part of the program, residents attend a dual language summer institute, receive mentorship support through their university, and get access to professional development and curriculum planning support sessions, all of which are funded by PPS.

In PPS, bilingual teachers can teach in a dual language immersion program at the PK-12 levels. They can also teach language arts or social studies in a partner language and/or English in the middle school grades, and world language in grades 6-12. The district has dual language programs in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and Japanese, also has residents who speak Somali and Arabic.

The program will hold an informational meeting on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Columbia Room on the second floor of the Blanchard Education Service Center (501 N. Dixon St.).  More information is available at the program webpage, including the presentation from prior informational meetings.  

The due date to apply is Wednesday, Jan. 15, but applications after that date will be accepted with prior arrangement. Contact Alma Morales Galicia for more information at amoralesgalicia@pps.net or 503-916-3546.