A research endeavor addressing the need for bilingual teachers has nearly quadrupled its reach across Texas from 33 school districts in 2022 to 124 districts today.

Project Enhancing Quality Teacher Preparation Through Research-based Instructional Best Practices for Bilingual and English Learners (EBEST) is housed within our Center for Research & Development in Dual Language & Literacy Acquisition and funded through a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition.

The project offers online professional development courses for Texas pre-service and in-service teachers who want to earn their Bilingual/ESL certification so they can support emergent bilingual students. So far, Project EBEST has enrolled 838 participants, and pre-service teachers have reported a 100% passing rate on their certification exams after completing the project’s prep courses. The project’s success has garnered interest from several universities in the Texas A&M University System, as well as Texas A&M’s Higher Education Center at McAllen.

Dr. Rafael Lara-Alecio is the Principal Investigator (PI) of Project EBEST, along with Drs. Beverly J. Irby and Fuhui Tong serving as Co-PIs. Dr. Jessica Swan serves as EBEST’s Education Program Officer. To learn more about the project and its services to teachers, visit tx.ag/EBEST.

Project EBEST now serves 124 Texas school districts.

For media inquiries, contact Ruben Hidalgo.