Instituto del Progreso Latino

Established in 1977, Instituto del Progreso Latino (Instituto) is an educational institution serving the immigrant and lower-income populations of the Chicago metropolitan area with workforce development, adult education, and English as a Second Language (ESL) training. This award enables Instituto to summarize and release an evaluation of its innovative online language program called Cyber-ESL. The pilot tested whether Cyber-ESL can offer higher-quality instruction than traditional classroom-based ESL courses at a lower cost to a larger number of students without straining the resources of the community college system. Instituto will share the findings through dissemination of a synthesized report at a briefing for peer organizations, government officials, and eduators.

Established in 1977, Instituto del Progreso Latino (Instituto) is an educational institution serving the immigrant and lower-income populations of the Chicago metropolitan area with workforce development, adult education, and English as a Second Language (ESL) training. This award supplements earlier support for the pilot of an innovative online language program called Cyber-ESL, and an independent evaluation of the pilot. The pilot and evaluation test whether Cyber-ESL can offer higher-quality instruction than traditional classroom-based ESL courses at a lower cost to a larger number of students without straining the resources of the community college system. With growing demand and limited capacity in the traditional ESL setting, if proven effective and efficient, Cyber-ESL may transform the manner in which ESL is offered in Illinois and nationwide.

This grant to Instituto del Progreso Latino will support an independent evaluation of Cyber-English as a Second Language (Cyber-ESL), an innovative model that combines in-person and online instruction with self-directed coursework at locations that are convenient to students. A prior grant funded a two-year pilot to test whether Cyber-ESL can offer high-quality instruction at a lower cost to a larger number of students without straining the resources of the community college system. If proven successful, this experiment could transform the manner in which ESL is offered in the state of Illinois and nationally at a time when demand for instruction will likely increase with any new federal program to legalize undocumented immigrants.

This grant to Instituto del Progreso Latino (Instituto) will test an innovative model for teaching English as a Second Language. Instituto’s Cyber-ESL method combines in-person and on-line instruction with self-directed coursework at locations that are convenient to the students. If Congress enacts an immigration reform law mandating English proficiency for immigrants seeking lawful status, demand for ESL courses will increase sharply. Instituto seeks to demonstrate that Cyber-ESL can offer high quality instruction at a lower cost to a larger number of students, thereby helping to meet current and anticipated demand for ESL training.

In support of general operations (over three years).