Collaborative Professional Development

The NLRC’s collaborative professional development offers financial support to a variety of professional development activities that benefit LCTL instructors across K-16 education. This support builds on already existing partnerships such as the Language Collaboratory Professional Development Series (a collaboration between language centers at MSU, University of Michigan, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Minnesota, recordings of events available on the Language Collaboratory’s YouTube Channel). Additional events and initiatives to support will be drawn from the results of a needs analysis of LCTL instructors.

Funding for YOUR LCTL Professional Development Event

LCTL educators can also apply for financial support to host a Professional Development Event that is focused on LCTLs or supports LCTL instructors.

What is it?

The National Less Commonly Taught Languages Resource Center (NLRC) has put aside money to support professional development events, which is split over the application periods. We expect funding for events to be in the $200-500 range per award. There are three anticipated application periods each academic year.  The application is available at the bottom of this webpage. 

As the NLRC supports all less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), the events that we support through this initiative should benefit more than just one language’s instructors.  

How can this money be used?  

  • General support for an event like a webinar, workshop, or conference. 
    • In such cases, the invoice must be received from a university, school, or community organization (payments cannot be made to individuals). Receipts for event expenses must be submitted for reimbursement. 
  • Speaker fees for events such as webinars, workshops, or conferences.
    • MSU can work with the event organizer to pay the speaker directly.

Events may be held online, in-person, or in a hybrid format.  

Feel free to look at our previously funded applications/events for ideas.

Who is eligible? 

Anyone involved with LCTL education in the United States is eligible to apply for funds to host their LCTL event, including graduate students.  

Speakers must be eligible to be paid in the United States. MSU staff/faculty cannot be paid speaker fees. 

Application Process 

We encourage you to apply as far ahead of your event as possible. Applications will be evaluated once per semester: August 15th (for fall events), December 15th (for spring events), and April 15th (for summer). If the money allotted for the semester for which you applied has already been spent but your project was interesting to us, we may invite you to reapply in the next round (using exactly the same proposal). 

Applicants can access the application survey at the bottom of this page. The next application will be due April 15th!

Required Application Documents 

All documents should be uploaded in the appropriate place in the application survey OR the contents typed/pasted into the appropriate places in the application survey.  

  • Short bio statements or resumes or CVs of the event organizer(s), including link(s) to at least one professional online profile if possible (school/university directory page, academia.edu, LinkedIn, etc.)  
  • Budget of the overall event  
  • Description of the event
    • Including a plan for feedback and evaluation plan, as well as how you plan to publicize/distribute the event 

Selection Criteria 

  • Scope of audience
    • Does it address all LCTL instructors or only a narrow subset?
    • Priority consideration will be given to professional development that highlights materials or strategies not focused on just one language. Presentations that provide primary examples in a single language must explicitly speak to the ways those examples could be adapted to other LCTL teaching contexts and how information from the event will be shared with a broader audience.
  • Impact of event
    • Number of anticipated attendees/participants.
    • Is there a plan to retain and publicize videos/other items from the event for further impact?
      • Note: If the event will be video recorded, appropriate permissions must be secured by the event organizers.
    • Does the applicant have a plan to measure the impact of the event?
  •  

Deliverables 

  • A short final report will need to be received before funds are released. A template will be given to awardees.
  • All awardees will be expected to gather at least some minimal data (number of attendees) and have a plan for evaluation (e.g., a survey that is distributed to attendees).  

Disclaimers 

If you receive funding for your event, you must include this information on any website advertising the event, presentation, and on any materials available to attendees: 

“Some funding for this event was received from the National LCTL Resource Center (NLRC), a Title VI Language Resource Center from the U.S. Department of Education. However, contents of this [event, workshop, etc.] do not necessarily represent the NLRC or the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.” 

Ready to apply? Click the button below! 

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