Northern Arizona University College of Education and Yuma Branch Campus is working with general education and special education teachers in rural school districts in La Paz county and the Yuma area on the border of Mexico to improve instruction for English Learners (ELs) and English Learners with disabilities. CREST provides fellows with graduate coursework leading to a full State of Arizona endorsement in English as Second Language.

Preparing Rural Inclusive Multicultural
Exceptional-educators (PRIME)

Northern Arizona University College of Education and Yuma Branch Campus in partnership with Yuma county schools (Yuma Union High School District; Yuma Elementary 1, Somerton; Gadsden; Crane; Wellton; Parker; Hyder; Antelope Valley, and La Paz County Schools)... More info, and Grant application.

Preparing Rural Inclusive Special Educators (PRISE)
NAU is working with AZ SEA & 9 rural Yuma area LEA’s with high numbers of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students: Crane, Gadsden, Parker, Quartzite, San Pasqual, Somerton, Yuma Elementary, Yuma High, & Welton School Districts. LEA partners provide practicum sites and mentors. SEA partner reviews and provides feedback on redesigned teacher education syllabi...
 More info

“Rural Inclusive Special Educators” (RISE)
NAU is working in a consortium with rural Yuma area LEA’s (Antelope School District, Crane School District, Hyder School District, Gadsden School District, Parker School District, Quartzite School District, San Pasqual School District, Somerton School District, Yuma Elementary School District, Yuma High School District, and Welton School District) and the Arizona SEA. All of these rural districts enroll high numbers of ELL students... More info and Grant Program Applications.

“Bilingual Rural Inclusive Development for General and Exceptional-educators”
(BRIDGE) is a federally funded (OSERS) field-based collaboration in special and general education between Northern Arizona University and Arizona rural school districts with a focus on training teachers to serve children with high-incidence disabilities from Native American (Navajo and Hopi) and Mexican-American backgrounds... More info

“Bilingual/ESL Special-Education Training”
The College of Education at Northern Arizona University is currently working with a consortium of four rural school districts in the Yuma area on the border of Mexico- Crane Elementary Gadsden Elementary, Somerton Elementary, and Yuma Elementary, to prepare and support new bilingual education and bilingual special education teachers, many of whom were formerly paraprofessionals, in their first years of teaching... More info

“Developing Rural Exceptional-educators to Address Multicultural Students”
The DREAMS project is a field-based training collaboration in special and elementary education between Northern Arizona University (NAU) and local school districts in the Yuma and Tuba City areas. The purpose is to train 58 rural pre-service special education/elementary education teachers over a three-year period to deliver high quality service to rural culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional students. DREAMS provides tuition, books, and cultural expenses for participants... More info

“Limited-English-proficient-students Education for All Professionals”
The College of Education at Northern Arizona University is currently working with a consortium of four rural school districts serving Mexican-American students in the Yuma area on the border of Mexico to prepare and support general education teachers in obtaining a Bilingual Multicultural Education/English as a Second Language Endorsement... More info