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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Pierluisi Introduces Teacher Exchange Bill

San Juan, Puerto Rico- Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi announced today that he will reintroduce a bill to promote the creation of teacher exchanges at the national level, which would improve English language instruction in the United States, including in Puerto Rico.

Pierluisi will introduce the bill next week, along with his Republican colleague Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (FL).

“A teacher exchange program will give our teachers the opportunity to learn new instructional techniques and expose them to different learning cultures,” said Pierluisi.

The Resident Commissioner said that the program would particularly benefit those teachers who seek to improve their language skills.

“Puerto Rican teachers participating in an exchange will have the opportunity to strengthen their English skills while they live for a year in a state where most people speak English, and vice versa,” explained Pierluisi.

The Resident Commissioner made the announcement during his speech to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), which is comprised of more than 400 higher education institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico, Spain and Portugal.

The bill is part of a commitment the Resident Commisioner has made to find different options to strengthen the English language training that teachers in Puerto Rico receive. In addition to helping Puerto Rican schools, the creation of federally supported teacher exchanges would fulfill the needs of English and Spanish language instructors in schools across the nation.

“Teacher exchanges are particularly valuable for teachers in schools that rank below the national average in standardized testing,” he added.