The Fort Lewis College School of Education will begin to offer graduate courses and field work for New Mexico’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages endorsement.

The TESOL endorsement is part of FLC’s Master of Arts in Education: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education program. The endorsement offers education and training to better serve people who live in New Mexico who are learning English.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 16 percent of New Mexico’s students are considered to have limited English proficiency. The state ranks fourth in the country. Colorado is next on the list with 12 percent of students with limited English proficiency.

Students earning their master’s degree at FLC can earn the TESOL or Colorado’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse endorsement. The college is the only Colorado school and one of only four New Mexico institutions to offer the TESOL endorsement.

“The graduate program in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education builds on a strong tradition of offering culturally diverse educational programs at Fort Lewis College, which was the first teacher education program in Colorado to offer Bilingual Navajo and Spanish Teaching endorsements in the 1970s under Dr. Linda Simmons and Farrin Webb,” said Richard Fulton, dean of FLC’s School of Education.

To learn more about FLC’s education master’s programs, visit https://graduate.fortlewis.edu.

parmijo@durangoherald.com