A federal grant program for professional development focused on working with English learners will continue this fall with a new cohort of projects, and new priorities, including letters of endorsement from governors and state education officials.
The office of English language acquisition (OELA) ran the National Professional Development grant program for years. Grant projects partnered researchers with local schools to advance English-learner research and create certification pathways for teachers working with the growing student population.
Since early 2025, the grant program has experienced major upheavals, including:
- The loss of almost all dedicated program officers following mass layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education in May 2025;
- The discontinuation of more than 20 out of 107 active grants through letters sent by the department in September 2025;
- A restructuring that moved the grant program out of OELA into the office of effective educator development programs after the Education Department disbanded the English-language office in May 2026;
- And a lawsuit filed against the Education Department by legal groups and two impacted grant recipients in June 2026.
When the Education Department announced a call for applications for a new fiscal 2026 cohort on May 15, existing grantees said it was a welcomed surprise after months of uncertainty.
“I’m very grateful, but it just must be so disconcerting for people that didn’t get funded for this current school year” due to discontinuations, said Belinda Gimbert, a grantee in her final year of a project that started in 2021, and an associate professor at Ohio State University.
The Education Department did not respond to requests for comment, including a request for how many applications for the fiscal 2026 competition it received by the July 14 deadline.
As the Education Department reviews applications, with award announcements expected by the end of September, current grantees say questions remain over some of the changes introduced to this new round of funding.
Shifted priorities and new oversight
The new cohort of grants will consist of a small group of about 10 to 13, with a funding cap of $1 million per year for five years, which current grantees say is an increased annual funding ceiling for the small cohort.
While the overall timeline for the applications and the deadline stayed the same as in years prior, there’s usually an informal heads-up months prior to the official call for applications, which did not happen this time, said Trish Morita-Mullaney, a grantee in her final year of a project that started in 2021, and a professor at Purdue University in Indiana.
The agency formally running the program has also changed as part of a broader restructuring of the Education Department. The official call for applications stated that the Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor was soliciting applications on behalf of the Education Department. This solicitation was published a day after the deadline for Congress to intervene on the dismantling of OELA.
Perhaps the biggest change, current grantees noted, were the new priorities for projects. Projects meeting these competitive preference priorities are more likely to score higher points total in the selection process. For the 2026 cohort, these priorities were projects that promote evidence-based literacy, projects run by a tribe, tribal organization, or tribal education agency, and/or a letter of endorsement from a governor or state education agency official.
On May 29, Cynthia Hunter, an education program specialist supervisor in the office of elementary and secondary education, led an online informational session on the grant application process. Several participants posed questions about the letter of endorsement, which current grantees say is a major departure from previous applications.
“In the past, they have encouraged us to include state departments of education as partners, but I didn’t have to go trying to look for a signed letter of support at the state level,” Gimbert said.
In the webinar, Hunter said there was no template to use, and the letter must be signed on official letterhead. She added that a governor or state education agency official could endorse multiple projects.
“The governor has to designate you as the representative of the state in a way … because you’re kind of acting as the state in doing this,” Hunter said.
While Hunter emphasized that the letter is not required, she reminded attendees that the inclusion of the letter could earn them points for consideration against competitors.
Grantees cautiously hopeful for the program’s future
Current grantees were eligible to apply for new projects as part of the 2026 cohort.
Chris Montecillo Leider, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said her institution applied even after its 2024 project was among the discontinued grants.
Her project focused on strengthening “grow-your-own” programs for multilingual educators. It, along with other discontinued projects, remained listed on the Education Department’s website as of July 27.
Montecillo Leider noted that for the 2024 cohort, grow-your-own programs were a recommended priority. For the 2026 call, her team worked on writing a new proposal that would still get at what the grant program is meant to do: improve the quality of English learners’ education through targeted teacher development.
“We’re hopeful to be able to continue the work in a different way,” Montecillo Leider said.
The Education Department did not respond to requests on what happened to funding from the discontinued grants.
