The U.S. Department of Education has halted some of the 107 grants from the only federal program specifically created to help teachers improve techniques for working with English learners.
Those grantees received non-continuation letters from the U.S. Department of Education on Sept. 23 and were given seven calendar days to file an appeal.
Education Department officials, as of Sept. 25, did not clarify precisely how many NPD grantees received non-continuation letters. Education Week identified at least 10 affected programs, according to interviews with grantees and a review of messages from an informal email listserv that NPD grantees created to share program updates.
“The department re-awarded the majority of National Professional Development program grants and non-continued those that do not align with the administration’s priorities,” said Madi Biedermann, the deputy assistant secretary for communications for the Education Department, in a statement. “The non-continued grant funds are being reinvested into high quality NPD programs that better serve students.”
The halt is among scores of education grants that the Trump administration has recently halted. Teachers across the country, in a variety of studies and surveys, report lacking sufficient professional development to support the growing population of English learners enrolling in K-12 schools.
The National Professional Development, or NPD, grant program—appropriated by Congress through Title III federal funds—supports professional development activities designed to improve instruction for English learners.
Congress appropriated more than $59 million for NPD grants in the fiscal year 2024.
At press time, some NPD grantees who did not receive a non-continuation letter reported they had not yet received confirmation that their funding would continue as planned.
“The Trump administration is no longer allowing taxpayer dollars to go out the door on autopilot—we are evaluating every federal grant to ensure that they are in line with the administration’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education,” Biedermann said of the cut NPD grants, echoing language used in the non-continuation letters sent to NPD and other grantees.
The non-continuation decisions mark the latest twist in a year of confusion for NPD grantees after all program officers assigned to support grantees were laid off earlier this year, and grantees experienced delays in formal messaging from the Education Department.
All the grantees who received non-continuation letters and spoke with Education Week said they plan to appeal. They include Tina Cheuk, an NPD grantee and associate professor of elementary science education at California Polytechnic State University.
“I just want the Department of Ed. to follow the law. National Professional Development grants [are] part of Title III and congressionally mandated,” Cheuk said.
Grant projects filled a growing need in teacher PD
The English learner population of more than 5 million students continues to grow, yet survey after survey finds teachers requesting additional training and support for serving these students.
Most recently, an EdWeek Research Center survey completed May 28 through July 1 found that fewer than half of 874 nationally representative educators said the instruction and professional development they, or their school or district’s teachers, received on working with English learners was sufficient. In contrast, nearly 1 in 5 said they had received no training at all.
The NPD grant program was designed to help fill this preparation gap by funding training programs that work with both pre- and in-service teachers across the country. The program is part of Title III funding that covers supplemental support for English learners’ education. The Trump administration has proposed eliminating Title III funding for the fiscal year 2026.
Examples of NPD grant work include helping teachers work with families of English learners in Texas and developing grow-your-own bilingual teacher programs in Massachusetts.
“Despite periodic criticism, the [NPD] program continues to address critical needs, especially in bridging research to practice,” said Mack Burke,an NPD grantee and a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Baylor University in Texas, who received a non-continuation letter.
With the newly announced funding cuts, grantees must end much of the work already underway this school year.
Cheuk’s grant project, which recently completed the first year of a five-year grant, trains 80 bilingual undergraduates and 135 pre- and in-service teachers working with English learners. Participating students must now find ways to continue funding their education on their own, Cheuk said.
Laureen Avery, an NPD grantee and academic program manager at the University of California, Los Angeles, is part of a team working on two NPD grants—one awarded in 2021 and another in 2022—that together provide a competency-based program of training for certified teachers who seek to build their skills in working with multilingual learners.
Due to the non-continuation letter, Avery’s team provided participating teachers with a license to an online platform so they will be able to continue the program independently. The grant team can no longer provide facilitators, mentors, or coaches, nor can they enroll anyone else in the program or advance participants to the next phase.
Avary Carhill-Poza, an NPD grantee and associate professor of applied linguistics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, recently completed the third year of her NPD grant program. Her team focused on strengthening teachers’ leadership skills across eight high-needs school districts.
“We saw in our year one and year two cohorts, people talked about finding themselves as an expert or a touch point in their school when people had questions about working with English learners,” Carhill-Poza said. “We have people talking about being able to lead curriculum customization and curriculum development efforts in their schools.”
All that progress is now in limbo while Carhill-Poza seeks an appeal.
Grantees seek clarity moving forward
As grantees work with their general counsel to file appeals in response to non-continuation letters, questions remain about the future of the NPD grant program.
Many NPD grantees, including Carhill-Poza, anticipated delays this year in funding rollouts and formal communication from the Education Department due to reduced staffing in the agency’s office for English language acquisition, which was part of the broader staff cuts in March.
But Carhill-Poza did not expect the non-continuation letter. Nor did she expect it to quote one sentence from her initial grant proposal as evidence that her team was allegedly misaligned with the Civil Rights Act.
Similarly, other grantees said their letters cited proposal language rather than documentation of completed work.
“I went through a rigorous [application] process and have complied with my part of [the] contract, above and beyond. And then it’s just sort of, the contract doesn’t matter. Nobody’s honoring that anymore,” Carhill-Poza said.
NPD grantees interviewed by Education Week who received non-continuation letters said they received no prior formal communication from the Education Department indicating they were out of compliance or failing to meet the Trump administration’s priorities.
The last formal communication grantees received in late August simply stated that the fiscal year period scheduled to end Aug. 31 was extended to Sept. 30.
For now, grantees are waiting to hear back on appeals, or to receive their continuation letters, as participants in the affected grant projects weigh their options.
“The harm is really directly to students and young people who want to be teachers. Now the barriers are even higher,” Cheuk said.
