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ILI

The International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI) promotes intercultural understanding and diverse communities by providing high-quality language instruction and teacher training.

You are here: Home / News / Northampton’s International Language Institute earns highest ranking from national accreditation authority

October 18, 2021

Northampton’s International Language Institute earns highest ranking from national accreditation authority

Northampton’s International Language Institute earns highest ranking from national accreditation authority

The Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET) has certified the International Language Institute (ILI) of Massachusetts through August 30, 2026. This five-year accreditation is the highest level bestowed by ACCET, which since 1978 has been officially recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a reliable authority regarding the quality of education and training provided by the institutions ACCET accredits.

“We are proud to earn ACCET’s highest accreditation,” said ILI board president Markus Jones. “It underscores the extraordinary creativity and dedication of our teachers and administrative staff in meeting COVID pandemic challenges. It allows ILI to bring international students to the U.S. on student visas issued by the U.S. Department of State. And it helps assure prospective students from around the world and in western Massachusetts that they will receive top-notch service.”

Operating for 37 years, ILI is a non-profit language school in Northampton, MA, that partners with 12 local colleges and universities to teach academic English skills to speakers of other languages. The school also trains instructors in effective ways to teach English to non-English speakers in the United States and abroad. And, ILI offers French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish courses for English speakers who travel for pleasure and business or “who simply want to learn another language,” said ILI executive director Caroline Gear. “We also teach individually tailored language courses for employers and their employees who want to communicate better with each other and their customers.”

“We are especially proud of our free English classes for refugees and immigrants,” Gear added. “For more than 30 years, these classes have helped change lives thanks to support from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the generosity of hundreds of local businesses and individual donors.”

This year marked the first time ACCET accredited a completely different model–all online classes–that ILI instigated in early 2020 in response to the onset of the pandemic. “We are very pleased that ACCET personnel in their virtual site visit to ILI and after completing extensive research as part of the accreditation process found our online teaching and learning worthy of top accreditation.”

Among the strengths pointed out in the ACCET assessment are ILI’s professional relationships within the Northampton community; the school’s short- and long-term business plans; the extensive tenure of ILI faculty and staff, which results in a collaborative environment that supports out-of-the box thinking; student-centered classes, including the free English classes for refugees and immigrants; the school’s exemplary teaching and the teachers’ qualifications that exceed ACCET requirements; and the fact that students enjoy their time at ILI and are making significant progress in language development.

ACCET first accredited ILI in 1984, and has continued its recognition of the school’s excellence since then.

Article by ILI Staff / News

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“Music is the universal language of mankind.” “Music is the universal language of mankind.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

ILI English and French instructor, Josh Owsley is also a musician! He will be playing bass with @landownerband tonight at @thedrakeamherst . 🎶Hope to see you there!

📸Photo by @vagabundodeltiempo 

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #northampton #landowner #livemusic #teacherfeature #thedrakeamherst  #community
Congratulations 🎉 to our graduates  Jeffrey ( Congratulations 🎉 to our graduates  Jeffrey (Peru), Azhar (Kazakhstan), Ruveyda (Turkey), Andrei (Russia) and Yasemin (Turkey). Every month we have an international potluck to celebrate our graduates. You might have seen Azhar’s cakes before, but the cake that she made, as you will say, is truly over the top! We are sad to say goodbye to the students, but excited about the next steps that they will be taking in their lives.

Cake by @_azhar_bakery 

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #northampton #studentlife #azharbakery #potluck #education #internationalstudents #ialc #ialclanguages
“We must risk everything for the raw recipe of o “We must risk everything for the raw recipe of our passion” 

We had such an engaging afternoon at @parlorroommusic with ILI Board Member + former president of @gccgreenfield Bob Pura. Bob led a reading and discussion of his new book The Community’s College: The Pursuit of Democracy, Economic Development, and Success, which he co-wrote with Dr. Tara L. Parker. Audience members also got the chance to learn more about the process behind the creation of the book. 

Thank you for joining us! 📚

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #bobpura #authorevent #reading #discussion #communitycollege #thecommunityscollege #northampton
Today Bob Pura and Tara Parker read from and lead Today Bob Pura and Tara Parker read from and lead a discussion of their book The Community’s College: The Pursuit of Democracy, Economic Development, and Success! 📚 Join us at @parlorroommusic at 2pm. 

In their book, The Community’s College: The Pursuit of Democracy, Economic Development, and Success, co-authors Dr. Robert L. Pura and Dr. Tara L. Parker explore the extraordinary impact of this country’s community colleges on people, communities, and our democratic traditions.

As the book’s foreword by Lynn Pasquerella, President of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, states: "[T]he analysis offered by Dr. Pura and Dr. Parker unveils how community colleges—distinctively American institutions—are more essential than ever to fulfilling our nation's historic mission of educating for democracy."

Pura, a member of the ILI board of directors, retired in 2018 as president of Greenfield Community College after 17+ years in that position. Parker is the recently appointed Dean of the College of Education and Human Development at UMass Boston.
 
#thecommunityscollege #authorevent #ili #bobpura #taraparker #theparlorroom #northampton #community
TOMORROW - Saturday, January 28th don't miss an Au TOMORROW - Saturday, January 28th don't miss an Author Reading & Discussion with Bob Pura + Tara Parker at @parlorroommusic at 2pm!

Bob Pura, former Greenfield Community College president (18 years) and now an ILI board member, was on the Bill Newman radio show yesterday discussing his new book. 

So many of our students have found success at @gccgreenfield . Here's a photo of all of ILI's students who were at GCC during Bob's last year...including former board member, Aimee Salmon. Aimee is at Mt. Holyoke and graduating this semester, Florice is at Tulane, Bene is at Smith, Orphee is at Western New England University, Flora just graduated from Western New England and is an electrical engineer in Connecticut and Lastone graduated from UMASS and works in Boston.

➡️Listen to the radio show here: https://whmp.com/podcasts/the-communitys-college/

#whmp #ili #thecommunityscollege #bobpura #taraparker #communitycollege #authorevent #northampton #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts
This past fall, ILI applied to #MassachusettsDepar This past fall, ILI applied to #MassachusettsDepartmentofElementaryandSecondaryEducation’s (DESE) competitive grant program to help fund our free English classes for immigrants and refugees. The hard work paid off. When DESE announced the recipients, ILI was on the list! ✨

“We were thrilled to get the good news,” said Macey Faiella, director of ILI’s English programs. “The pandemic shed new light on the disparities that face immigrants and refugees, and we reassessed our program to include greatly expanded offerings. DESE responded positively—all to the benefit of the students.” Starting this fall ILI will teach four levels of online and in-person evening classes and a new intensive in-person morning course. 

For 34 years, ILI has partnered with the state to provide free English classes in western Massachusetts. This award extends the partnership for an additional five years. It funds about two-thirds of the overall program. ILI is responsible for the remaining costs.

#ili #internationallanguageinstitute #massachusetts #dese #education #grant #nonprofit #freeenglishprogram #mass #community
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