Objective:
The objective of this cooperative project is to establish an English Teacher Exchange Program and provide technical assistance for Environmental Education Programs in the Azores, as part of the Azores Cooperative Initiatives Program (ACIP), as jointly decided in May 2003 by the ACIP Technical Working Group held by the United States Government and the Regional Government of the Azores. ACIP, or rather the requirement to engage in cooperative initiatives with the Azores, Portugal, is mandated in the 1995 US-Portugal Agreement on Cooperation and Defense and further defined in the Final Minute to that agreement. ACIP was created and has been implemented through Department of Defense (DOD) financial resources and relationships with civilian federal agencies and other non-governmental institutions as part of the U.S Government¿s commitment to the agreement. DOD has requested and funded the U.S. Department of Agriculture¿s Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS) to serve as the lead civilian agency and facilitator for ACIP. The agreement calls for the strengthening of the economic and social development of the Azores; the identification of areas within which cooperative activities and programs can promote this development; and this cooperation shall be in various areas outlined in the Final Minute, such as agriculture, education, environment, tourism and cultural exchange, civil protection, and social security and health. This cooperative project directly meets these objectives.

Approach:
The English Teacher Exchange Program will improve Azorian teachers¿ level of spoken English; allow teachers to understand and share educational systems and their importance to society (such as the number of compulsory years of schooling); share teaching methodologies and strategies; provide opportunities for cultural exchange between Azorian English teachers and American students; share ideas regarding educational administrative structure and policies (such as teacher training, special needs students, counseling, and trade schools) and exchange pedagogical materials and experiences in different areas such as school libraries, and health education (HIV/AIDS, sexual education, substance abuse), environmental issues as well as information technology and multicultural education.