Standards, Assessment, & Policy Committee Report
Since our last update we’ve been fortunate to welcome new members, including Julie Sugarman and Glenda Harrell, who is serving as co-chair.
Here's an update on several initiatives:
1. We’ve been surveying SEA and LEA program administrators about bilingual/dual language standards and assessments. As these components our outside of the scope of federal peer review, it is difficult to get a picture of the state of the field on sourcing, reviewing, and aligning standards and assessment. Thank you to all who responded and, of course, we’ll share what we learn.
2. In response to the federal initiative to include funding and generate new requirements and funding for preschool, the committee is beginning to gather resources about existing guidance, requirements, policy, spending, etc., related to multilingual learners at this level and at how they transition to K-12 systems. Current thinking is that we could generate a series of white papers on different topics related to this, for example, what is “universal Pre-K for MLs,” effective models for transition, and more.
3. As we look forward to the NAELPA conference in February, the committee has discussed topics for a session related to our work, most likely to that of the Pre-K issues noted above.
Please contact Jesse Markow at [email protected] to sign up and participate in this committee.
Advocating for ELs
Committee Report
The Advocating for ELs Committee meets the first Monday of each month for 1.5 hours (11-12:30 PM ET).
We are currently working on the following:
1. Build the Committee: We will continue to build our committee for a robust and diverse membership. We hope that current members continue to participate and invite others who are passionate for Emergent Bilinguals. Our membership not only works on the charge of the committee, but also shares information related to advocacy efforts from other organizations to which committee members belong, such as TESOL and NABE affiliates, NEA, etc. We encourage you to consider becoming a member, having your voice heard, as well as providing input on various advocacy efforts and tasks of the committee You can contact Karen Solis at [email protected] to join.
2. What we do each month? Each committee member provides important updates for the committee’s work related to advocacy. Dr. David J. Holbrook, Executive Director, Marshall Foster, President, Carlene Thomas, Membership Coordinator, Dr. Bill Rivers, Legislative Liaison, and Itzil Welch, Advocacy Committee Secretary, all provide reports and input at each meeting.
3. Review of Literature: We are currently charged with looking at the terminology used to identify and describe Emergent Bilinguals (EBs). We plan to make recommendations to NAELPA on what constitues assets-based terminology and what term(s) we suggest when identifying this population of learners. We are currently completing our review of articles from a variety of leaders in the field.
Please let us know if you have any questions or ideas to help our Advocating for ELs Committee and, of course, reach out to Karen Solis to become an active member of the committee. Once your membership is activated, Itzil Welch, our Committee Secretary, will send you monthly reminders and links to join the online meeting, as well as articles and other information to read before each meeting. Looking forward to new member involvement.
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NAELPA Committee Reports