This year, 2020, we saw the first annual conference of the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators (NAELPA). Yes, the first. This was not the organization's first national meeting; however, it was the first meeting of the organization with our new name, NAELPA. We also expanded our conference from a single day event to a day and a half.
In 2019, the organization underwent some significant changes that we are still working through. The biggest is probably the name change from the National Council of State Title III Directors (NCSTIIID) to NAELPA. This has been a heavy lift in some areas as we are continuing to make sure States and Districts recognize our new name, especially in their email inboxes and vendor systems. We believe we have found most of the places where we needed to change NCSTIIID to NAELPA in our forms, auto-generated emails, etc., however this also is an ongoing project. If you see the acronym NCSTIIID on any of our websites, emails, or other documents, please let us know ASAP at [email protected]. Thanks! And, check out another part of the heavy lift, the new website at www.naelpa.org.
Other significant changes made alongside the name change include a greater focus than before on the inclusion of educators from Local Education Agencies (LEAs). There are now nine executive board positions. We added three member-at-large positions designated to be filled by LEAs and reduced officer positions designated to be filled by State Education Agencies (SEAs) from seven to six. We changed the way Executive Board members are elected, switching to election to specific positions and a leadership succession from Vice-President, to President-Elect, to President to ensure continuity of leadership. All members have a vote in the organization, not just SEAs, as before. And all LEA members are actively encouraged to become involved in one of the NAELPA committees. Our hope is that all of these changes will continue to strengthen NAELPA and the services it provides.
Shortly after the 2020 NAELPA National Conference we all experienced the widespread closing of schools and a move to a distance education environment due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This move has highlighted inequities and raised concerns about how to provide educational services that allow for ELs to adequately acquire academic content and develop English language proficiency. NAELPA is not the one-stop solution, but we have made an effort to address these concerns. We created a new resources webpage, “Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: Resources for Educating English Learners Online,” with COVID-19 resources. We also hosted a webinar regarding “Safety, Security, and Support for Teaching Multilingual Learners Online”. The recording of this webinar is available on the NAELPA Past Webinars page (login required; first time users can create a free account).
We look forward to continuing to be the Voice for ELs! Please consider how you can become involved with NAELPA to help us make a difference.
Dr. David Holbrook
NAELPA Executive Director
Executive Director Newsletter Report
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