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Podcast

What Is Working in Multilingual Education with Dr. Margarita Calderón: Part 1

On this episode of Highest Aspirations, we feature part 1 of a 2 part series with Dr. Margarita Calderón, former Professor Emerita and Senior Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University and author of several publications about multilingual education. During our conversation, we address the following questions:
 
  • Why is it that many students are not receiving the Seal of Biliteracy after being on track for the recognition during the primary school years?
  • How can we ensure that English learners and dual language learners are given the opportunity to engage in rigorous content area courses?
  • Why is focusing on Tier 2 vocabulary, or connectors and transition words, so important to developing reading comprehension skills?
  • How can a whole-school approach to professional development help content teachers infuse academic language into their subject area lessons?
  • Why are we still not seeing the progress we’d like in the areas of reading and writing for English learners and what can we to improve?

For the past ten years Dr. Calderón, has been an Expert Consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights helping States such as Massachusetts and school districts come into compliance. As President of Margarita Calderón & Associates, Inc., Dr. Calderón and her team of 10 Associates conduct comprehensive professional development and coaching on ExC-ELL in many schools, districts, and state-wide Institutes throughout the country internationally (e.g., Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South America). She has over 100 publications, including her most recent collaborative work featuring other well known experts, Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners' Success.
 
We'll provide an entire list of resources in Part 2 of our series.