CONTACT: Martha Castellon, Executive Director, Stanford University Program in English Language Learner Education, (650) 248-1177, mcastel@stanford.edu
COMMENT: Kenji Hakuta, Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Stanford University School of Education, (650) 723-5620, hakuta@stanford.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STANFORD – Stanford University researchers today announced the launch of a national initiative
to help English Language Learners (ELLs) meet the Common Core State
Standards in language arts and mathematics, as well as the emerging
frameworks in science education. The Carnegie Corporation of New York
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are jointly funding the
effort with a $2 million grant.
The Stanford-led initiative
will seed a national effort to map out and meet the growing academic
language and content needs of ELLs as Common Core academic standards are
implemented by schools and districts around the nation.
“The
Common Core and the National Academy framework for K-12 science are
going to demand high levels of language from students and teachers
alike,” said Principal Investigator Kenji Hakuta,
co-chair of the national effort. “We owe all students, but especially
English language learners, an instructional system that is tightly
attuned to the language necessary to succeed in learning. Our current
education tends to obscure the role of language, and our project will
make the language that kids need to succeed academically much more
visible so that it helps guide what goes on in the classroom.”
“Given
the shift in America’s demographics, the impact of this work could be
enormous,” said Andrés Henríquez, a program officer at the Carnegie
Corporation. He pointed to the latest figures from the 2010 U.S. Census
that show Hispanics as the fastest-growing population in the U.S., as
well as estimates from the U.S. Department of Education that identify
37% of fourth-graders and 21% of eighth-graders as English language
learners.
“Considering this growing population of English
language learners and the forthcoming implementation of the Common Core
in 46 states, we must ensure all students are gaining access to
excellent content,” said Henríquez.
“States have taken an
important first step by agreeing to adopt the Common Core standards,”
said Melissa Chabran, senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. “We are proud to join with Carnegie Corporation and
Stanford in taking the next step to ensure that all students –
especially ELL students – have the resources and support they need to
meet the high standards.”
To foster awareness and a national
dialogue among key actors in standards-based education reform about the
need to leverage common core standards for English language proficiency
development, the initiative will sponsor meetings, webinars, and
commissioned papers on key topics. Partners will include local, state,
and federal educational agencies; experts in Common-Core State Standards
in English language arts and mathematics; developers of the
next-generation science standards; and developers of new English
language proficiency standards, as well as advocacy groups, publishers,
and test makers.
Organizers will also collaborate with local
school districts and their teachers to create clear specifications and
exemplars of how teachers can foster English language proficiency as
part of subject matter instruction, above and beyond any English as a
Second Language (ESL) instruction that English language learners might
already receive. This work will be widely shared and is expected to help
shape how the new Common Core standards are used by educators to
develop English language proficiency of their students.
Hakuta, a
long-time expert on ELLs and the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education at
Stanford, co-chairs the national initiative with Maria Santos, Deputy
Superintendent at Oakland Unified School District and former director of
programs for ELLs for the New York City school system. In addition,
several experts are part of the core group carrying out the project,
including: Helen Quinn, professor emerita at the SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford and the chair of the National Academy
of Sciences report on the K-12 science standards; Susan Pimentel, the
lead writer for the common-core standards for English/language arts and
literacy; Phil Daro, the lead writer for the common-core mathematics
standards; Okhee Lee, an expert on science education, language and
culture, and teacher education at New York University; Judit
Moschkovich, an expert on ELLs and mathematics, and George C. Bunch, an
expert on ELLs and academic language, both from the University of
California at Santa Cruz. Additionally, Aída Walqui, director of
professional development at WestEd, and Lydia Stack, an ESL expert long
and formerly with San Francisco Unified School District, will act as
initiative facilitators; Stanford Education Professor Guadalupe Valdés
will serve as senior language expert; and WestEd’s Robert Linquanti, an
ELL researcher, will serve as senior advisor to the initiative.
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