Latest from the Blog
5 Ways to Build Resilience, An Essential Tool for Sociocultural Competence
Sociocultural Competence is one of the three pillars of Dual Language Education and encompasses the following four domains: identity formation, intercultural competence or diversity, the ability to identify injustice, and the ability to take action against injustice. When our students are able and willing to take action against injustice, we know we have reached our…
Proud Parent of an “EL” Student
A few years back, a principal vehemently argued with me that a student who had scored “approaching proficient” on her English language screener should not be classified as an English Learner (EL)*. According to this principal, the student, who was at the time entering Kindergarten, spoke English well and did not speak much Spanish. When…
What if our Dual Language Program is Not Working?
We know that, according to national research, a well-executed Dual Language program results in better performance for Emergent Bilinguals than any other form of support. However, Thomas & Collier (2004-2012) share a “warning graph” that demonstrates that calling a program “Dual Language” is not sufficient to get the results we intend for our students. In…
Considerations When Talking About Race
The Gregorian Calendar is a fairly new calendar, founded in the 1500s to better approximate the earth’s revolution around the sun. It took many years for this calendar to be accepted by all its current adherents, with Catholic nations and its colonies being the first to accept it. Greece was, in 1923, the last European…
Thanksgiving and The National Day of Mourning
Many schools continue to teach “The First Thanksgiving” to students, a heartwarming story of two cultures that came together. In this story, Native Americans helped newcomers survive a harsh climate. In turn, the newcomers hosted a celebration of the success of that encounter, exhibiting gratitude towards both God and their Native hosts. However, the heartwarming…
The Importance of Recognizing Deepavali (Diwali) in Schools
New York City Public Schools recently decided to make Deepavali (Diwali) a holiday for students and teachers. A simple decision to improve inclusivity has surprisingly become controversial. There are those who claim that the decision takes us further away from the separation of church and state. (I’m not going to honor this argument in my…
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Social Justice and Education 