This spring we will be launching our online advocacy for ELs course, continuing our work on ongoing projects and professional development to serve ELs, and presenting at conferences around the country as well as in Canada. Please read what’s below for more details.

• Effectively Advocating for English Learners. We are offering a six-week guided online course framed around Diane Staehr Fenner’s book Advocating for English Learners. We’re thrilled to have a group of participants signed up representing multiple states. The course will help participants take a deeper dive into advocating for ELs, using effective strategies to advocate for ELs in their own context. The course runs from February 27th – April 7th. We plan to offer this course again in the summer–please stay tuned!
• U.S. Department of Education. In partnership with the American Institutes for Research and the Office of Career, Adult, and Technical Education (OCTAE) at the U.S. Department of Education, we developed English language proficiency (ELP) Standards for Adult Education that are aligned to the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education. We are currently developing professional development materials so that educators can use or adapt these standards with their adult ELs.
• TESOL International Association. We are the lead writers working with a group of expert educators to revise TESOL’s P-12 Professional Teaching Standards. The new standards will be available in the fall of 2017.
• Syracuse City School District (SCSD), New York. We are providing our third year of technical assistance to the Syracuse City School District to refine and enhance their existing dual language programs as well as implement new state policies regarding EL education. We also provided support to write SCSD’s three year plan and Program Guidebook.
• Professional Development for School Districts. We are providing ongoing professional development on many EL-related topics, including scaffolding instruction, formative assessment, teaching academic language, teaching science and social studies to ELs, and supporting students with interrupted formal education (SIFE). This spring we will be collaborating with teachers and administrators of ELs in several districts in New York State and Pennsylvania.
• New Book Manuscript. SupportEd staff Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder are making final copyedits to their upcoming book Unlocking English Learners’ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible. The book will be published by Corwin in May 2017.
• Presentations. In the upcoming months we will be presenting on topics related to the effective education of ELs at five international, national, and state conferences. Please find links to our presentations and handouts here.
  • Diane Staehr Fenner will give keynote presentations on EL advocacy at state conferences in Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Idaho.
  • Diane Staehr Fenner will give a keynote presentation on strategies for supporting ELs at the Celebrating Linguistic Diversity conference in Toronto, Canada.
  • Teddi Predaris will present on at the New York State Association for Bilingual Education 40th Anniversary Conference.
  • Jill Kester will present on using formative assessment in ELs’ writing at the Conference on Language, Learning, and Culture in Virginia.
  • Jill Kester will conduct a roundtable discussion at the TESOL Convention on SIFE.