A Project Supported by the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative
Building on the work accomplished through the 2018 California state investment in Dual Language Learner (DLL) Professional Development, Early Edge California is leading a new project supported by the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative, a group of funders who have come together to advance educational supports for Dual Language Learners (DLLs) and English Learners (ELs) in PreK-3rd grade in California. This project, which began in fall 2020, seeks to build consensus on DLL/EL instructional practices and professional development for grades PreK-3. It will also address issues that have arisen as a result of COVID-19 around distance learning, hybrid learning, and school reopening, with the goal of uplifting best practices, lessons learned, and appropriate resources for addressing the needs of DLLs/ELs.
Project Goals Include:
- Building field alignment on instructional practices for DLLs/ELs in grades PreK-3 in the near- and longer-term, including 2020-21 and beyond.
- Building field alignment on professional development approaches for PreK-3 educators of DLLs/ELs in the near- and longer-term, including 2020-21 and beyond.
- Creating resources to help PreK-3 educators implement these instructional practices.
- Generating lessons learned from 2020-21 to help districts and programs support PreK-3 educators and implement effective instructional models in their schools and classrooms.
Participants of this project will include the DLL-PD grantees, local and national DLL and EL experts, and California-based school districts and Early Learning providers who are models in supporting DLLs/ELs.
Project Components Include:
Alignment-Building: Early Edge California will convene the DLL-PD Grantees, along with statewide and national DLL researchers and experts, as a facilitated working group to identify common practices across models and reach consensus on the essential ingredients of quality instruction and professional development for DLLs/ELs PreK-3rd grade. This work will draw extensively from existing research on DLL/EL pedagogy, such as the 2017 consensus report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Resource Development: Early Edge California will work with the DLL-PD grantees and other statewide and national DLL researchers and experts to compile resources that align with the consensus statement for supporting DLLs/ELs PreK-3rd developed through this project. In addition, they will create guidance for educators on how to choose appropriate strategies for serving DLLs/ELs in different contexts, including for remote/hybrid instruction.
PreK-3rd Grade DLL/EL COVID-19 Learning Community: Early Edge California will convene a learning community composed of school districts and early learning programs from across the state. They will come together to share their approaches to DLL/EL remote or hybrid instruction, identify successes, challenges, and solutions to meeting the needs of DLLs/ELs and their families. Early Edge will share a set of “lessons learned” for DLL/EL instructional models (in-person vs. remote vs. hybrid) upon completion of the learning community.
The Emerging Bilingual Collaborative, a project of the New Venture Fund, is comprised of the following foundations:
