Welcome!
Join us for the 2024 IES Research and Development Centers Conference on

Improving Instruction, Assessment,
and Policies for Secondary English Learners
Across the Content Areas

September 16–17, 2024
Washington, DC
George Washington University
University Student Center, 3F

Greetings,

We are delighted to invite you to register and attend the second annual Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Research and Development Centers Conference on Improving Instruction, Assessment, and Policies for Secondary English Learners Across the Content Areas, which will take place at George Washington University in Washington, DC, on September 16 and 17, 2024.

Participants will learn about the research findings and ongoing efforts of the Center for the Success of English Learners (CSEL) and the National Research & Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners, both funded by IES, the independent statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Both Centers are at the forefront of efforts to improve English Learner education and outcomes. To address the needs of English Learners, the Centers study education improvements, generate actionable findings, and provide important insights for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other education stakeholders—like you.

Our two-day conference is intended for teachers, district and state English Learner program administrators, and others playing critical roles in the field of English Learner education, including policymakers and researchers. It will feature special sessions with senior representatives from the U.S. Department of Education and experts in multilingual education, alongside presentations by researchers from the two hosting IES Research and Development Centers.

We look forward to seeing you in September!

Warm regards,

David Francis, PI

Center for the Success of English Learners

Aída Walqui, PI

National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners

Registration is open!

Space is limited. Register today.
 

What to Expect

Attendees can anticipate engaging discussions, networking opportunities, and informative sessions:

Enhance Educational Practices and Policies
Discover innovative approaches to teacher education, curriculum development, instruction, assessment, course taking, and policy implementation that can significantly improve outcomes for secondary English Learners.
 
Learn about Cutting-Edge Research 
Participate in discussions with IES Research and Development Centers staff about the latest findings on English Learner students in math, science, language arts, social studies, policy, and supplemental studies.
 
Learn from Experts 
Hear directly from leading researchers and field experts. 
 
Network and Collaborate 
Hear directly from leading researchers and field experts. Connect with professionals across research, policy, and instructional roles to share best practices and insights.
 
Make an Impact on Student Success 
Contribute to the advancement of educational strategies that support English Learners in mastering subject matter content while learning English.
 
Secure your spot now to be part of this exchange of knowledge on support for the success of secondary English Learners.

See what attendees said of last year’s conference!

Organizers

The Centers’ research is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C200016 to the University of Houston and Grant R305C200008 to WestEd. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Contact elsrdconference@cal.org for more information.

2024 Institute of Education Sciences – Powered by World Data Inc.

Mark Schneider

Mark Schneider, Director of U.S. Institute of Education Sciences. Before joining IES, Mark Schneider was a vice president and an Institute Fellow at American Institutes for Research (AIR) and President of College Measures. Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Schneider served as Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics from 2005–2008. In 2013, the Chronicle of Higher Education selected him as one of the 10 people who had the most impact on higher education policy that year. He is the author of numerous article and books on education policy. His most recent book, The University Next Door, edited with KC Deane, was published in 2014 by Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kenji Hakuta

Kenji Hakuta is the Lee J. Jacks Professor of Education emeritus at Stanford University. An experimental psycholinguist by training, he is best known for his work in the areas of bilingualism and the acquisition of English in immigrant students. He is the author of numerous research papers and books, including Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism and In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second Language Acquisition. He chaired a National Academy of Sciences report Improving Schooling for Language Minority Children and co-edited a book on affirmative action in higher education, Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education. Hakuta is also active in education policy. He has testified to Congress and other public bodies on a variety of topics, including language policy, the education of language minority students, affirmative action in higher education, and improvement of quality in educational research. He has served as an expert witness in education litigation involving minority students.

Guillermo Solano-Flores

Guillermo Solano-Flores is Professor of Education at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. He specializes in educational assessment and the linguistic and cultural issues that are relevant to both international test comparisons and the testing of cultural and linguistic minorities. His research is based on the use of multidisciplinary approaches that use psychometrics, sociolinguistics, semiotics, and cognitive science in combination. He has conducted research on the development, translation, localization, and review of science and mathematics tests. He has been principal investigator in several National Science Foundation-funded projects that have examined the intersection of psychometrics, semiotics, and linguistics in testing. He is the author of the theory of test translation error, which addresses testing across cultures and languages. Also, he has investigated the use of generalizability theory—a psychometric theory of measurement error—in the testing of English language learners and indigenous populations.

Jennifer O’Day

Jennifer O’Day is an Institute Fellow at AIR. Over the past 25 years, Dr. O’Day has carried out research, advised national and state policy makers, and written extensively in the areas of systemic standards-based reform, educational equity, accountability, and capacity-building strategies. One main focus of her work in recent years has been on strategies for intervening in low performing, high poverty schools identified under systems of state, local, and federal accountability. Since joining AIR in 2002, Dr. O’Day has led the state evaluation of California’s Public School Accountability Act (2002-03), the national evaluation of State Implementation of NCLB (2003-08), and the national evaluation of the implementation of Title III of ESEA. This and related work has led to Dr. O’Day’s emphasis on the vital role that school districts play in establishing the conditions for meaningful change in schools and classrooms.

Amanda Kibler

Amanda Kibler is a Professor in the College of Education at Oregon State University. Her scholarship focuses on better understanding the language and literacy development of multilingual children and adolescents from immigrant backgrounds and using these insights to support educators in providing more equitable learning opportunities for all students. This work has been funded by both the Spencer Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation and has been published or is in press at Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, The International Multilingual Research Journal, The Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, and Teachers College Record, among other journals. Her book documenting an eight-year longitudinal study of bilingual writers across adolescence and early adulthood, Longitudinal Interactional Histories: Bilingual and Biliterate Journeys of Mexican Immigrant-origin Youth, was published in 2019. Dr. Kibler is currently a Co-Editor for Journal of Second Language Writing and has served as the Chair of the AERA Second Language Research Special Interest Group (2015-2017), a member of the TESOL International Association’s Research Committee (2013-2017), and Chair of the American Association for Applied Linguistics’ Dissertation Award Committee (2018-present).