In addition to the Advocacy Committee’s work, the Multilingual Workgroup has existed for two years. This workgroup was formed following a request by Senator Padilla’s office. We have built a solid rapport with the senator’s office and have been asked to review bills, as well as letters to the Secretary of Education, for which our feedback was highly appreciated and included in the final document. Over the past two years, we have had teacher candidates, doctoral students, and administrators share with Padilla’s staff the challenges and highlights of preparing a multilingual workforce and supporting multilingual PK-12 students. Our original goal was to help write / create a federal multilingual bill; however, the current administration has derailed those plans. We continue, however, to be agents of change, supporting multilingual teacher preparation and PK-12 classrooms.
Multilingual Workgroup Chair
Karen Escalante
California State University San Bernardino
Send the chair an email message with your questions.