Crises can happen with no warning or with certainty. The epic numbers of multilingual learners experiencing these phenomena is as diverse as are the types of language programs, instructional practices, and schoolwide policies they are provided. Our ever-changing educational landscape often evokes uncertainty as to how to work with these students and their families. In a conversational style, this FREE one-hour webinar engages participants along with the authors of Beyond Crises: Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Inequities in Communities, Schools, and Classrooms in tackling some of the pervasive issues that educators of older multilingual learners face today and how some schools are addressing these successfully. 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2021
12:00 p.m.

Continue reading Webinar: Beyond Crises: With Secondary Multilingual Learners at Debbie Zacarian EdD, and Associates, LLC.

Building Partnerships Through Classroom-Based Events, Debbie Zacarian & Michael Silverstone

In the lead article of the Sept. issue of Ed Leadership, here’s how educators can design events that make families feel welcome, share their children’s learning, and integrate the rich assets they bring.

As educators, we all want to build partnerships with families. We know that students benefit from the cooperation, care, and shared inspiration that such partnerships can create.

Continue reading Building Partnerships Through Classroom-Based Events, Debbie Zacarian & Michael Silverstone at Debbie Zacarian EdD, and Associates, LLC.

With all of the time, effort and money being poured into teacher evaluation systems, the outcomes of students from underrepresented populations have not changed enough to see that what we are doing is working. Only 61 percent of English learners, the fastest growing group in the U.S., are graduating and students with disabilities, American Indian and Alaskan Americans, Black students, students living in poverty, and Hispanic students, respectively, are not faring much better (US Department of Education).

Continue reading Rethinking the Possibilities of Strength-Based Teacher Evaluation Systems at Debbie Zacarian EdD, and Associates, LLC.

Many are using social networking to get word out that the US Departments of Education and Justice recently released guidance and tools about teaching English learners.  The two agencies remind us all that ELs should “have equal access to a high quality education and the opportunity to achieve their full potential.” Educators across the nation are applauding the two Departments’ efforts to release this information and some are going further to say that more is needed to help this growing population of the nation’s students.

Continue reading HARNESSING THE POTENTIAL AND POSSIBILITIES OF ENGLISH LEARNERS at Debbie Zacarian EdD, and Associates, LLC.

Many educational scholars and practitioners, including me, have written extensively about teaching students from underserved populations.  The focus of this work has included students living in poverty, from diverse cultural and racial experiences, and who are English learners. These are made more relevant by an ever-increasing population of students and families living in poverty, the significant rate of school absenteeism among our nation’s poor, and an increase in racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity among the nation’s populace. 

Continue reading UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITY GAP AS AN ACADEMIC LANGUAGE GAP at Debbie Zacarian EdD, and Associates, LLC.