New IES Blog: Advancing Equity & Inclusion in the Education Sciences

On January 25-27, 2022, NCER and NCSER hosted our first Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world as we know it. Even though we were hopeful and eager to connect with our grantees in person, given the continuing uncertainties due to COVID-19, we opted for our very first fully virtual PI meeting, and we are pleased to say it was a success on many fronts!

---

Watch the FULL virtual meeting below:

New Research to Policy Webinar Series "Equity in Practice: Centering Multilingual Learners"

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is hosting live discussions open to the public highlighting the researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on the front lines fighting for educational equity for all language learners in the U.S.

Each 30-minute episode of this webinar series called “Research to Policy: Critical Conversations in Language Education” attempts to center multilingual learners and culturally diverse populations through the lens of equity. Topics range from student assessment, teacher education, students with disabilities, early childhood education, and more.

We are imagining a world that takes an assets-based approach when working with multilingual learners, and we believe that a more equitable perspective can --and must-- guide local, state, and national policy across different educational settings. - CAL Board of Directors

---

New Blog Series Asks Major Questions Around Assessment Themes Inside the Language Classroom

Check out the Multilingual Mysteries Blog Series from the Center for Applied Linguistics.

The series is penned by Margo Gottlieb, who has devoted her professional career to improving educational opportunities for multilingual learners. In the posts, Margo delves into “Multilingual Mysteries” around the topic of classroom assessment. Every other week, she poses different scenarios to readers to consider and vote on.

Here are her most recent blogs posts:

• Is it counterintuitive to assess in multiple languages when accountability rests in English?

• Is it equitable to have the same grading policy for all students, including multilingual learners?

• Do translations and transadaptations of tests into languages other than English serve as equity tools for assessing multilingual learners?

• To Translanguage or Not To Translanguage?

• Should multimodalities be incorporated into testing and assessment for multilingual learners?

• How can we offset "COVID slide" for multilingual learners through classroom assessment?

• Should we expand or diminish the role of assessment for multilingual learners?