Provide professional learning and a bilingual workforce so preK and early elementary educators can sustain home language and oral language development¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 mixed) · 1 study (1 design), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The report recommends funding for "preparing, hiring, and retaining a bilingual early childhood workforce" and professional learning so educators can provide culturally and linguistically sustaining environments, promote continued home language and oral language development, engage families in culturally sustaining ways, and prepare multilingual learners for kindergarten. It also recommends interpreters trained in early childhood education and the special education referral process, and development of valid, linguistically appropriate assessments.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Funding for interpreters trained in early childhood education and the special education referral, evaluation, and placement process

Constraints¶

• The report notes one-time COVID-19 relief funds are not long-term solutions and recommends blending and braiding one-time funds with ongoing funds

Target Learners¶

• Young multilingual learners in preK through grade 2, including those with suspected disabilities

Target Learning Goals¶

• Oral language fluency, preliteracy, home language development, and kindergarten readiness

Claims¶

• Structural and fiscal conditions—including grade-3 class-size incentive cliffs and declining enrollment—jeopardize the bilingual teacher pipeline and program sustainability [~W]

Related Strategies¶

• Administrators sustain high-quality Tier 1 Core Instruction by creating conditions, structural supports, and a sitewide culture valuing dual-language learning
• Grow-your-own and recruitment initiatives: alternative programs, Minority Serving Institutions, high-school pipeline programs, and district human-capital efforts to diversify the teacher workforce.
• Invest in program coordination, instructional coaching, and bilingual paraprofessional career pathways to improve English Learner program design
• Integrate bilingualism into all instructional settings through districtwide professional learning and in-service coaching
• Grow-your-own teacher pipelines and institutionalized peer-based professional learning to build a qualified newcomer-school workforce
• Sequenced multi-year investment plan across teacher and principal pipelines, early childhood, high-poverty schools, funding, and assessment and accountability to achieve Leandro compliance
• Invest in recruiting and retaining a diverse, EL-qualified educator workforce through bilingual teaching pathways
• Provide early-grades teachers professional development in non-reactive engagement with dysregulated children and emotionally supportive classroom practices

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Burr, E., & Burho, J. (2022). Resourcing supports for young multilingual learners with suspected disabilities in California: Learning collaborative recommendations. WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED655645