Research Symposium
Making the Right Investments: Strengthening the Education of English Language and Bilingual Learners
Originally delivered on Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Download the 77-page Research Symposium Proceedings Booklet (PDF format)
Publication Ordering
Print copies of Making the Right Investments: Strengthening the Education of English Language Bilingual Learners are available through the Center for School and Communities. Orders can be placed for 1 to 5 copies using the publication order form. For your convenience, the form is available in both a Word and PDF format. A shipping and handling fee will be charged for each processed order. To avoid shipping and handling fees, publications can be ordered in advance and picked up at the Center, 275 Grandview Avenue, Suite 200, Camp Hill, PA 17011.
Before making the “right investments” it is necessary to identify what has worked in strengthening the education of English language and Bilingual Learners and to understand what makes these investments work. This symposium brings national researchers and state experts together to explore how public systems can become more culturally responsive, implement approaches that strengthen and support educational programming and practice for culturally and linguistically diverse students.
A growing body of research can help schools and communities select and implement programs and adopt strategies that are essential to student success. Drawing upon cutting-edge research related to second language learners, the symposium will explore
effective instructional and curricular practices, policies, models, and programs that reflect research-based theories and principles and emphasize academic achievement and school accountability.
Introduction and Synthesis
Lisa Buenaventura, Ed.D. has over 30 years of professional experience in education. Dr. Buenaventura holds a B.S. in Psychology and M.Ed. in Educational Psychology from the University of Washington, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Seattle University. She has worked in urban, suburban, and rural areas with culturally and linguistically populations as a school psychologist, counselor, P-12 central office administrator, researcher, trainer, faculty, and higher education administrator in Washington State and Pennsylvania. She has actively served at the state, regional, and national levels on organizational committees, professional associations, and program initiatives related to P-12 and higher education. Dr. Buenaventura is currently an Assistant Professor of Education at Penn State Harrisburg, NCATE Coordinator for the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, and Project Director/Principal Investigator for two major five-year grants from the U.S. Department of Education-Office of English Language Acquisition.
Audio Recording (file size: 9.5 MB, runtime: 10:28 minutes)
National Panel: The State of the Field
Catherine Collier, Ph.D. has over 35 years experience in cross-cultural, bilingual, and special education. She completed her Ph.D. with research into the referral of Hispanic students to special education programs. Her professional experience includes work with the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education, Research, and Evaluation at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she created and directed the Bilingual Special Education curriculum/Training project (BISECT), a nationally recognized effort. Dr Collier is the author of numerous books and publications.
Audio Recording (file size: 24.3 MB, runtime: 26:32 minutes)
Socorro Herrera, Ph.D. serves as a professor of Elementary Education at Kansas State University and directs the Collaborative Intercultural Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA) Center at Kansas State University. Her professional career includes having teaching experience is at the elementary level (K–6), primarily as a Title I teacher and grade-level teacher. Currently she has been collaborating with educators in middle and high schools across the country. Her research focus emphasizes emergent literacy with culturally and linguistically diverse children, reading strategies, and teacher preparation for diversity in the classroom. Dr. Herrera has authored many books and publications.
Audio Recording (file size: 17.7 MB, runtime: 19:21 minutes)
KimMarie Cole, Ph.D. is an associate professor of English at SUNY-Fredonia, NY. She received her Masters in TESOL from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She taught English as a Second Language for several years to students in intensive, academic and community settings. Her professional work experience includes working with the Project on Academic Language Socialization, a federally-funded grant that investigated what happens when English Language Learners are mainstreamed in high school classrooms. She continues to study language use in the classroom and the ways that classroom talk establishes different types of learning communities and different identity positions for students and teachers.
Audio Recording (file size: 18.1 MB, runtime: 19:51 minutes)
Pennsylvania Responder Panel: The State of Pennsylvania: Implications for State Policy, Programs and Practice
Margaret Chin is the Officer for the Office of Language, Culture and the Arts in the School District of Philadelphia. She serves as a member of the Cabinet and holds the highest position for an Asian American in the District. Under her leadership, accomplishments achieved by the Office of Language, Culture and the Arts’ include the adoption of the first Language Policy by the District; development and implementation of Pre K-12 ESOL Curriculum, ESOL and Bilingual Handbook, new textbooks for ESOL/Bilingual Programs, a new assessment system for ELLs and new language programs for the District. Margaret is an active member of Chinatown, and serves as a liaison between the School District of Philadelphia and the Asian community organizations.
Audio Recording (file size: 12.4 MB, runtime: 13:35 minutes)
Karl Girton is the current Chairperson of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education. He is a lifelong resident of Millville, a rural community in Northeastern Pennsylvania, graduating from Millville High School. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Accounting from the Citadel and a Master of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University, which selected him as an Alumni Fellow in 1992. For more than 25 years, he was Owner/President of a family owned company which designed, installed and supported industrial food processing plants in domestic and international markets. KarFel, Girton’s current business, specializes in providing a variety of business management services.
Audio Recording (file size: 11.1 MB, runtime: 12:08 minutes)
Martha Strickland Ed.D. is Assistant Professor of Education at Penn State Harrisburg. Dr. Strickland’s early teaching career began her journey into the exploration of learning and culture. She began her career in Miami, Florida where she was introduced to multilingual and classrooms. From there she spent a year in France to prepare for teaching at an international school in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. Subsequent to her overseas assignment she was an international educational consultant for almost 20 years doing home visits and educational problem-solving with American families living overseas in over 30 countries. These experiences have provided her with a comprehensive global base upon which to work as a lifelong learner and researcher. Her time in national classrooms in many parts of the world from remote Pakistan to Hong Kong has prompted Martha to deeply explore the issues related to learning in context.
Audio Recording (file size: 16.2 MB, runtime: 17:44 minutes)
Marian Walters, Ph.D. has been the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies and the Professor of Physiology, School of Science Engineering, and Technology at Penn State Harrisburg, since 2004. Dr. Walter’s education and training includes Postdoctoral Fellow work at the University of California, Riverside and at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Marian Walters’s professional experience also includes being an Affiliate Professor of Pharmacology at the Penn State Hershey School of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Audio Recording (file size: 18.3 MB, runtime: 20:05 minutes)
Question and Answer Segment
Moderator: Clemmie Gilpin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Community Systems and Afro American Studies, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, PA
Audio Recording (file size: 33.5 MB, runtime: 36:35 minutes)