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Althea Rowe

Literacy Practices and Students with Interrupted Formal Education

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WEBINAR ANNOUNCEMENT

TITLE: Literacy Practices and Students with Interrupted Formal Education
DATE: July 8, 2025
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

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DETAILS:

In this timely webinar, we explore critical questions at the intersection of literacy development and educational equity for multilingual learners with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). Part of our Research to Policy: Critical Conversations in Language Education series, this 30-minute session brings together educators, researchers, and policy advocates to examine the unique needs of students entering schools with gaps in formal education, many of whom are learning new languages while adapting to unfamiliar systems and social environments.

Our featured guest, Dr. Michelle Marrero Colón, is a scholar-practitioner who researches best practices for multilingual learners—especially SLIFE—and applies her findings directly in the classroom. Her insights bridge academic research and real-world application, offering practical strategies grounded in both evidence and experience.

Dr. Marrero Colón will be joined by facilitators Dr. Marguerite Lukes and Marybelle Marrero Colón for a dynamic conversation on how schools can respond more effectively to the literacy needs of SLIFE students. Topics include dual language literacy, professional learning for educators, social-emotional supports, and schoolwide models that center student dignity and growth.

This session is designed to inspire action and inform equitable practices in classrooms, schools, and policy spaces.

Join us to explore:

• How schools can better identify and support SLIFE students
• What practices are most effective in building emergent literacy
• Why shared responsibility and strategic resource allocation are critical to success

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Assessing Reading Difficulty Screeners for Multilingual Learners

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WEBINAR RECORDING

TITLE: Assessing Literacy Reading Difficulty Screeners for Multilingual Learners
DATE: June 10, 2025
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:

Forty states have adopted a variety of early literacy screeners. It is critical that these tools support, not hinder multilingual learners. Join us for a timely 30-minute webinar that explores how to equitably implement reading difficulties risk screeners for multilingual learners in early grades.

Drawing on insights from the recent publication, Reading Difficulties Screener for Multilingual Learners, our expert speakers will highlight key considerations for district leaders, educators, and assessment teams, including:

  • How to select and implement screeners with multilingual learners in mind
  • Strategies for interpreting results accurately and equitably
  • Guidance for communicating results with families and vendors
  • Questions every district should ask during adoption and implementation

This brief and powerful session will provide the foundational knowledge and practical tools you need to align your screening practices with current mandates, while centering equity for your multilingual students.

RESOURCES

CAL Slides Reading DifficultiesDownload

Literacy Practices for Multilingual Students with Disabilities

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WEBINAR RECORDING

TITLE: Literacy Practices for Multilingual Students with Disabilities
DATE: May 13, 2025
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
Numerous questions exist in the field regarding the identification and support of multilingual learners with disabilities. In addition, many myths about these learners’ literacy abilities and needs persist in education. In this webinar, Dr. Durán and Dr. Kangas shared best practices and future directions for improving current approaches to nurturing and accurately assessing the literacy development of MLs with disabilities.

RESOURCES:

Reading Reform Across America
https://www.shankerinstitute.org/read

MTSS for ELs
https://www.mtss4els.org

Multitudes
https://dyslexia.ucsf.edu/Multitudes

How States Identify English Learners, Including Those with Disabilities
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107376

Dear-Colleague-Letter-2015Download
OCR-2024Download
OELA-English-Learner-Toolkit-2017Download

Comprehensive Literacy Approach for Multilingual Learners

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TITLE: Comprehensive Literacy Approach for Multilingual Learners
DATE: April 15, 2025
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
There are many questions in the field about identifying and supporting multilingual learners with disabilities. In addition, many myths about the literacy abilities and needs of these learners persist in education. In this webinar, Dr. Durán and Dr. Kangas will share best practices and future directions to improve current approaches in nurturing and accurately assessing the literacy development of MLs with disabilities.

AI for Empowering Educators: Transforming Support for Newcomers and English Learners

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WEBINAR RECORDING

TITLE: AI for Empowering Educators: Transforming Support for Newcomers and English Learners
DATE: Jan 29, 2025
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
Discover how Artificial Intelligence can revolutionize teaching practices for educators working with Newcomers and English Learners. This session explored practical AI tools and strategies to personalize learning, enhance language development, and streamline teacher workflows, empowering educators to better meet the unique needs of multilingual students.

RESOURCES

https://tovar.us

What Matters: Culturally and Ecologically Responsive Designs

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WEBINAR RECORDING

TITLE: What Matters: Culturally and Ecologically Responsive Designs
DATE: Dec 10, 2024
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
The rise of AI technology provides unprecedented opportunities to support diverse learners’ language and literacy development. Developing and implementing pedagogical innovation integrating technology to support multilingual learners is not optional, but required, otherwise, many of these learners will fall behind at an accelerating rate, with classroom instruction disconnected from the reality of most learners. During this webinar, panelists will discuss how to integrate technology effectively in advancing diverse learners’ academic vocabulary knowledge, reading and writing skills. They will show lessons learned from their own intervention studies starting from early usage of online dictionaries to support hypertext reading comprehension, moving onto Web 2.0 technologies, such as social media, smart phone technologies to support vocabulary acquisition and academic writing.  This leads now onto generative AI-assisted discourse analysis to support corpus-based data driven learning. Critical alignments are required for instructional designs between complex cultural and ecological factors and technology affordance, which significantly impacts the implementation fidelity of language pedagogical innovations—teaching practices—, learner experiences and outcomes.

RESOURCES

What-Matters-Q-and-A-with-Jia-LiDownload

Bias in Automatic Speech Recognition: The Case of African American Language

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TITLE: Bias in Automatic Speech Recognition: The Case of African American Language
DATE: Nov 12, 2024
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
Many modern technologies, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems, have been shown to have significant racial biases, which can impact many areas of people’s lives. We seek to integrate research on African American Languages into analysis on how ASRs could prove harmful to many speakers. In this webinar, we pose a number of questions for reflection and future work, and offer resources for cross-disciplinary collaboration towards more equitable engagement with technological systems.

RESOURCES

To view the article written by our panelists Kelly Wright and Joshua Martin click HERE.

Reverse-Designing Responses to Emerging Technologies in Multilingual Contexts

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TITLE: Reverse-Designing Responses to Emerging Technologies in Multilingual Contexts
DATE: Oct 08, 2024
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
Integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education presents challenges and opportunities. A reverse design approach can help stakeholders implement these technologies strategically and purposefully. This webinar discusses the Chicago approach to reverse design, its impact on language education, and how this approach can be implemented when shaping responses to generative AI in language education.

RESOURCES

Resources are available at the following link: CAL Webinar | University of Chicago Language Center (uchicago.edu)

Q&A Responses

QA-Responses-Reverse-Designing-Responses-to-Emerging-Technologies-in-Multilingual-ContextsDownload

Responsible AI In Assessment

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TITLE: Responsible AI in Assessment
DATE: Sep 10, 2024
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
AI offers significant opportunities for assessments by enabling secure, remote tests that expand access. However, it also poses risks, including the potential for new cheating behaviors, such as using generative AI tools like ChatGPT for writing assistance. As these AI capabilities continue to disrupt traditional assessment methods, integrating Responsible AI (RAI) practices into assessment development and policy becomes crucial. RAI is a global concern, and governments around the world have developed guidelines aimed at mitigating potential harms associated with AI. These guidelines are grounded in ethical principles and aim to identify risks and develop practices that uphold the quality of tests. The webinar highlights the need to develop further and expand RAI principles for assessment practices.

Improving Accessibility via Lexical Simplification

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TITLE: Improving Language Accessibility VIA Technologically Mediated Lexical Simplification
DATE: Aug 13, 2024
TIME: 4:00–4:30 p.m. EDT

DETAILS:
During this webinar, panelists will discuss how Mediated Lexical Simplification can help to improve Language Accessibility. Lexical Simplification (LS) is the task of automatically improving the accessibility and readability of any given text by replacing hard-to-read words with simpler alternatives. LS systems achieve this by leveraging recent advances in AI, including large language models (LLMs), such as GPT 3.5 and others, to suggest several simplified alternatives to an identified complex word that maintains the original text’s meaning. Various LS systems have been designed to improve text accessibility for differing target demographics, including second-language English learners, individuals with a reading disability, or adults with low literacy. However, more collaboration is needed between AI researchers and real-world classroom environments to determine the effectiveness of LS systems.

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