UConn Researchers to Reimagine Dual Language Education

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Schoolchildren using computers
To better understand the role of sociocultural competence among dual language students, the project will focus on upper-elementary dual language teachers in an urban Connecticut school district. (Tetra Images – Erik Isakson/Getty Images)

The University of Connecticut has been awarded a $179,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education for a new research project centered on reimagining dual language education. The project’s purpose is to improve the ability of dual language programs to promote the equitable bilingualism and biliteracy development of all students through a greater focus on sociocultural competence.

Neag School associate professor Elizabeth Howard will serve as principal investigator and project director for the three-year interdisciplinary project, and Manuela Wagner from UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) will serve as co-principal investigator. The research team will also include the Neag School’s Aarti Bellara, alumna Elena Sada ’20 Ph.D., now assistant professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, as well as UConn doctoral students Sandra Silva-Enos in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Dominique Galvez in CLAS’ Department of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies.

“The research is important now due to equity concerns that are increasingly being raised within the field of dual language education.”

— Associate Professor Elizabeth Howard

“The research is important now due to equity concerns that are increasingly being raised within the field of dual language education,” says Howard. “It seems likely that the lack of attention to sociocultural competence is part of the issue.”

Sociocultural competence is the ability to communicate in a language appropriately, situationally, and culturally, and comprises the knowledge of customs, rules, beliefs, and principles of a given society.

Criticism of Dual Language Education Programs

Dual language education — an approach that promotes grade-level academic achievement, bilingualism and biliteracy, and sociocultural competence to integrated groups of students through content-language integrated instruction — is a rapidly growing program model in the U.S. According to current estimates, there are more than 2,000 such programs in place nationwide.

The reasons for this growth include a mounting body of research on the benefits of bilingualism, awareness of the competitive advantages of multilingualism and sociocultural competence in a global economy, and the demonstrated efficacy of these programs for students from diverse backgrounds. However, the rapid increase of these programs and their embrace by white, affluent, English-speaking parents has led to criticisms of such programs as being elitist, biased toward the interests of the dominant culture, and failing to serve the needs of students of color in general — and English learners in particular.

Critics have called for programs to respond to the cultural needs of minority students and interrogate the power dynamics that may be influencing program design and outcomes. This call aligns with sociocultural competence’s goal, which has been excluded from accountability systems, thus relegating it to a low priority for overburdened educators who are evaluated based on their ability to promote students’ academic achievement.

The Neag School of Education co-hosted a Dual Language Symposium onJuly 31, 2018 at the UConn Law School. Co-sponsors included MABE and DuLCE.
Elizabeth Howard shares welcoming remarks at a Dual Language Symposium she co-chaired in 2018. (Photo credit: Frank Zappulla)

“Sociocultural competence is one of the three core goals of dual language education (along with academic achievement as well as bilingualism and biliteracy development), but it has received the least attention in the field,” says Howard. “There’s no clear consensus of what it is, no pedagogical recommendations for how to teach to it, and no assessments of it to determine the extent to which students are developing it.

“This is problematic, as sociocultural competence is not only important in its own right, but may also be a factor in the equitable attainment of the other two goals of dual language education,” she adds.

Strengthening Dual Language Education

Through the project, Howard and her fellow researchers seek to strengthen dual language education by:

  • helping to define sociocultural competence and identify its subcomponents;
  • working with teachers to create and implement pedagogical strategies to foster its development within the context of language and literacy instruction;
  • creating a measure to assess its development; and
  • investigating the relationship between sociocultural competence and the development of bilingualism and biliteracy.

In an effort to better understand the role of sociocultural competence in promoting bilingualism and biliteracy among dual language students, the project will focus on upper-elementary dual language teachers in an urban Connecticut school district. The dual language students in the study will include students classified as English learners, former (reclassified) English learners, and students never classified as English learners, all from homes of varying socioeconomic status and linguistic and cultural profiles.

“The upper-elementary grades are particularly well-suited to this investigation because developmentally, it is the time period immediately preceding adolescence, when identity development and other aspects of sociocultural competence are heightened for students,” Howard says. “Moreover, it is precisely the time in which high-stakes standardized achievement testing gets underway. This puts enormous pressure on teachers to focus on academic English development, thus relegating the pursuit of Spanish proficiency and sociocultural competence development to the background.”

In response to the need for educating bilingual learners, Howard recently launched an online graduate certificate program. The program offers general education teachers and other school personnel an opportunity to learn how to better support English Learners in their classrooms. Graduate level coursework leading to the bilingual and TESOL cross-endorsements are also offered through the bilingual/multicultural concentration.

Amid COVID, Schools Can Help Families of Children With Disabilities

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For caregivers of children with disabilities, like this mother with her teenage autistic son, schools can help offer support.
Mike Keller, a 13-year-old boy with autism, uses a keyboard and iPad to communicate with his mother, Lori Mitchell-Keller. (Sarah L. Voisin/Washington Post via Getty Images)

Editor’s Note: Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Sandra Chafouleas, who serves as director of the UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH) co-published with CSCH postdoctoral research associate Emily Iovino ’15 (ED), ’16 MA, ’20 the following piece on supporting caregivers of children with disabilities in The Conversation.  

Children don’t come with how-to manuals. Even if they did, they would all require a manual of their own, tailored to their unique make and model. That’s why caregiving can be rewarding, as well as puzzling and demanding – particularly for family caregivers of children with disabilities.

Although these caregivers often report that the role gives them a sense of purpose, it usually comes with physical, emotional and financial strains. COVID-19 has added major hurdles to accessing, delivering and evaluating special education services.

According to our findings, caregivers of children with moderate to severe disabilities are facing significantly more stress, depression, anxiety and caregiver burden.

The U.S. House and Senate have both introduced COVID-19 relief bills to provide schools more funding to support students with disabilities. But what remains overlooked is a focus on supporting their family caregivers.

According to a 2020 report commissioned by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, more than 14 million family caregivers in the U.S. provide unpaid care for children under 18. That’s an increase of over 4 million since 2015. These numbers don’t explain the unique and often challenging experiences of being a caregiver for a child with special needs. Additional caregiving demands can include extra appointments for evaluations and specialized therapies, and increased one-on-one support to accomplish everyday tasks.

One in 6 U.S. children have been diagnosed with a developmental disability such as attention deficit hyperactivity, autism, intellectual disability or cerebral palsy. These children have a complex range of caregiving needs involving their health, daily living and education activities.

We are studying the experiences of family caregivers during COVID-19 through surveys and interviews with caregivers of children with and without disabilities nationwide. A resounding theme: All family caregivers are looking for respite.

But according to our findings, caregivers of children with moderate to severe disabilities – like autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – are facing significantly more stress, depression, anxiety and caregiver burden. These findings will be published in a forthcoming issue of “School Psychology.”

Families with special needs students protested outside Boston Public Schools’ headquarters.
Families with special needs students protested outside Boston Public Schools’ headquarters in September. (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

As one parent of a child with moderate disabilities shared, “My child was already struggling with in-person school. Coming home and having to do everything kind of independently, even though they had lessons online and videos he could watch, made his stress level super-high, which then made my stress level super-high.”

These strains are concerning, given that research suggests parental stress can influence outcomes for children with disabilities.

Part of this stress comes from having to fill the roles of multiple professionals with specialized training. One participant with two children – one with autism and one with ADHD – described feeling “left, in a sense, to try and meet all of those professionals’ needs, including occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists [and] school psychologists.”

Another shared: “It trickles down to me doing a lot of research – one more thing in my bucket that’s always already overflowing.”

Our findings also suggest that caregivers of children with disabilities struggled to engage in personal wellness before the pandemic, compared with caregivers of children without disabilities. That dynamic has only worsened amid COVID-19.

“I kind of put my needs last, waiting for things to kind of settle down,” a participant shared. “But I’ve had like one crisis after another, and then the pandemic hit.”

We believe that providing quality education services for children with disabilities begins with supporting family caregivers. Using their own words, we captured a few ideas about how schools can support family caregivers, especially during this time of increased caregiving burden.

Hear their stories

A key concern among caregivers is feeling alone. One participant found value in a support hotline staffed by social workers. Another stressed the need to step up empathy and encouragement for family caregivers: “Sometimes it’s just getting to the end of the day and just trying to make it through and have fun and try to not let it get to you.”

Schools can check in with families, listening to ensure they are heard and feel connected.

Strengthen active collaboration

Educators rely on families to deliver critical instruction and therapies for students with disabilities. This means family caregivers need to feel comfortable asking them for specific help. Some schools have been building strong home-school partnerships during the pandemic.

Educators can set up frequent meetings with family caregivers to review and adjust learning plans. They can also be thoughtful in sharing resources that families are expected to use. As one parent told us, “I think it would make more sense for the school to go through these things instead of just giving us a million things to download … I would have to talk to the special education teacher as far as what makes sense for my child, with more quality than quantity.”

Support them in personal wellness

Personal wellness is critical to being able to help others. But big changes to established routines can create more stress for family caregivers. “It probably would have benefited me to already be doing some things like mindfulness and meditating,” one participant stated. “Maybe it would be easier for me to do that now if it had already been part of a routine.”

Schools can support family caregivers by offering tips on how to take small steps that reinforce predictable routines, positive relationships and pleasurable engagement. A step may be as simple as taking two extra minutes in the shower to allow the brain to quiet.

Neag School Selected to Join National Holmes Scholars Program

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AACTE logo: The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.This fall, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) selected UConn’s Neag School of Education to join its Holmes Scholars Program, a nationwide network of higher education institutions seeking to support students from historically underrepresented communities enrolled in graduate programs across the field of education.

For current and prospective Neag School doctoral students, the Holmes Scholars Program will offer an array of benefits — including numerous opportunities for mentorship, peer support, networking, and professional development. In addition, the Neag School has pledged to cover the costs of sending each of its Holmes Scholars to the AACTE’s annual conference, as well as the two-day preconference exclusive to Holmes Scholars, for a minimum of three years.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to be affiliated with such a prestigious program — one with a phenomenal track record.”

—Jason Irizarry, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Benefits to Holmes Scholars

  • Collaborate and connect with a national network of peers and faculty at AACTE member institutions through online social networks and other events
  • Seek guidance from a Holmes Scholar alumni mentor who is currently in academia
  • Engage in opportunities to attend dedicated sessions at AACTE’s Annual Meeting, present your research, and take part in a dedicated job fair for Holmes Scholars
  • Participate in AACTE’s annual Washington Week and the AACTE Day on the Hill, which includes networking events with AACTE state chapter leaders as well as meeting with members of Congress

 

 

Diandra J. Prescod, Neag School associate professor of counselor education, will oversee the Holmes Scholars Program at the Neag School — not only as program coordinator, but also as one of more than 700 Holmes Scholars alumni. It was during her three years as a doctoral student at the University of Central Florida that Prescod attended her first AACTE conference and participated in two days of Holmes sessions.

Diandra J. Prescod, coordinator for the Holmes Scholars Program at the Neag School
Diandra J. Prescod, Neag School associate professor of counselor education, will oversee the Holmes Scholars Program at the Neag School. She also is an alumna of the program.

“Being in a room full of other individuals from underrepresented groups empowered me and allowed me to receive support and mentorship from individuals with similar lived experiences as myself,” she says. “The opportunity was invaluable, and I look forward to supporting our scholars here at UConn.”

“Being in a room full of other individuals from underrepresented groups empowered me and allowed me to receive support and mentorship from individuals with similar lived experiences as myself.”

— Diandra J. Prescod, Associate Professor and Holmes Scholars Alumna

The Neag School, as one of more than 50 institutions across the country currently sponsoring the Holmes Scholars Program, joins in this effort as part of its Schoolwide focus on supporting the recruitment and retention of traditionally underrepresented students pursuing careers in education. As a sponsor, the Neag School will at the same time be actively working to help address the nation’s shortage of faculty and education leaders from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Today, less than 10% of all faculty at higher education institutions today identify as African American, Latinx, and/or Native American/Alaskan Native, per the AACTE.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to be affiliated with such a prestigious program — one with a phenomenal track record,” says Jason Irizarry, Neag School associate dean for academic affairs. “As the Neag School continues striving to recruit, train, and support the next generation of diverse leaders in education, we see incredible opportunity in serving as a sponsoring institution for the Holmes Program, and we are thrilled to have Diandra leading this important effort.”

The Neag School will begin accepting Holmes Scholars program applications from doctoral students in Spring 2021.

For more information and to learn how to apply, visit education.uconn.edu/Holmes-Scholars.

Neag School Launches American Sign Language Education Program

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Teacher leading a class at the American School for the Deaf.
The Neag School is launching a new program designed for aspiring educators interested in teaching American Sign Language. (Photo courtesy of the American School for the Deaf)

Beginning in Fall 2021, UConn’s Neag School of Education will be offering a new program in American Sign Language (ASL) education. Recently approved by the Connecticut Board of Education, the program is designed to prepare aspiring educators interested in becoming teachers of ASL.

UConn became the first higher education institution in the state to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree in ASL when the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences introduced an ASL major earlier this year. This new ASL world language education program will likewise be the first of its kind in the state of Connecticut.

The Neag School program will focus on preparing graduates to teach ASL; those who complete the program would then be recommended for teaching certification in ASL for Grades 7 through 12.

ASL is the newest addition to the Neag School’s world languages concentrations, which also include French, German, Italian, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.

“This program provides opportunities to develop teachers with exceptional knowledge of language, culture, and pedagogy to teach ASL, the language of the Deaf Community in the U.S.,” says Hannah Dostal, associate professor of reading education in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Coursework will include ASL, topics related to pedagogy and language learning, as well as cultural topics such as Deaf writers and ASL literature.

ASL Education: A Critical Teacher Shortage Area

In Connecticut, teachers specializing in world language instruction are in high demand; in fact, world languages is considered a critical teacher shortage area across the U.S. ASL is the newest addition to the Neag School’s world languages concentrations, which also include French, German, Italian, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.

Hannah Dostal, associate professor of reading education in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Hannah Dostal, associate professor of reading education in the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

“This program is being developed in response to a much-needed policy allowing Connecticut middle and high schools to use ASL classes to meet world language requirements,” Dostal says. “This requirement has dramatically increased the number of high school students interested in taking ASL classes in high school and college, while creating a need for certified teachers of ASL in schools statewide.”

In addition to student interest at the high school level, interest in ASL has also been higher than ever among current UConn students, according to Ann Traynor, Neag School director of advising and certification.

The Neag School offers two pathways to achieve initial teacher certification – the five-year Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s (IB/M) program and the accelerated, 11-month Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates (TCPCG), both of which offer the ASL world languages concentration. Students interested in applying for IB/M with a concentration in ASL education are invited to apply by Jan. 20, 2021, for the Fall 2021 term. Applications to TCPCG are due Dec. 15. The Neag School also offers a 12-credit graduate certificate in literacy and Deaf education.

To learn more about each program, visit teachered.education.uconn.edu. Native signers, as well as Deaf and hard of hearing applicants are encouraged to apply.

Neag School Mourns Loss of Faculty Emeritus, Donor Vincent Rogers

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Vincent Rogers
Faculty Emeritus Vincent Rogers spent more than 20 years at UConn, and launched funds to support educators and classroom enrichment in Connecticut. (Shawn Kornegay/Neag School)

Vincent Rogers of Storrs, Connecticut, a longtime educator and faculty emeritus at the Neag School of Education, died Thursday, Dec. 3, at age 93. He died at home, surrounded by his loving family.

“We share our deepest condolences with the Rogers family, whose generosity over the years toward the Neag School has made a tangible and meaningful impact on schoolteachers across the state of Connecticut and, in turn, their own students,” says Neag School Dean Gladis Kersaint.

“In recent years, the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund has, for instance, given us an extraordinary opportunity to fund imaginative efforts led by local elementary and middle school teachers — from a photojournalism project focused on social justice to robotics education in the classroom,” says Kersaint.

“We share our deepest condolences with the Rogers family, whose generosity over the years toward the Neag School has made a tangible and meaningful impact on schoolteachers across the state of Connecticut and, in turn, their own students.”

— Dean Gladis Kersaint

Impacting Educators Through the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund

Rogers and his late wife, Chris, also a longtime educator, initially established a fund at the Neag School through which elementary school teachers in Mansfield, Connecticut, could apply annually for a $1,000 grant to enrich their classrooms. Over the years, eight grants were made through the original Rogers Educational Innovation Fund to local schools.

Archive photo of Chris and Vincent Rogers, courtesy of Vincent Rogers
Neag School Professor Emeritus Vincent Rogers, pictured here with his wife, Chris, designating a legacy gift of $125,000 in 2017 to expand the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund in support of innovative projects carried out by teachers in Connecticut. (Photo courtesy of Vincent Rogers)

In 1997, Rogers announced a planned bequest to the Neag School, designating a legacy gift of $125,000 to expand the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund to support innovative projects carried out by Connecticut teachers. Elementary and middle school teachers across the state have applied annually for this $5,000 gift for use in the classroom.

Rogers’ additional gift has been open to elementary and middle-school teachers across the state of Connecticut to “support research and programs for the collaborative work of classroom teachers and the Neag School of Education,” and award recipients have had the freedom to use the award in any way they see fit.

Since the expansion of the fund, three educators have benefited from the Rogers Fund. This year, Jason Gilmore of Guilford, Connecticut, an art teacher at Hartford’s McDonough Middle School, was a recipient of the Rogers Fund with a project titled “The Mural of Intervention Project.”

In the proposal for his project, Gilmore outlined his hope of giving middle-school students at McDonough — a low-income, 98% free/reduced lunch school — an opportunity to take any difficult situations or feelings that may be part of their day-to-day lives and express them in the form of community murals that will be displayed throughout the school.

Gilmore says the project will offer “a chance for freedom of expression while improving the school’s climate and community. … In essence, this award will allow an artistic experience that benefits the whole school.” 

In 2019, Neag School alumna and gifted and talented educator for Norwalk (Conn.) Public Schools Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA was the recipient of the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund for her project, titled “An Eye for Change: Real World Investigations through Photojournalism.” The project funding made available to Stargardter’s students various texts and technologies, including disposable film cameras that allowed them to document problems and proposed solutions in their communities.

“Students need access to resources that present multiple viewpoints and narratives to become effective, empathetic members of our global society,” she wrote in her proposal. “Students will gain access to books and technology to research social issues such as racism, sexism, climate change, food insecurity, and so on. Additionally, they will be given the skills to recognize and analyze problems within their community. This authentic learning experience will be framed around the idea of photojournalism.”

Black male teacher interacts with middle school students.
Dwight Sharpe, inaugural recipient of the Rogers Education Innovation Fund, works with middle school students as part of a science and technology project he initiated. (Caitlin Trinh/Neag School)

Dwight Sharpe, a mathematics teacher at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Middletown, was the expanded fund’s inaugural recipient in 2018. Sharpe’s project, entitled “Accessing and Engaging in Mathematics Through Robotics and Computer Programming,” sought “to explore and determine how robotics and computer programming could be embedded into middle school instruction to improve student engagement and achievement.”

To improve all students’ mathematics performance, Sharpe had been collaborating with his grade-level colleagues and curriculum supervisor to provide more personalized instruction to students. While the school’s classroom model had long centered on students sitting at their desks while teachers lectured, Sharpe saw an opportunity to transform that with his robotics and computer programming project.

“At the end of the day, the new project was about engagement,” he says. “It was about integrating something into the classroom that hasn’t been there.”

A History of Innovation

At the University of Connecticut, Rogers spent more than two decades teaching and writing about education techniques, led the Neag School’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and served on its faculty, retiring in 1990.

Rogers was a world leader in social studies, international education, and the child-centered movement known as “open education,” and wrote the definitive book in the field.

“Vin was always a hands-on educator and dear friend, and we miss him profoundly.”

— Neag School Professor Emeritus Gil Dyrli

“Vin chaired our department and was one of the very best department heads I ever knew,” says Neag School professor emeritus Gil Dyrli. “He led by example through conducting groundbreaking research, securing grants, publishing significant books and articles, presenting keynote addresses at major professional conferences, and sharing his innovative expertise.”

He adds: “As I traveled the country throughout my career, representing UConn and doing staff-development programs, a common envious question was, ‘Do you work with Vin Rogers?’”

During his retirement, Rogers was active with numerous projects, from becoming a competent equestrian, having begun riding at the age of 63, to teaching jazz and horse racing courses at the Mansfield Community Center near the UConn Storrs campus to continuing to perform with several local jazz groups.

“Vin was an outstanding trumpet player, and when our son was studying the instrument in high school, Vin often invited him to his home to play duets,” says Dyrli. “Our son will always remember that kindness and personal interest.” 

While at UConn, Rogers concentrated on his innovative work. He connected with a fellow Neag School of Education faculty member, the late A.J. Pappanikou, whose focus was on special education and with whom he partnered to ensure that future educators were getting hands-on experience in urban school settings.

Together, they coordinated about 20 UConn students to do student teaching in New Haven, Connecticut, giving them an opportunity to view schools beyond suburbia — a rare and innovative practice at the time.

Alumna Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA has been named by the Neag School of Education as the recipient of the 2019 Rogers Educational Innovation Fund award. Stargardter serves as a gifted and talented educator for Norwalk (Conn.) Public Schools. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Stargardter)
Alumna Jessica Stargardter ’16 (ED), ’17 MA, gifted and talented educator for Norwalk (Conn.) Public Schools, was named the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund recipient in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Stargardter)

“His many students have gone on to important positions at state, national, and international levels in public and private education,” says Dyrli. “His original contributions and seminal ideas continue to be worth exploring, and thanks to the internet and online resources, they are more accessible than ever.”

“Vin was always a hands-on educator and dear friend, and we miss him profoundly,” he adds.

Through his generosity to the Neag School, Rogers has been passing that spirit of innovation to yet another generation of students, giving teachers in Connecticut the opportunity to enact innovative projects of their own in elementary and middle-school classrooms across the state.

According to Heather McDonald, assistant vice president for development at the UConn Foundation, Rogers always had a story to tell. His passion for education was only eclipsed by his love for music and playing his beloved flugelhorn.

“He shared many stories highlighting how music and jazz specifically delighted and transformed him,” says McDonald. “He was incredibly proud of his family and marveled at what a wonderful life he was afforded due to his career in education.”

“I could listen to Vin talk about the transformative experiences he had at Cornell (meeting his wife, Chris) and UConn for hours. He was a lifelong learner and loved his home in the ‘treetops’ in Storrs,” recalls McDonald.

Rogers is survived by his and Chris’ three children and their spouses, Jill and James Coffrin of Burlington, Vermont; Robin and David Smith of Mystic, Connecticut; and Evan and Jackie Rogers of Stamford, Connecticut. They are also survived by six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“Vin was an inspiration to all who knew him as someone who lived life to its fullest and pursued his passions relentlessly,” according to his obituary.

Learn more about the Rogers’ legacy and the Rogers Educational Innovation Fund.