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About the Authors
Margo Gottlieb, PhD,is cofounder and lead developer for WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, having also served as director of assessment and evaluation for the Illinois Resource Center. She has contributed to the crafting of language proficiency and development standards for American Samoa, Guam, TESOL, and WIDA and has designed assessments, curricular frameworks, and instructional assessment systems for language learners. Her professional experiences span from being an inner-city language teacher to working with thousands of educators across states, school districts, publishing companies, governments, universities, and educational organizations. Highlights of Margo’s career include being a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Chile and being appointed to the U.S. Department of Education’s Inaugural National Technical Advisory Council. In 2016, Margo was honored by TESOL International Association’s 50 at 50 “as an individual who has made a significant contribution to the TESOL profession within the past 50 years.” She has had opportunities to travel extensively and has presented in American Samoa, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Denmark, Finland, Guam, Italy, Jakarta, Mexico, Panama, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, as well as close to home across the United States. Margo’s publications include over 70 articles, technical reports, monographs, chapters, and encyclopedia entries. Additionally, this past decade, she has authored, coauthored, and coedited 11 books: Assessing English Language Learners: Bridges to Educational Equity (2nd ed., 2016), Academic Language in Diverse Classrooms: Definitions and Contexts (with G. Ernst-Slavit, 2014), a foundational book for the series Promoting Content and Language Learning (a compendium of three mathematics and three English language arts volumes coedited with G. Ernst-Slavit, 2014, 2013), Common Language Assessment for English Learners (2012), Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL’s English Language Proficiency Standards in PreK–12 Classrooms (with A. Katz & G. Ernst-Slavit, 2009), and Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers (with D. Nguyen, 2007).
Mariana Castro, PhD,is director of standards for WIDA at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she has also served as director of academic language and literacy initiatives and director of teaching and learning. Mariana is, foremost, an educator, having taught science, ESL courses, and bilingual classes in K–12 systems. As an educator, she also led professional development for ESL and bilingual educators at her district. Mariana has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses at UW–Whitewater and Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband, Andy, and three children, Amy, Andrés, and Diego. During her career as an educator, she worked with multilingual students, students with significant cognitive disabilities, and students with limited or interrupted formal education and collaborated with educators and administrators, in and out of the classroom. It was this work that provided the foundation and inspiration for her career. Over the last 10 years, Mariana has worked with in-service teachers and administrators across the U.S. and abroad on building capacity related to instruction and programming, with a focus on language development. She has also presented at national conferences, including TESOL, Learning Forward, NABE, La Cosecha, ASCD, AERA, and AAAL, and at many regional and local conferences across the country. Internationally, she has worked with educators in Mexico, Dubai, Thailand, and Argentina in designing spaces for meaningful participation and multilingual development for language learners. Mariana’s service to the field includes serving as an expert in policy and theory-to-practice panels related to the education of English learners, being an active member of the Second Language Research Special Interest Group at the American Educational Research Association, and serving as a reviewer for the South African Journal of Education and the TESOL Journal. She participated in the development of the Framework for English Language Proficiency Development Standards corresponding to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards and in the development of a variety of standards, including WIDA English Language Development Standards, K–12; WIDA Spanish Language Development Standards, K–12; and WIDA Early Language Development Standards for children 2.5 through 5.5 years old, in English and Spanish. She has also led the development of multiple publications derivative of the aforementioned standards. Mariana has also served as principal investigator for a variety of grants and research related to early language development, English language development, Spanish language development, data literacy, and family engagement. Mariana’s research interests also include translanguaging and social justice in education. Mariana’s publications include a coedited volume, Common Core, Bilingual and English Language Learners: A Resource for Educators (with G. Valdés and K. Menken), Formative Language Assessment for English Learners: A Four-Step Process (with R. MacDonald, T. Boals, H. G. Cook, T. Lundberg, & P. A. White), a chapter in Intersectionality and Urban Education: Identities, Policies, Spaces, and Power (with L. Mancilla & T. Boals), and articles in Language Magazine, Soleado, and the WIDA Focus Bulletin series.
Acknowledgments
It is always interesting to see how simple ideas blossom into manuscripts and how manuscripts become realized in books. If it wasn’t for the confidence that Corwin places in its authors, it couldn’t have been able to position itself as such a stronghold in the educational field and a voice of advocacy for the teaching force. We applaud its ongoing commitment to seeking new ideas and inspiration for bettering education opportunities for students and educators.
Dan Alpert, program director of equity and professional learning, embodies this trust. He is a true champion of equity, and we can’t thank him enough for believing in this project and in us. With the support of Maura Sullivan, marketing manager, this dynamic duo has a clear vision of how to conceptualize and communicate the importance of promoting educational change through the power of language. We also cannot forget Kimberly Greenberg, senior associate editor, who, in the team spirit, is always willing to help in any way.
Other important Corwin folks have contributed to bringing our book to fruition. Katie Crilley, editorial assistant, is a detail person who has meticulously combed the manuscript to ensure that it complies with publishing guidelines. Marketing plays an important role in informing the educational community of the upcoming addition to the field, and Kimberly Schmidt, marketing associate, has worked feverishly to help publicize our book. Gail Buschman has taken our ideas for the cover and converted them to represent the strength of language power. Lastly, we extend our gratitude to Melanie Birdsall, senior project editor, Books Production, who has led the way to converting a manuscript into a book and to Jared Leighton, our copy editor, who helped us polish our text, figures, and resources to ready them for you.
There are two organizations to whom we are greatly indebted. The first, BrainPOP®, has generously offered its myriad resources to assist us in concretizing how key uses of academic language can be operationalized through multimodal, content-based materials. Beverly Fine, as editorial and outreach director of BrainPOP ESL™, clearly sees the value of connecting language
