María E. Fránquiz

The ABCs of health literacy

A significant portion of the US population has serious problems with both literacy and understanding how to effectively use and understand health-related information. An understanding of the breadth and significance of this problem and its impact on health outcomes is now clear. Interventions and strategies for effectively working with patients with limited literacy must be developed and evaluated. An agenda for medical and public health workers, health educators, and researchers is suggested.

Introducing Historical Thinking to Second Language Learners: Exploring What Students Know and What They Want to Know

o explore the nature of historical thinking with her English language learners (ELLs), a bilingual student teacher presented historical and contemporary photographs related to the annual Día de los Muertos celebration held in Mexico and the United States and asked her students questions. Typically, people commemorate Día de los Muertos—an ancient observance of remembering those individuals who have died but left an imprint on the present—by marching in procession to cemeteries. Families sweep and decorate gravesites of loved ones with candles, food, and armloads of cempasuchíl (marigolds). They also carefully place ofrendas (offerings) of pictures, flowers, incense, candles, and worldly items favored by the dearly departed on homemade altars. Children and adults eat sugar skulls or a special round bread called pan de muertos. The student teacher began by asking questions about two photos:

The Transformation of Ms. Corazón: Creating Humanizing Spaces for Mexican Immigrant Students in Secondary ESL Classrooms

This article explores the journey of one English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher who held rigid boundaries that negatively impacted the academic resiliency of her Mexican immigrant students. As she transformed her pedagogical orientation, she created permeability in her curricular practices. With the elements of respeto (respect), confianza (mutual trust), consejos (verbal teachings), and buen ejemplo (exemplary role model) firmly built as the foundation for learning English, the immigrant students were more invested in classroom events.

We Teach Reading This Way because It Is the Model We've Adopted: Asymmetries in Language and Literacy Policies in a Two-Way Immersion Programme.

In the USA there has been widespread growth in Two‐Way Immersion (TWI) programmes in all states, including those who have outlawed bilingual education. The model offers language majority students the opportunity to become bilingual alongside their language minority peers. Research has shown TWI programmes to be the most equitable and effective for teaching both native English speakers and linguistically subjugated populations. A central goal is that all students become proficient in oral and written communication of two languages. In this mixed methods study of a TWI programme in Texas, official discourse and policies reflected social justice and equitable language and literacy goals for students. However, there was marked incongruence between the interpretation and enactment of policies. There were asymmetrical language and literacy outcomes as the strict observance of programmatic goals constrained the English language and literacy development of Spanish‐dominant students but did not constrain the Spanish language and literacy development of English‐dominant peers. As a result, Spanish‐dominant students and their families became disillusioned and questioned their participation in the TWI programme. Findings suggest that educators must examine literacy ideologies in policies and practice and be reflexive in regards to the local implementation of policy, particularly in meeting the language and literacy needs of students from linguistically subjugated communities.

“I Used To Know That”: What Happens When Reform Gets Through The Classroom Door

Abstract This article places Proposition 227 in the context of the policy web formed by a series of legislative acts and policies at the national, state, and local school board levels; federal judicial decisions; state and local elections; changes in the local school district board and superintendent. We draw on our ongoing ethnographic study of a fifth-grade classroom to illustrate what happens when policies get through the classroom door. Through this analysis, we illustrate how policies constrained the bilingual teachers ability to make learning opportunities available to her linguistically diverse students in 1998–99.

Advancing Border Pedagogies: Understandings of Citizenship Through Comparisons of Home to School Contexts

Abstract: Border pedagogies recognize citizenship as a contentious privilege afforded to some but not others. In reconciling the multiple and often conflicting renditions of citizen/citizenship, this qualitative single case study found that preservice teachers benefit from examining the great civic divide between home and school and in confronting spaces that value citizens/citizenship differently. In doing so, we argue that dislodging a teacher education candidate’s previously held assumptions works to broaden understandings of a community of wealth and the importance of linguistically and culturally diverse experiences as preservice teachers embody opportunities for participation in a democracy.

“Figuring” Bidirectional Home and School Connections Along the Biliteracy Continuum

This article centers on the significant practices identified by bilingual teachers who participated in Proyecto Bilingüe, a specialized master’s degree program. The notion of bidirectional theory of bilingual pedagogy and the theoretical construct of the continua of biliteracy are utilized to illustrate how the teachers centered home and school connections in their curriculum. Specific analysis is done on the ways the teachers create spaces of authoring for themselves, for students, and for their families and communities. These authoring spaces served to elevate the status of bilingual education, bilingual teachers, bilingual learners, and the Spanish language. Sustaining dynamic exchange flows through bidirectional intent between home and school can have profound impact in social and academic outcomes.

Co-editors’ introduction: Every Student Succeeds Act—A policy shift

PresidentObama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law onDecember 10, 2015. This law is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. It struck down some of the controversial mandates of the NoChild Left Behind Act (NCLB) – the reauthorization of ESEA in 2001. The new ESSA law includes shifting the power of designing and implementing tests to state governments. Thus, it represents a significant return of educational authority from the federal government to the state and local level. For many state education offices and district school leaders, the shift away from Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a breath of fresh air andmarks a new era in which schools’ and teachers’ successes or failures are not based on their students’ standardized test scores alone. Instead, ESSA requires the use of multiple measures of student success for monitoring learning and improvement. Signed as a bipartisan bill, the policy shifts offered in the provisions of ESSA keep a strong focus on supporting the needs of the increasing number of Emergent Bilingual students across theUnited States. The new law ensures the inclusion of these students in a state’s accountability system, reporting on Emergent Bilingual students with disabilities as well as reporting on newcomer students and on long-term Emergent Bilingual students. The law confirms the importance of standardized entrance and exit procedures for state language support programs to ensure Emergent Bilingual students receive continuity of services. While the ESSA still mandates testing in reading and math in grades 3–8, and once in high school, the data for whole schools is disaggregated for different subgroups of students, such as Emergent Bilingual students, students in special education, racial minorities, and students from families in poverty. This data can be used by states with more discretion in setting targets, accountability, and interventions. In addition to the tests that are still a part of state accountability systems, states must also be accountable to other factors, like school climate and teacher advanced coursework. Although implementation changes will not take full effect until the 2017-18 academic school year, there are important directions already under way, specifically related to the preparation of teacher candidates. For example, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have awarded over

Latino Bilingual Teachers: Negotiating the Figured World of Masculinity

34 million in grants. Toward this end, five Teacher Preparation Transformation Centers will develop, pilot and scale effective pedagogical practices. The five Teacher Preparation Transformation Centers are:

Traveling on the Biliteracy Highway: Educators Paving a Road toward Conocimiento

This article focuses on a group of male teachers from Proyecto Bilingüe, a professional development master’s degree program for bilingual teachers. The study is guided by one broad research question: How do Latino male bilingual teachers negotiate their identities in a gendered profession? Specifically the study addresses: What spaces for authoring gender identities do Latino male teachers provide in elementary schools? Social practice theory of self and identity was used to identify two themes. The first theme highlights the hegemonic masculinities that men were asked to adopt in elementary schools. The second theme illustrates how Latino teachers presented their students with a space to question rigid gendered positions and imagine more flexible boundaries for gender expression via children’s literature.