My primary research project, funded by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral, is a research-practice partnership with a school district in the South to increase the uptake of linguistically sustaining practices. This work is grounded in commitments to designing learning environments that are linguistically heterogeneous, meaning that learners use a wide range of languages to learn. Using a co-designed practical measure, district and school leaders, teachers, youth, families, and researchers will engage in collective learning around linguistically sustaining practices, collect baseline data to understand the extent to which linguistic heterogeneity emerges in the district, and design organizational and instructional practices for advancing linguistic heterogeneity.
I am also engaged in a research-practice partnership to understand the organizational and instructional practices of schools and districts in a high-poverty county that have generated exceptionally high elementary literacy rates among economically disadvantaged students. Working with an intermediary organization aiming to launch countywide improvement work, this project will support the design and development of a collection of organizational and instructional changes that can be shared with the rest of the county.
