Language Diversity, School Learning, and Closing Achievement Gaps
A WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Melissa Welch-Ross, Rapporteur
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract No 2008-2669 between the National Academy of Sciences and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2010). Language Diversity, School Learning, and Closing Achievement Gaps: A Workshop Summary. M. Welch-Ross, Rapporteur. Committee on the Role of Language in School Learning: Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap. Center for Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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COMMITTEE ON THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN SCHOOL LEARNING: IMPLICATIONS FOR CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP
Kenji Hakuta (Chair),
Department of Education, Stanford University
Donna Christian,
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC
Jill de Villiers,
Psychology and Philosophy Departments, Smith College
Fred Genesee,
Psychology Department, McGill University, Montreal
Claude Goldenberg,
Department of Education, Stanford University
William Labov,
Linguistics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania
Lynne Vernon-Feagans,
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Melissa Welch-Ross, Senior Program Officer and Rapporteur
Mary Ann Kasper, Senior Program Assistant
Dorothy Majewski, Administrative Assistant
Acknowledgments
This report is a summary of the discussion at a workshop convened by the National Research Council on October 15-16, 2009, at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The workshop was funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the National Research Council is grateful for the interest in and commitment to work on this topic.
The workshop was planned by the Committee on the Role of Language in School Learning: Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap. The committee members identified presenters, organized the agenda, made presentations, and facilitated discussion; they did not participate in the writing of this report. The two-day workshop, summarized here reflects their diligent efforts in planning the workshop, the excellent presentations at the workshop, and the insightful comments of the many workshop participants. We also thank the many experts who participated in the workshop as presenters, panelists, paper authors, and discussants; their names appear in the agenda in an appendix (see Appendix A). Staff members Viola Horek, Mary Ann Kasper, and Dorothy Majewski ably provided administrative support for the committee. We also thank Catherine Freeman who served as staff director in the initial stages of the project.
The summary has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the Report Review Committee of the National Research Council. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its
published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process. We thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Alison Bailey, Psychological Studies in Education Division, Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles; Robert Bayley, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Davis; Joanne Carlisle, School of Education, University of Michigan; Claude Goldenberg, School of Education, Stanford University; Erika Hoff, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University; Susan H. Landry, Children’s Learning Institute, Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas; Lourdes Ortega, Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawaii at M-anoa; and Robin Scarcella, Program in Academic English and ESL, University of California, Irvine.
Although the reviewers provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by P. David Pearson, Graduate School of Education, University of California at Berkeley. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the author and the institution.