How can we combat an “English-only” approach in education and what is the importance of calling out cross linguistic connections for English learners? What is “metabilingual awareness” and how does it inform how we understand and develop language? How should equity be considered, both for students enrolling in dual language programs and in the recruiting and retaining of multilingual educators? We discuss these questions and much more with Dr. Sonia Soltero.

Dr. Soltero is Professor and Chair of the Department of Leadership, Language, and Curriculum, and former Director of the Bilingual-Bicultural Education Graduate Program at DePaul University in Chicago. Soltero has numerous publications on bilingual education, English Learners, and Latino Education having been involved with dual/bilingual education for more than thirty years as a dual language teacher, university professor, professional developer, and researcher. Soltero has extensive background in design and implementation of dual language and bilingual programs and has worked with school districts as well as bilingual universities across the US.

During the episode, we mention that Highest Aspirations will be featuring teacher shout-outs submitted by listeners from now through the end of the school year. If you would like to participate, you can record a short audio message on your phone or computer and email it to [email protected]. For more information on recording and submitting your message, check out our blog post.

You can find additional resources and episode takeaways on our ELL Community page at ellevationeducation.com/ellcommunity. If you haven’t done so already, we invite you to join our ELL Community while you’re there so you get weekly resources, strategies and tips from that you can use right away.

Finally, the 2021 Ellevation Scholarship is still accepting applications through the end of the week - if you are interested in the application, visit this page to learn more and apply.