Holding the Pendulum Regular | Language Journal

A moderated dialogue on multilingual literacy, language growth, and the science of studying

Summary
As states and districts more and more undertake insurance policies aligned with the science of studying, questions persist about how these shifts intersect with the schooling of multilingual learners. This text presents a moderated dialogue amongst leaders from WIDA, educators and directors from Floyd County Colleges in Georgia, and a university-based linguist from the College of Georgia, which came about throughout The Studying League’s Ninth Annual Convention in Chicago, IL. By means of structured dialogue, contributors explored factors of alignment and questions associated to language growth requirements, literacy instruction, evaluation, and fairness. Moderated by Kari Kurto, nationwide director of coverage and partnerships at The Studying League, the dialog surfaced shared commitments and steered future communication, illustrating the complexity—and necessity—of cross-sector collaboration in multilingual literacy. The dialogue additionally introduced particular, actionable suggestions for cross-sector collaboration in multilingual literacy.

Introduction: Why This Dialog, and Why Now

The schooling of multilingual learners sits on the intersection of language, literacy, coverage, and fairness. As states speed up the adoption of evidence-aligned literacy practices grounded in many years of studying analysis, educators are grappling with how to make sure that multilingual college students will not be solely included in these reforms however absolutely served by them.

This moderated dialog introduced collectively leaders from WIDA, a company that gives language growth sources to those that assist the tutorial success of multilingual learners, and a Georgia-based staff made up of leaders in instruction, ESOL, and literacy from Floyd County Colleges, a Georgia faculty district, together with a linguist from the College of Georgia. Whereas contributors shared a dedication to enhancing outcomes for multilingual learners, they approached the problem from totally different institutional roles, theoretical frameworks, and coverage duties. Quite than in search of consensus, the dialogue aimed to “maintain the pendulum” regular—resisting oversimplified binaries and as a substitute inspecting how programs may higher work collectively.From the outset, moderator Kurto established each urgency and care. Framing the science of studying as an interdisciplinary physique of analysis (The Studying League, 2022) that does apply to multilingual learners—when carried out with consideration to language growth and cultural belongings—Kurto emphasised that the work forward requires collaboration, humility, and a willingness to ask troublesome questions.

WIDA’s Perspective: A Language-Centered Framework Inside Coverage Constraints

Representing WIDA, govt director Dr. Jenni Torres, director {of professional} studying Dr. Teresa Krastel, assistant director of requirements Maya Martinez‑Hart, and WIDA requirements and evaluation developer/researcher Dr. Lynn Shafer Willner articulated a transparent and constant place: WIDA’s position is to assist multilingual learners’ language growth—to not prescribe native literacy curriculum or assess decoding expertise. Torres emphasised WIDA’s identification as a studying group—one which repeatedly evolves by listening to analysis, coverage shifts, and classroom realities throughout its 42 consortium member states.

A key emphasis from WIDA leaders was collaboration. Krastel highlighted the concept that “all academics are language growth academics,” stressing the significance of prioritizing pupil discuss, shared tutorial instruments, and coordinated practices throughout school rooms. But she additionally acknowledged the challenges posed by broadly various state literacy insurance policies and the necessity for native companies in implementation.

Shafer Willner supplied an in depth rationalization of WIDA ACCESS, WIDA’s suite of summative English language proficiency assessments. Federal regulation requires monitoring and reporting English language learners’ progress towards proficiency. ACCESS, given yearly, is just not a literacy take a look at and shouldn’t be interpreted as such. As an alternative, it measures college students’ capability to make use of the English language to take part in a number of tutorial contexts throughout studying, writing, listening, and talking. ACCESS duties are designed to be genuine and purposeful, and scoring targets language growth slightly than content material mastery.

Anchored within the can-do philosophy (WIDA, n.d.), WIDA audio system emphasised the belongings and sources of multilingual learners slightly than characterizing them via monolingual norms that measure tutorial understanding solely via a lens of English talents. They emphasised parity via express foundational literacy and wealthy tutorial language, with choices grounded in a number of measures. They reiterated that ACCESS measures English language use, not studying proficiency, and needs to be interpreted alongside a number of knowledge sources, notably when making high-stakes choices.

Georgia’s Perspective: When Programs Don’t Mesh in School rooms

The Georgia staff spoke from the vantage level of district‑stage accountability and classroom implementation. Floyd County ESOL coordinator Dr. Jennifer Pendergrass-Bennefield described work aligning ESOL companies with structured literacy—and gaps when requirements, assessments, and tutorial expectations fail to align.

Expressing assist for WIDA and its language‑via ‑content material strategy, Pendergrass additionally pointed to a persistent classroom hole in Georgia’s ELA content material requirements: by higher elementary and past, express foundational studying instruction doesn’t exist. Which means that for multilingual college students who enter US colleges after second grade, direct instruction in decoding/encoding is just not assured. Her district’s response is to infuse ESOL instruction of English on the sound dimension in grades Okay–12. They carried out this alteration by offering structured literacy coaching for all ESOL academics, tutorial sources for instructing elements of English smaller than a phrase, and a district course of for assessing foundational literacy expertise for multilingual learners throughout all grade ranges. Floyd County’s ESOL program now strikes past WIDA’s framework, which addresses phrase, sentence, and discourse dimensions, and likewise addresses the sound dimension, supporting foundational literacy wants via the instruction in each language and content material.

Assistant superintendent John Parker famous that, after a district pivot to the science of studying, the proportion of third‑grade college students studying on grade stage in Floyd County Colleges rose from 59% to 86.4%. Floyd County’s math and studying achievement now exceed prepandemic ranges. But multilingual learners haven’t gained on the identical price—about 33% don’t make progress in studying, with multilingual learners in higher grades most affected. In reviewing Georgia literacy knowledge, statewide literacy gaps between multilingual and monolingual learners are progressively widening on the fifth, seventh, and eleventh grades, with 80% of Georgia’s eleventh-grade multilingual learners unable to learn on grade stage (Studying Readiness—GaDOE Insights, 2025). The info point out the present literacy wants of Georgia’s multilingual learners in any respect grade ranges.

Dr. Tabatha Tierce, literacy specialist and coach, supplied a classroom perspective on how WIDA’s determination to go away the instruction of English phonemes to ELA content material instruction creates confusion within the classroom. She learn aloud a message from a faculty administrator: “Would you thoughts coming to our college to work with our ESOL academics? We’ve requested them to collaborate with Okay–1 academics, however they’re struggling to assist college students with decoding and encoding.” She additionally learn aloud a query from a secondary trainer in search of concepts for applicable motion pictures or different alternate options to books for instructing components of literature to older multilingual learners who weren’t literate. She highlighted that in each elementary and secondary school rooms, academics and directors wrestle to fulfill pupil wants and uphold excessive expectations when alignment is absent.

Dr. David Chiesa, affiliate professor of language and literacy schooling on the College of Georgia, framed the dialogue via systemic purposeful linguistics (SFL), a principle during which that means is realized throughout interdependent strata, from context and discourse to grammar and lexis and finally to expression via phonology and graphology (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014). He defined that SFL doesn’t allow the separation of that means from sound and print, as a result of decoding and orthographic data are themselves meaning-making sources throughout the system. Chiesa emphasised that whereas WIDA’s 2020 ELD Requirements Framework is knowledgeable by SFL, it excludes the phonological and graphological ranges, which isn’t grounded in linguistic principle; slightly, he described it as a coverage boundary drawn between ELD and ELA. He cautioned that this truncates the muse upon which that means is constructed, successfully requiring educators to assist comprehension and tutorial language growth with out entry to the total semiotic system. He concluded that when phonology and graphology are handled as exterior to language growth, multilingual learners are denied entry to the whole cycle via which that means is realized. Reintegrating code and that means via coherent ELA–ELD alignment, he argued, is just not an tutorial desire however a theoretical necessity if SFL is to be utilized with integrity.

Evaluation, Fairness, and the Query of ACCESS 

Probably the most sustained areas of debate centered on ACCESS and its position in pupil trajectories. Georgia contributors famous that college students are anticipated to learn and write in English with out express decoding instruction, notably when foundational literacy is just not embedded in ESOL companies. In states like Georgia, the place exit from the ESOL program is decided by ACCESS rating, college students whose studying expertise aren’t excessive sufficient to go the studying portion of the take a look at usually can’t exit this system. These multilingual learners rating poorly within the ACCESS domains of studying and writing, which considerably impacts their general ACCESS rating. This usually leaves them primarily caught within the ESOL program for an additional yr, throughout which the present ESOL program’s requirements don’t deal with the phonological stage and are subsequently not getting ready them to learn the take a look at that shall be administered once more.

Shafer Willner affirmed the significance of express decoding instruction, whereas clarifying that ELD requirements are for use with content material requirements (not as standalone curricula). She really helpful co-planned, built-in models (ELA + ELD) so sound–image work and tutorial language develop collectively and cautioned that ACCESS needs to be interpreted alongside literacy measures and classroom proof—not used as a proxy for studying capability. (See Shafer Willner, 2025, for an instance of built-in ELA–ELD unit planning utilizing accountable AI workflows comparable to Google NotebookLM.)

From a requirements growth perspective, structured literacy indicators don’t map neatly to WIDA’s Key Language Makes use of (narrate, inform, clarify, argue) or Language Expectations. The 2020 WIDA ELD Requirements Framework is knowledgeable by a Okay–12 variant of SFL referred to as style‑primarily based pedagogy, which attracts from the Okay–12 work of Derewianka and Jones (2016), de Oliveira (2016, 2023), and Schleppegrell (2020), amongst others. For classroom usability, genre-based pedagogy focuses educators’ consideration on genres and the communicative functions for language use throughout ELA, arithmetic, science, and social research.

WIDA additionally presents Marco de los estándares del desarrollo auténtico del lenguaje español de WIDA (Marco DALE), which guides the instructing of Spanish language growth in grades Okay–12 inside a bilingual schooling context. The identical ideas described above for the WIDA ELD Requirements Framework apply right here, whereas recognizing that totally different linguistic programs of English and Spanish convey variations within the literacy journey. The identical commitments to learners and studying ought to maintain true when planning classes with both normal set.

Holding the Pendulum Regular

All through the dialog, Kari Kurto anchored the group in shared commitments and invited direct responses. Her holding‑the‑pendulum‑regular metaphor prevented swings into false dichotomies (language vs. literacy; coverage vs. apply; requirements vs. school rooms) and solid contributors as co‑stewards of a posh system, prompting reflection on how a number of “pixels” of information and experience can kind a clearer image of multilingual learners.

Equally necessary was the group’s asset‑primarily based stance. By foregrounding college students’ linguistic sources and the moral crucial to supply complete instruction, contributors collectively stored the deal with learners slightly than establishments.

The panel summarized the important thing complexities as:

• Grade of entry and prior literacy within the house language
• Program fashions and staffing (ESOL/ELA collaboration constructions)
• Coverage constraints (e.g., ESSA necessities for English language proficiency)
• Evaluation validity and applicable use of outcomes
• Native capability for built-in planning and scheduling

Conclusion: Towards Shared Duty

This dialogue didn’t resolve all tensions, nor did it try to. It modeled productive cross‑sector dialog during which contributors listened, clarified, and remained in relationship regardless of disagreement. WIDA leaders articulated nationwide‑stage constraints and duties; Georgia educators illuminated classroom and theoretical penalties when programs don’t align. Fairness for multilingual learners won’t be achieved via remoted frameworks or single measures, however via sustained collaboration—holding the pendulum regular—in order that no layer of language, literacy, or content material data is handled as non-compulsory.

Suggestions From WIDA Consultant

• Use ACCESS alongside literacy assessments and classroom proof; interpret studying and writing area scores as language use, not decoding.
• Plan built-in ELA–ELD models: co‑design foundational literacy targets with tutorial language objectives tied to Key Language Makes use of.
• Present express decoding/encoding instruction for older newcomers and lengthy‑time period English learners, coordinated with ESOL companies.
• Undertake a multi‑measure dashboard to keep away from single‑take a look at choices; embody ELP, literacy, and course efficiency.
• Create collaboration constructions (shared planning time, frequent instruments) so ESOL and content material academics co‑personal outcomes.

Suggestions from Georgia Representatives

In contexts the place states are implementing structured literacy approaches, educators could have to take further, intentional steps to make sure multilingual learners have entry to foundational literacy instruction alongside language growth assist.

• Implement literacy screening for newly arrived multilingual learners.
• Monitor literacy growth for MLs whose English language proficiency studying scores present restricted progress over time.
• Present structured literacy coaching for Okay–12 ESOL academics.
• Help built-in ELA–ELD tutorial planning.
• Equip Okay–12 ESOL academics with literacy sources that assist instruction in any respect ranges smaller than the phrase.

• Moderator: Kari Kurto, nationwide director of coverage and partnerships, The Studying League
• WIDA: Dr. Jenni Torres (govt director); Dr. Teresa Krastel (director {of professional} studying); Dr. Lynn Shafer Willner (researcher/evaluation and requirements developer); Maya Martinez‑Hart (assistant director of requirements)
• Floyd County Colleges (GA): Dr. Jennifer Pendergrass-Bennefield (coordinator of ESOL/Title III and literacy laws); John Parker (assistant superintendent); Dr. Tabatha Tierce (literacy specialist/coach)
• College of Georgia: Dr. David Chiesa (scientific affiliate professor within the Division of Language and Literacy Training)

References

Derewianka, B., and Jones, P. (2016). Educating Language in Context (2^nd ed.). Oxford College Press.

Halliday, M. A. Okay., and Matthiessen, C. M. I. (2014). Halliday’s Introduction to Useful Grammar (4^th ed.). London: Routledge.

de Oliveira, L. C. (2016). “The Widespread Core State Requirements and English Language Learners: Implications for writing instruction.” In T. Ruecker and C. Ortmeier-Hooper (Eds.), Linguistically Various Immigrant and Resident Writers: Transitions from Excessive Faculty to Faculty (pp. 36-49). Routledge.

de Oliveira, L. C. (2023). Supporting Multilingual Learners’ Educational Language Improvement: A Language-Based mostly Method to Content material Instruction. Routledge.

Studying Readiness—GaDOE Insights. (2025). Georgia Insights. https://georgiainsights.gadoe.org/dashboards/reading-readiness

Schleppegrell, M. J. (2020). “The Information Base for Language Educating: What’s the English to be taught as content material?” Language Educating Analysis, 24(1), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168818777519

Shafer Willner, L. (2025). “AI-Powered, Built-in Unit Objectives and Lesson Aims for Okay–12 English Learners.” GATESOL Journal, 34(1), 17–34. https://georgiatesoljournal.org/index.php/GATESOL/article/view/199/127

The Studying League. (2022). Science of Studying: Defining Information. www.thereadingleague.org/what-is-the-science-of-reading

WIDA. (2020). WIDA English Language Improvement Requirements Framework, 2020 Version: Kindergarten–Grade 12. Board of Regents of the College of Wisconsin System. https://wida.wisc.edu/educate/requirements/eld

WIDA. (2023). Marco de los estándares del desarrollo auténtico del lenguaje español de WIDA (Marco DALE). Board of Regents of the College of Wisconsin System. https://wida.wisc.edu/educate/spanish/marco-dale

WIDA. (n.d.). “Understanding What College students Can Do.” https://wida.wisc.edu/educate/can-do