Provide administrative assistance support to staff and MATSOL volunteers to carry out MATSOL's programs and activities.
REPORTS TO: Executive Director
Provide administrative assistance support to staff and MATSOL volunteers to carry out MATSOL's programs and activities.
REPORTS TO: Executive Director
The first Seal of Biliteracy Awards were presented in Massachusetts in the spring of 2016 by schools and school districts participating in the Seal of Biliteracy Pilot Project.
Data collected by the Language Opportunity Coalition.
The updated Seal of Biliteracy Pathway Awards TOOLKIT is now available! The revisions were made as a result of the feedback from the Seal of Biliteracy Pilot Project. The Seal of Biliteracy Workgroup will consider revisions of the current draft in February 2017 and at the end of the Year 2 Pilot during Summer 2017.
The TOOLKT can be viewed and downloaded on the Language Opportunity Coalition website.
MATSOL is pleased to announce a new collaboration between MATSOL, Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education (MABE), and Massachusetts Council for Exceptional Children (MCEC). The Dual Language Special Education Network is for educators who support bilingual students who receive special education (or students who are bilingual and receive special education), including special educators, dual language teachers, ESL/ELL teachers and administrators.
The target audience includes Special Educators, School Psychologist, Speech and Language Pathologist, and other educational leaders interested in Special Education Issues (e.g., Moderate Special Needs, Director of Special Education, Institutes of Higher Education, Literacy and Instructional Coaches, Interventionists)
We are writing with an update on the LOOK bill and Seal of Biliteracy bill. The formal session of the Massachusetts state legislature ended at midnight on July 31st, and we are happy to report that both the Senate and House took action on the LOOK Bill!
The Massachusetts state Senate passed the LOOK Bill on July 7th unanimously with bipartisan support. This bill gives school districts the flexibility to offer bilingual programming without the need for waivers, and establishes a state Seal of Biliteracy. During the debate, both Senate Ways and Means Chair Karen Spilka and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr voiced their support of the bill – it is quite notable to have two people in leadership on both the Democratic and Republican side speak in favor of a bill on the floor. Just a few weeks later, on July 31, in the flurry of last minute activity, the House passed their version of the LOOK bill.
An op-ed in CommonWealth Magazine by Sen Sonia Chang-Diaz and Sen Sal DiDomenico explaining why we need to pass the LOOK bill in Massachusetts.
http://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/flexibility-needed-in-educating-english-language-learners/
New from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education: Guidance for Defining and Implementing Two-Way Immersion and Transitional Bilingual Education Programs
On July 7, 2016 the Massachusetts Senate passed S.2395 An Act for language opportunity for our kids – the “LOOK bill” – by a unanimous vote.
The LOOK bill gives school districts the flexibility to choose high-quality, research-based programs to meet the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) and establishes the State Seal of Biliteracy to recognize high school graduates who speak, read, and write in two languages, a valuable asset in the 21st century global economy. View the LOOK Bill Fact Sheet …
Partnership for a New American Economy, a national bipartisan group of mayors and business leaders, has released a new research brief, Language Diversity and the Workforce: The Growing Need for Bilingual Workers in Massachusetts’ Economy. The report finds that in the past five years, demand for bilingual workers in Massachusetts has more than doubled. The group also calls for the creation of a state Seal of Biliteracy to help meet this need.
On June 30, the the Senate Ways and Means Committee favorably reported out the LOOK bill. The bill has been placed in the Orders of the Day to be heard in the next Senate session on July 7th.
If you have not done so already, please contact your State Senator to urge support for the LOOK Bill!
The LOOK bill and Seal of Biliteracy Bill were both referred out favorably by the Mass Legislature's Joint Committee on Education, and are moving ahead in the legislative process.
An Act for Language Opportunity for Our Kids includes key reforms in English language education and dual language learning.
The Boston Globe published several articles and letters to the editor recently about language education policy in Massachusetts:
Seats are still available for Harness the Power of Partnerships for Student Engagement and Achievement on May 4, presented by Dr. Debbie Zacarian. Read the article below for more information about the topic. Register now!
Debbie Zacarian and Michael Silverstone
Here is important information that you may wish to share with your colleagues and other educators, to protect legal, civil and human rights of students and their families, under law.
With recent raids aimed to legally deport families in Massachusetts, attention to the needs and the status of students and families is heightened, for those directly targeted and for those who are not. Therefore it is critical that schools remain vigilant about maintaining and protecting the rights of students regardless of their immigration status.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary education has released new guidance on SLIFE students: "Massachusetts Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) Definition and Guidance."