Join WestEd at the 2025 National ESEA Conference on February 19–21, 2025, at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, and virtually! We look forward to partnering with you to enhance learning, drive improvement, and empower student success.
The theme of this year’s conference is Focus on Improvement! This theme serves as a valuable reminder to prioritize the continuous improvement efforts and meet the needs of students who are disadvantaged and traditionally under served.
Aligned to this the conference theme, WestEd and co-presenters from the National Rural Education Association, Texas Education Agency, and state and local education agencies will lead workshops and lecture sessions that focus on such key issues as:
amplifying mathematics participation among English Learners,
fostering teacher efficacy through instructional leadership practices,
optimizing Federal grants implementation,
prioritizing the identity of Native Students in school turnaround, and
advancing school improvement before the school year ends.
Add WestEd’s in-person and virtual sessions (see below) to your calendar and visit our booth #312 to meet our team and to learn about our resources, professional development opportunities, and research.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Hybrid Workshop Session: Reimagining and Amplifying Math Participation, Understanding and Practices for English Learners
Presenter: Haiwen Chu (WestEd)
Time: 11:30–12:30pm Central
Location: Ballroom F
Middle schoolers who are entering high school need challenging opportunities to learn mathematics that are also well supported. For students bureaucratically designated as “English Learners” in particular, these ambitious opportunities need to offer support to develop language to describe, prove, and explain to connect school mathematics to lived experiences. A focus on cross-cutting concepts, such as equivalence and transformation, further has the promise to connect algebra, geometry, and statistics. In this workshop, we offer opportunities that challenge and support students while presenting findings from three summers’ trials and studies. The activities were part of the Reimagining and Amplifying Mathematics Participation, Understanding, and Practices. We offer causal evidence that the intervention has a positive impact on students’ mathematics achievement, while providing rich qualitative descriptions of students complex thinking, language development, and growth over time.
Hybrid Lecture: Supporting Expansion and Access to Dual Language Immersion—Lessons from States
Presenters: Allison Balter (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education), Karl H. Bowman (Utah State Board of Education), Elisa Alvarez (New York State Education Department), and Kate Wright (WestEd)
Time: 2:45–3:45pm Central
Location: Ballroom F
There are numerous documented benefits for English learners who are multilingual and biliterate, leading many states to focus on expanding their multilingual or dual language immersion (DLI) programs. However, such expansions come with challenges including shortages of bilingual educators, identifying appropriate curricula and assessments, and ensuring access for English Learner students. With a focus on improvement, presenters will share findings and best practices for those aiming to enhance and expand access to DLI programs in their context. WestEd will share findings from a research scan focused on what we know about DLI implementation and how well this research reflects the national context. State leaders from Massachusetts, New York, and Utah will share lessons learned from their state’s efforts to expand access to DLI programs, including examples of challenges and successes at local educational agencies and schools.
Hybrid Lecture: Standardizing Teacher Input for Exiting from EL Status: Challenges & Opportunities
Presenters: Julie Lara (Texas Education Agency), Alesha Moreno-Ramirez (California Department of Education), Haiwen Chu (WestEd), and Lilia Tsui (Contra Costa County Office of Education)
Time: 4:30–5:30pm Central
Location: Room 19AB
ESSA required states to set statewide standardized procedures for entry and exit from English Learner (EL) status. For states that use teacher input as an exit criterion–such as California and Texas, the two states with the largest EL populations–this meant standardizing tools for such input. This session will engage participants in conversation with leaders from CA and TX who have overseen the development and implementation of the Texas Education Agency’s Emergent Bilingual/English Learner Reclassification Rubric Teacher Documentation form and the California Department of Education’s Observation Protocol for Teachers of English Learners (OPTEL). CA and TX SEA leaders will speak, as well as an LEA leader from CA who is overseeing local implementation of the OPTEL, and a federally funded partner supporting the CA SEA. Reflecting the conference theme, the session connects to a national conversation around policies for improving outcomes for historically marginalized students.