Re-Visiting the Past, Re-Imagining the Future: Interrogating California’s Teacher Performance Expectation 7 for Linguistic Justice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Linguistic Justice and Policy Implications for Multi-lingual Learners

Abstract

This paper interrogates California’s Teacher Performance Expectation 7 (TPE 7): Effective Literacy Instruction for All Students, set to take full effect in 2025–2026. While TPE 7 appears grounded in Universal Design for Learning, Culturally Responsive Teaching, and multilingual literacy practices, it operates within an accountability system tied to high-stakes testing. Such systems continue to privilege dominant, English only models of literacy and English instruction. We emphasize that traditional accountability frameworks were built to uphold existing power structures. As TPE 7 is implemented, we urge caution: efforts to reimagine literacy must not simply reproduce inequities under the guise of reform but instead remain rooted in equity, resisting pressures that dilute transformative pedagogies into compliance.

Authors

• Devanshi Unadkat, San Diego State University

• Monica Baldonado-Ruiz, San Diego State University

• Sera Jean Hernandez, San Diego State University