Leveraging Federal Policy to Advance English Learner Equity: SEA and LEA Leaders as Policy Interpreters

• In Event: Individual Actors Surviving, Subverting, and (Un)Intentionally Shaping Policy Implementation

Abstract

Federal policy has long sought to close opportunity gaps and expand educational equity for English learners (ELs). Through interviews with 17 state and local education agency leaders across three states, we investigate how leaders frame equity for EL students, and the ways in which equity is enhanced or constrained by participants’ interpretation and implementation of federal EL policy and case law. Participants approach EL educational equity from perspectives that reflect their beliefs about EL students, their communities, and the broader educational system. Findings illustrate the ways in which EL educational leaders interpret federal and state EL policy to expand educational opportunities for ELs and the district and school leaders with whom they work.

Authors

• Rebecca M. Callahan, University of Vermont

• Madeline Mavrogordato, Michigan State University

• Caroline Bartlett, Michigan State University