English learners are the fastest growing segment of the public
school population in the United States. The School’s faculty and
researchers have deep expertise in issues surrounding the
assessment, teaching and learning of English learners. Find more
on our research and other resources here.
Specializing in educational and psychological assessments, Jamal
Abedi’s research focuses on testing for English language learners
and issues concerning the technical characteristics and
interpretations of these assessments. Abedi is the author of many
publications in the assessment of and accommodations for
English-language learners. He is on the advisory committees for
several major assessment organizations and advises a number
of states on testing for English learners and children with
disabilities.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Academic language; Academic literacy; English learners; Language development and socialization; First- and second-language writing
I research the relationship between students’ everyday uses of
language (English and Spanish) and their engagement in
school-based uses of language and literacy. Some schools identify
bilingual adolescents as “limited” in their English proficiency
even though they use sophisticated literacy repertoires outside
of school; other learners are deemed ”fluent” in English but
still struggle with the language and literacy demands
of their academic coursework.
Margarita Jimenez-Silva is an associate professor and director of
teacher education at the School of Education in University of
California, Davis. Her research focuses on preparing and
supporting teachers to work with culturally and linguistically
diverse learners, especially in addressing emergent bilinguals’
linguistic and academic content development. More specifically,
her research strands include teacher education pedagogy and
curriculum, educational policy, and family/community engagement.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Adolescent Language and Literacy; English Education; Linguistic Anthropology of Education; Sociocultural Approaches to Learning; Discourse Analysis; Black and Latina/o Youth Interactions; Ethnography
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: LLC. Early literacy; English learners; Bilingualism and bilingual education; Educational television and multimedia; Language acquisition
Early Literacy; English Learners; Bilingualism and Bilingual
Education; Educational Television and Multimedia; Language
Acquisition; Literacy development; Quantitative methods;
Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics.
