Expertise

My research and teaching focus on preparing K12 teachers to work with multilingual learners.  Under this umbrella, I publish on innovative program development, urban English as a New Language teacher preparation, and pedagogical coaching. The Six Standards for Effective Pedagogy rely on both sociocultural and critical perspectives on teaching and learning. I have been awarded five U.S. Department of Education grants focused on teacher quality. My current $2.75 million dollar grant (2017-2022) supports ESL partnerships with three districts: Metropolitan School District of Pike Township, Perry Township Schools, and Avon Community Schools Corporation. More than 1000 educators in multiple sites are will benefit from individual and peer coaching, parent-family-community engagement, and tuition scholarships for ENL certification and a 9-credit Leadership Academy. These federal grant activities offer various types of professional learning opportunities to ESL specialists, leaders, and general educators (coaches and teachers) in making individual and institutional change that is radical, measurable, and replicable for improving educational outcomes for English Learners. My mixed methods research explores teacher, coach, and student learning as well as the relative importance of knowledge of language, culture, and pedagogy as teacher competencies for improving student learning. 
 


  • Teaching English as a Second Language
  • Multilingual Education
  • Sociocultural Theory Of Learning
  • Critical Pedagogy
  • Instructional Coaching
  • Pedagogy
  • Dialogical Teaching
Past Affiliations

Associate Professor, School of Education, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Associate Professor, Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington

Department of Teacher Education, David O. McKay School of Education, Brigham Young University (past)

Center for Urban & Multicultural Education, School of Education, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Communities
Education
Degrees
PhD, Ohio State University, Foreign and Second Language Education, 1997
MA, Brigham Young University, Teaching English as a Second Language, 1988
BA, Brigham Young University, Speech Communication and Journalism, 1983
Keywords
urban education english as a second language--esl mathematics education teacher education bilingual & intercultural education