SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, uh welcome to the Linguistic Justice Project. It it's a podcast that I am starting and a little bit about myself. My name is Dania Flores, Dania Flores Segundo, and I am a teacher. I am also passionate about language. I I was part of the language learning program when I was growing up, and I recently graduated with the doctorate degree, and I thought I want to do something with this knowledge or information or exercise, a little bit of research and do something fun and creative with the knowledge and with the knowledge of others. And today I have an amazing guest, Toshiko Mauricio. And if you can introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Yes, thank you. Hi, my name is uh Toshiko Mauricio, and I am the uh director uh for multilingual programs in the uh Beaverton School District, which is the uh third largest district in the state of um of Oregon. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Thank you so much. Uh and the first question that I have here is oh my goodness, I lost the questions. Sorry. If you can tell us a little bit about the um where does multilingual education stands today?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah, that is actually a very, very um very good question. Um I think multilingual education is really at a you know at a pivotal moment, both you know, politically and um academically. Um we have kind of moved beyond asking whether students should maintain and develop, you know, multiple languages. I think many districts and many um people value multiple languages. And the research is clear that bilingualism and biliteracy support academic achievement and that just that cognitive flexibility that they need and also helps with future career opportunities. I think the question now that people are asking more is not whether multilingual education works, but how we can scale up high-quality programs so that all students can benefit. So, you know, for example, many districts are experiencing shortages of bilingual educators, growing linguistic diversity and increasing accountability pressures that often prioritize English acquisition over like full bilingualism. But there's tremendous momentum, I think, across the country. We are seeing expanded dual language programs and stronger recognition of biliteracy through like seals of biliteracy. And I know that in Oregon and Beaverton, we have been working really hard to expand access to our dual language programs. And we also increase the number of students every year that attain the seal of biliteracy, and our state recognizes multilingualism as well. So I think where multilingual education stands today, I think that we are still moving in a very positive direction where multilingualism, multiculturalism are valued as assets, which is which is a great thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Are there any policies in their in the favor in uh the favor of uh this support for multilingual students that are going to propel them to continue this path of moving forward and advocating for these programs that you know of?

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah, so I think one of the most important policy shifts that impact multilingual students in in this movement, away from viewing multilingualism just as a deficit, but more as a national asset, is this idea of biliteracy and creating policies that support biliteracy or that allow for that to happen in many districts. And so, you know, the United States, I think, is beginning to move in that direction, just like our European partners, countries, that that they have long embraced multilingualism as a core of their educational system. Like it's built into their educational system as well as their national identity. And many European nations do not ask like how quickly students can replace one language with another, right? They they ask how schools can help students build that portfolio of languages or the, you know, accept the plurality of languages and how that will serve them throughout their lives. Um here in the United States, it's just been how quickly students can acquire English. And so I think the policies are starting to starting to shift. Um, now, you know, we're asking how do we help students become bilingual and biliterate while maintaining their linguistic and cultural identities. Like we don't want them to change anything about themselves. Um, and so this shift is reflected in the, like I mentioned earlier, like expansion of dual language programs. I don't know if it's necessarily a policy, but our district strategic plan allows for that expansion to happen and supports that expansion. And then we also have a number of syllabi literacy initiatives and multilingual learner strategic plans at the at the state level that recognize the home languages as assets. Um, I don't know if we've come up with like specific policies that support it. I know that the bilingualism and multilingualism and the expansion of programs that support that are valued and encouraged.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, thank you so much for providing that information and um establishing learning a second language or being bilingual as the norm. And rather than question it how fast, you know, are you gonna be bilingual? Just accept how awesome it is to have this ability and extra skill that can take students and people to different an awesome career paths. Yeah. And what do you think needs to happen to its instruction though, to meet the needs of multilingual students? Oftentimes, especially at the high school, there's educators that maybe not in every district, but don't have their their ESL endorsement and they don't have the skills to support multilingual learners. And I I work as a high school and I see it often. And when I I spoke to Mary from ODE, I forgot her last name, but she said that there's research that ODE provided. I don't have the numbers with me, unfortunately. But across the board in Oregon, a lot of teachers don't have the skills or certificate, like the ESL endorsement, to work with or to have the ability to effectively work with multilingual learners. So if that's the case, then what does what do we need to do, or what is maybe the Beaverton School District doing and how does instruction need to evolve to meet the needs of multilingual students?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah, this is kind of like where a lot of my role and my job is is focused on is what needs to change, right, within within our district to meet the needs of our of our multilingual students. And you kind of mentioned one of them that's really, really big for us, and this is a shift that we feel really needs to happen, like really quickly. And then it would be nice if we got policies in place to make this happen. But here in Beaverton, we're we're trying to focus on how language acquisition or language development can no longer be viewed as just the responsibility of our ELD teachers and the teachers alone or the language acquisition specialists. I think I believe like the most effective systems recognize that every educator in the system or in a school is a language teacher, regardless of the content that you're teaching. And so, you know, teachers need to intentionally teach the language that, you know, the students need to access rigorous content while maintaining high academic expectations. And that could be done in any content area. So, like, for example, in math, the teachers, math teachers need to teach the language of math in order for students to be successful in that content area. And the same thing with science and social studies, but this idea that every teacher is is a language teacher, but that comes with the training. And so here in Oregon, we have what is called an ESOL endorsement. And so, how do we ensure that if if we can't get the state or the TSBC or you know, policies to be put in place where they require every teacher to have an ESOL endorsement, then what training do we have to provide here at the district level to ensure that all these teachers have like basic understanding of how to be language teachers? And so we are creating, we have best practices, like high-leverage language-rich strategies that we are that we are curating. And our hope is that if we if we can't push every teacher to get an ESOL endorsement, that's one pathway. And we're working with some university partners to create a program where teachers can get their ESL endorsement and maybe waive some courses so that they can accelerate that process. But then have these, you know, whether it be five or 10 high-leverage strategies that we then push out to all teachers and we train all teachers so that regardless of the content, that they understand what these language-rich strategies are that they can then incorporate into their practice. So that's kind of one instructional shift that we're we're really hoping to make in order for, you know, in order to meet the needs of our multilingual students. The other things are the other shifts that I think need to happen, can happen through those language-rich strategies. Like one of them is how how do we help educators not see multilingual learners as a deficit but as an asset? Another strategy is like, how do we encourage them and teach them how to translanguage more or allow students to translanguage more in the classroom? You know, rather than requiring students to just think and do and complete work exclusively in English, how can we encourage teachers to allow students to brainstorm, discuss, read, or draft ideas in multiple languages while gradually strengthening academic English. Yes, they need to do that. Um, how can we teach them more strategies, you know, for trans languaging? And then I think the last part that what has to shift in in instruction is is how to teach teachers how to use multimodal strategies to allow students to demonstrate understanding in multiple ways. We know that language is very complex, right? And it changes often and and it's it's so complex that you you need to use multimodal strategies in order for students to be successful. So sorry, I know that was a long-winded answer, but there's a there's a lot that needs to shift, a lot of around instruction that needs to evolve in order for multilingual students to be successful.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Yeah, I agree with you about the training as the biggest piece in the puzzle, I believe, in order to equip teachers to work with students, oftentimes they feel overwhelmed. And if they're overwhelmed and resources are tight, it's hard to get the support that they need to effectively support the students that are in need. Um, that was a great answer that you gave. Um, thank you so much for uh responding in an amazing way. Also, I was wondering what instructional practices do you believe will become standard in the future for multilingual classrooms? You touched a little bit on practices that every teacher should focus on. Uh is there anything else, any instructional practices that are going to be the norm? Or um we kind of talk about it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, yeah. If I had my magic wand and I'm like, okay, this is what I want to be like standard and like a long-term, long-term vision. And I think I think we'll get there in in the future. I think I mentioned, you know, trans languaging will become my my belief that translation trans languaging will become common practice. I think future classrooms will routinely encourage students to use that full linguistic repertoire. I think we're getting there. We have some practices in place, but I think, you know, to become standard, I think we will, we will get there. Like students will, you know, my vision is like students can read in one language, discuss ideas in another language, and then produce final products in English or multiple languages. You know what I mean? It's like the classroom will be so multifaceted and and and languages will be fluid, which I think would also help with student identity and sense of belonging, that um their their full linguistic repertoire is actually being utilized and valued in the classroom. So that's something that I that I hope can be standard one day. Um and I I think I see that in the future of multilingual education. The other thing that I think is so important, I think we're headed in that direction. I out I saw that California is also doing something like this where they're doing joint adoption with like language and literacy for like English language arts. I think they're they're doing a whole statewide actually integration. And I know that here in Beaverton, we've also done, we've been doing joint curriculum adoptions with like language arts. We did a joint language arts and an ELD adoption because language and literacy go, you know, go hand in hand. But we're also doing joint content and language adoption. So we did math last year and we made sure that the committee that was selecting math curriculum looked at data for English learners. They also created priorities that centered multilingual learners. They looked at rubrics from the state that centered multilingual learners, and they selected publishers and selected curriculum to review that had really good scaffolds for multilingual learners and digital tools as well. Um, and then the final selection of our math curriculum really was comprehensive and we feel will meet the needs of our multilingual learners. But a big part when you do content and language integration, like adoption, like that, is the professional development for teachers. And we feel like that's one in, like a one way that we can get in to provide that training that all teachers need, like all math teachers, for example, on how to incorporate language with content. So we use the Stanford math language routines, and we provided that professional development with the tool, the curriculum that we adopted. And we said, okay, here are the math language routines that you need to attach to that, to your math curriculum, because these are how your multilingual learners are going to access that content. And so we we have our next content adoption coming up. I think it's science and social studies. And so we're gonna do the same thing. We're gonna be right there at the table, making sure that we're breaking down that curriculum so that it's accessible to our students. So I think that's something that will be standard in the future, is that content and language integration and instruction will be fully integrated. And then what I'm hoping will be standard in the future is bioliteracy will be measured as an asset, like not just encouraged, but it actually will be measured and something that is valued and that will help propel more students to be um multilingual, bilingual, multilingual, whatever they choose. So how would it be measured? You know, in some states they measure, they have um assessments in both languages, or students can choose, oh, I'm more fluent in this language, you know, or state assessments, because right now our state assessments are all in English. Um, and we do have um we do have opportunities for students to see the um the assessment in in Spanish, for example. But to truly, you know, uh value biliteracy, bilingualism, students will have access to you know assessments in multiple languages.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Thank you for that answer. That was yeah, that was really uh well explained. In fact, I'm inspired for um ever since I started my teaching career, I've been working in the Tilamo School District, and this was back in 2017. And Tilamo School District is a rural district, and I've been exposed to a different kind of mentality and and practices like translanguaging were definitely not the norm, are still not um super common, except in the dual language program. But I remember the first time that it opened my eyes, and um I come from a a little bit of different different background on what it what it is to uh teach in schools with um diverse learners, rural versus suburban. Yeah. Um, what role do you think will technology play to accelerate language learner? Because right now we have AI and will uh you know, just not just AI, but technology is advancing just in the tools that students can use. And well, this is a two-part question. And how do districts ensure equity and access to technology? Because oftentimes it is uh students that have wealthy families or families that can afford that can pay those extra access, the extra access access to resources like that. So if you could talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, so yeah, technology has has it does have the potential to accelerate language learning in ways that, you know, when I was teaching many, many years ago were unimaginable, right? Even just like five years ago. I think it's just accelerated so much from in the last few years. At the same time, it does, it raises important questions about equity, access, privacy, and maybe the role of human relationships in learning, especially in language, in the acquisition of language that is very interaction-based, but it's also why it has become such a hot topic nationally, right? I'm here in Oregon, where it's how much technology is being used in the classroom. I know that it's it's a hot topic in in Oregon as well as in our district. It's really the conversation is really active. How do we incorporate AI and technology in the classroom? I think Oregon Department of Education does have some guidance around generative um AI in K-12 classrooms, but it's more around, you know, it's it encourages districts to establish like clear policies and engage families and consider equity implications, but and also the safe use of it, right? But that's because as far as it goes. But for multilingual students, it can be transformative if every student has reliable access to these devices. Connectivity is a really huge issue, digital tools as well, and then digital uh literacy support. So I think what can we do to make sure that to ensure equity and access to technology is that we must think beyond just simply providing a laptop or providing a Chromebook to students to take home? Equity includes some you know broadband access, multilingual family connection. Are families able to access that tool? How accessible are the features in that tool that you're providing to them? Um, do they have access to culturally responsive, you know, digital resources as well? And then do they get training, not just for educators, but do students get training on how to use the device or whatever you're providing to them? So I think to make it equitable, we have to make sure to not just provide the tool, but make sure that it meets the needs of all the families. And and we only do that by asking the families and going out there and ensuring that that tool would be able to be able to access. I know during the pandemic, we we had to provide some hotspots to families so that they would be able to use the tool and log in. So I think those are some of the things. It's the training for the students and the families, and also making sure that they're able to access that technology. And then how can we use the technology for good and to maximize, I think, their their time with human connection. But then how do you um for multilingual learners, how can they access the great things about the technology, especially the translation tools that could be very supportive to their language development for time, for a short time, right? We don't want them to be translating a lot once they start learning to acquire the language, and they can kind of just phase out that scaffold.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

So yeah, that's uh definitely a topic to be explored a little bit more with policy changes. I think it's pretty open, and many people have different beliefs and ideas on how technology should technology should be used in the classroom. And yeah, I agree with you. It should not just be used to translate 24-7 throughout your time at the high school, for example. It can be used like that often. For the next question I have are or is how does culturally sustaining practice look like in the next decade? Yeah, I think it's a good thing. I think you mentioned a little bit about what your hopes you were talking about your hopes, maybe. Maybe that your hope is what what culturally sustaining practice or multilingual learners can look like. I thought that what you mentioned was amazing. And I really like your vision.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

I think all of those still apply. The only thing I would probably add to that is it's how we celebrate cultures, you know, like it's not just celebrating cultures, you know, during special events, but more about building that educational system that that sustain the students' language, identities, and communities and ways of knowing. Like it just has to be something that is built into the fabric of your district and things that you do, you know, just seeing home languages through the lens of support and and how do we accommodate our students and our families. I think family engagement needs to also shift. I think if we're gonna do, if we're gonna talk about culturally sustaining practice, it's how do we engage families more authentically. You know, sometimes we call families in just to help make a decision, but we don't actually include them in a lot of the things that we do. So in the next decade, I think culturally sustaining practice will it will increasingly position families as partners, like true, true partners and co-designers of uh of those learning experiences for students. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

I also like the idea of tapping into their funds of knowledge in order and bring that in as they make decisions and they're part of how help or support looks like for them.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

What are what do you think are the non-negotiables for the future for future-ready multilingual programs?

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, I think I um, you know, kind of going through like my what are my hopes and dreams and um and some of those things, but I'll just uh reiterate them here because this is this is like really critical. Non-negotiables, especially for a director for multilingual programs. And I think one of them is is the first non-negotiable is just having every educator have that asset, asset based mindset. Like that's the first thing. You have to view every multilingual student as an asset, not that, and not assume that these students' languages are barriers to overcome. Their languages that they bring to the table are true assets. The other thing I would say is that programs that we design must maintain rigorous academic expectations while providing the language supports that students need to succeed. I think oftentimes our our programming our for language programming kind of waters down the content and the curriculum because we feel like, oh, if you have, you know, you don't have all of your language yet. That we need to simplify the demands for you. And I think we need to, a non-negotiable for us is is amplifying language and amplifying content and not watering down anything for our students and having those high expectations I think is really important. And then English proficiency alone cannot be just the finish line. We need to we need to ask of more like our kids can do a lot more. I think we need to a non-negotiable is that we need to build multilingual societies and be very intentional about that. And that takes a lot of planning and and just effort in in how how to go about doing that and expanding the programs for for students. So that's non-negotiable. Like it's not just about English acquisition and proficiency. We want our students to be bilingual, multilingual. And we want our students identities and cultures to and we want it to be acknowledged and valued as resources. And then families cannot just be viewed as recipients of information. Like I one like I talked about earlier in the in the previous question like I want to see them more as partners in shaping the programs and supporting you know their students, their children's success. And it just builds that strong family structure at home when would students see their their parents involved in some of those decision making. I think it does strengthen those those family bonds, which I think is very powerful for for a lot of our multilingual learners. And then we and we mentioned this earlier a non-negotiable at some point in the future in the near future no program will succeed without teachers, coaches and leaders who understand language acquisition. And so we need to invest in our educator capacity and make sure that every teacher is a teacher of language and that we have ESO endorsement for all. Like we need to get to a point where it's just a requirement. And then we also need to a non-negotiable and it's something that we do a lot here in Beaverton is we reevaluate the effectiveness of our programs. Like we don't just design an instructional program and sit back and hope that it all works out. We're constantly designing methodologies to analyze the impact of these programs, whether we hire outside researchers to do that or we do some of that research internally but that is a non-negotiable for us. We follow the Custometta versus Pickard law that requires us really to design effective programs, implement them with resources and then review and analyze the impact of it and so that you know what to change and what what not to change and what to keep doing. So that's a non-negotiable for sure for us. And then yeah just in general those are just all the things that I think are are non-negotiables it's just the asset-based thinking making sure that we're rigorous um culturally sustaining um and that family centered uh and then we focus on developing bilingual multilingual students um that are really prepared for you know a global society I think that's just something that we we we cannot allow ourselves to settle our students deserve so much more and they're capable of doing a lot more so thank you thank you for that was an excellent question I'm inspired you gave me a lot of information and that you know it's in my head but it's it's awesome to have or to speak to someone who thinks in a similar way.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

But for the last question that I have here what innovations or student stories make you optimistic about the future?

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah like yeah I like this question. I think the most inspiring trend is seeing students who arrive as newcomers. You know in Beaverton we do have a large number of uh recent arrivers the newcomer students that come in that have come in we also have programs like newcomer programs to support them and those are you know the student stories of them coming in as newcomers and then acquiring the language and being able to to be contributors of society and the communities that they live in those are those are always inspiring stories for me. In Beaverton specifically we we did a district highlight uh during our May board meeting that showed our recent arriver students graduating at rates significantly higher than the state average and in our former English learner data also we have our former English learners graduating at rates that exceed both the district and state all student graduation rates which is which is really really inspiring and I'm an optimistic at least for us we're hopeful that we will continue in this trajectory but you know these outcomes just remind us that multilingual living multilingualism is not a predictor of limitation. I think I I've been saying that throughout this whole podcast it is for us here in V Ration is also a predictor of that resilience that persistence and that they can succeed they can graduate at high rates if you support them throughout that throughout that process. So yeah and we also have a process where we allow world language credits based on languages that they learned at home. So students who pursue the skill of illiteracy for example they are able to get credits for high school and so those students demonstrate something powerful that that I am excited about is that they are not having to choose between their identities. They are learning how to thrive because of their multiple identities. So a lot of these students that receive that are able to take a you know test like the stamp tests and and get credits for that it's kind of showing them that your your first language is valued which I think is a great it's a great thing and it's something that it's just optimistic at least for me for a bright future especially for our multilingual learners. And then I think innovation when you talk about innovation or or student stories, you know technology, although it's a kind of a love-hate relationship right like it does have a positive it can make it possible to provide differentiated learning experiences for our students especially our multilingual learners but at the same time we don't want them just dependent on that we also want that human learning connection for them which I think is so important. So yeah there are so many things to be optimistic about but I think uh our our internal data our student stories seeing newcomers uh thrive in your district especially when you create opportunities for them to thrive just makes just makes it all worthwhile makes the work worthwhile I think yeah thank you so much I I agree with you uh it is often newcomers the ones that push themselves the hardest and have built that internal want and the internal drive to continue pushing themselves and supporting them just feels amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

You're definitely uh I'm with you on that point. All of the information that you gave today in this podcast was amazing. Thank you so much for uh spending a little bit of your time with me and for your flexibility. I really appreciate it. Do you want to say anything else for closing?

SPEAKER_01 28:57

No just thank you so much for the opportunity you know working with our our multilingual students is a huge passion of mine. I started out as a as an ESL teacher, Spanish teacher and I I fell in love with the students and with the whole um process of of them learning that language and supporting them in their journey to become bilingual, multilingual and it's something that I dedicated my whole professional career on in doing. And so it really is truly a passion of mine. And so I I'm just grateful that you have this podcast and that you're sharing the great work and um that it's focused on language. And I think we need to to get the word out more to to a vast um audience so that we can start making changes and seeing a bright future for not just Beaverton multilingual learners but for all multilingual learners.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

I agree yes uh this is uh my first um episode actually and um I will be posting it on Monday. Thank you so much.