Responding to linguistic diversity: schools adopt a 'blue pathway' mindset for improving instruction for all learners.
School Administrator › Vol. 65 Nbr. 10, November 2008
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Responding to linguistic diversity: schools adopt a 'blue pathway' mindset for improving instruction for all learners.
Whether you are a leader in an urban center serving tens of thousands of students or you are in charge of a small rural district and your leadership duties are on top of your teaching responsibilities, your students are changing.
If your district is like most, second language learners arrive throughout the year, at every grade level, with a variety of experiences and differing academic backgrounds. Responding to linguistic and cultural diversity, compounded by the challenges of race and class is complicated. It means accommodating the entire range of students, from monolingual English speakers to monolingual speakers of other languages and a variety of bilingual profiles in between. Though the demographics of public schools have shifted considerably over the past decade, for the most part districts have continued to organize instruction to address the needs of the average student, who is by implication middle class, native English-speaking and white. As a result, school leaders find themselves adapting policies and practices after the fact for students with diverging profiles. Nobody would build a school that wasn't wheelchair accessible...See the full content of this document
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