Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast

Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast

A nonprofit organization for educators, families, and policy makers.

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Advocacy
Massachusetts Advocacy

LEGISLATION

An Act relative to educator diversity - PASSED in 2024

An Act Relative to the Training, Assessment, and Assignment of Qualified School Interpreters in Educational Settings (H.485; Rep. Cabral/S.21083; Sen. Crighton)
Creates standards and competencies for the training, hiring, and use of interpreters in educational settings in order to provide limited English proficient (LEP) parents and students with competent interpretation services, as required by federal and state law.

An Act Relative to Affirming and Maintaining Equal Access to Public Education for all Children (H.650: Rep. Moran and Rep. Peisch/S1208: Sen. Payano and Sen. DiDomenico)

Many longstanding education rights are in jeopardy for English learners, immigrant students, and students with disabilities. HD 2144/SD 1208 would preserve key federal protections in education and affirm the Commonwealth’s commitment to educational equity. Without this bill, any rollback of federal law or guidance could negatively impact students’ rights in Massachusetts.

An Act expanding student access to the State Seal of Biliteracy (H. 629: Rep. Jack Patrick Lewis)

This bill will amend the current law to allow other assessments in addition to 10th grade ELA MCAS to fulfill the criteria for English language proficiency for the State Seal of Biliteracy.

An Act Relative to Bilingual Educators and Dual Language Certification Incentives (H.3947)

The bill supports multiple financial incentives to increase the number of qualified bilingual educators leading to improved student performance, such as funding capacity of districts and IHEs to ensure highly qualified educators.

MABE's Written Testimony Submitted September 2023 - MABE enthusiastically supports this bill!

ADVISORY BOARDS

MABE Board members are representatives on the following education advisory councils:

INITIATIVES

Bilingualism is a gift! An initiative by the Watertown Public School encouraging families to use their home language everyday (poster to the right).
¡Vive Bilingüe! a campaign by Worcester State University's Latino Education Institute (posters at end of page).

TEACHING LICENSES

MASSACHUSETTS Bilingual Education Endorsement (BEE)

COALITIONS, PARTNERSHIPS, & WORKING GROUPS

Language Opportunity Coalition (LOC)
Coalition for Equity, Diversity, and Disability (CEDD)
DLE School Accountability Working Group

Includes MCAS advocacy work and updates

Citizens for Public Schools

In June 2022, MABE and other speakers, presented at their series "Race & Education: Latinx Students" (recording and slideshow).

SEAL OF BILITERACY

If your MA school/district plans to celebrate the linguistic diversity of students by awarding Language Opportunity Coalition (LOC) Biliteracy Pathway Certificates in the 2024-25 School Year, please complete this online registration form. After awarding the LOC Biliteracy Pathway Certificates, please complete this data collection survey.

UPDATE: Starting 2025, LOC is opening the Biliteracy Pathway Awards to all states in the region.

Language Opportunity Coalition Biliteracy Pathway Awards

An award program overseen by the Massachusetts Language Opportunity Coalition (LOC) that can be awarded in addition to the official MA State Seal of Biliteracy.

The LOC created a Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) Workgroup, a strong, enduring collaboration of world language (MaFLA), dual language (MABE), and English language learning (MATSOL) professional teacher organizations and conducted a pilot over three years (2015-2018) before passing legislation to develop a multi-tiered award structure for the SoBL and parameters for implementation in districts in the state. The pilot involved the cooperation and input of leaders and teachers of all language learning program types and levels; world language, dual language education, transitional bilingual education, immersion, English language education, elementary, middle, high school, and university.

The LOC Biliteracy Pathway Awards are designed for students and schools who do not meet the state criteria such as:

School districts that want to award FUNCTIONAL biliteracy at the Intermediate–Mid level of proficiency
School districts that want to award emerging bilingualism and biliteracy for students at the Novice level of proficiency in elementary school OR for students with disabilities
Independent schools whose students do not take MCAS

Seal of Biliteracy Pilot

The chapter - A Collaborative Model for Seal of Biliteracy Implementation: The Massachusetts Pilot Project, written by the LOC Co-Leaders Nicole L Sherf, Phyllis R. Hardy, and Helen Solorzano can be found in the text The Seal of Biliteracy, Case Studies and Considerations for Policy Implementation, Edited by: Amy J. Heineke, Loyola University Chicago and Kristin J. Davin, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.