Our Team
Our team of experts have decades of experience in all aspects of English Learner education. WestEd, the lead institution for the Center, has partnered with a world-class research team from three universities: the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA.
National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners
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Aída Walqui, PhD
CENTER DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Walqui is the Center Director and Principal Investigator for all four studies. For the last five decades, Dr. Walqui has dedicated her professional life to improving the expertise of teachers and educational leaders to deepen and accelerate the linguistic and academic achievement of English Learners.
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Having taught at all levels, Walqui is the author and co-author of multiple articles and books, including The Amplified Curriculum: Designing Quality Learning Opportunities for English Learners, published by Teachers College Press, and Reconceptualizing the Role of Critical Dialogue in American Classrooms: Promoting Equity through Dialogic Education, published by Routledge. At WestEd, Dr. Walqui initiated the Quality Teaching for English Learners initiative. Among the several awards received during her career, in 2016 she was selected by the International TESOL Association as one of the 50 most influential world researchers in applied linguistics. A native of Perú, Dr. Walqui holds a PhD from Stanford University.
The Center will draw on the expertise of distinguished researchers on English Learner education to provide sound advice and feedback.
Coursetaking Study
Li Cai, PhD
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Cai serves as the Co-Principal Investigator on the Coursetaking study. He is Professor of Advanced Quantitative Methodology at the University of California, Los Angeles and is Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, which houses ELPA21.
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Cai has contributed broadly to the educational measurement and statistical methodology literature, with over 100 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and reports covering a broad span of item response theory, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, statistical computation, and substantive topics in psychological and educational measurement. Dr. Li holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Karen Thompson, PhD
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Thompson serves as the Co-Principal Investigator on the Coursetaking study. She is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Oregon State University and has extensive experience partnering with education agencies to analyze longitudinal data that affect EL policy and practice.
Since 2014, she has led an EL-focused research-practice partnership with the Oregon Department of Education, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and the Spencer Foundation. She has conducted research about secondary math coursetaking for students who were currently, formerly, or never English Learners in seven California districts. Dr. Thompson holds a PhD from Stanford University.
Ilana Umansky, PhD
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Umansky serves as the Co-Principal Investigator on the Coursetaking study. She is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oregon. Her work explores how education policy impacts the educational opportunities and outcomes of immigrant, multilingual, and English learner-classified students using large-scale data and longitudinal and quasi-experimental methods. She often works in research-practice partnerships with states and districts to advance equitable school systems for immigrant and multilingual students. Dr. Umansky holds a PhD from Stanford University.
Co-Teaching Study
Amanda Kibler, PhD
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Kibler serves as Co-Principal Investigator on the Co-Teaching study. She is a Professor in the College of Education at Oregon State University and has extensive experience in qualitative and mixed-methods research focused on the classroom experiences of secondary English Learners and their teachers.
A former ESL teacher at the secondary level, she has served as Principal Investigator on several grants including one from the William T. Grant Foundation on peer interaction in middle school classrooms with English Learners. She presents regularly at international conferences for practitioners (e.g., TESOL, AAAL) and has published extensively in the field of multilingualism and secondary English Learner education. Dr. Kibler holds a PhD from Stanford University.
Martha Castellón Palacios, PhD
CO-INVESTIGATOR AND DIRECTOR OF CAPACITY BUILDING & OUTREACH
Dr. Castellón Palacios serves as Co-Investigator on the Co-Teaching study and leads the Center’s capacity building and outreach efforts. She is a Senior Program Associate at WestEd, where she provides technical assistance to states and districts.
With expertise in second language acquisition teaching and research, she has led several professional development efforts for teachers and administrators and has served as a reviewer of English Learner programs and services throughout the country. Dr. Castellón Palacios holds a PhD from Stanford University.
ELA Study
Lee Hartman, MA
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST
Lee Hartman is an English Language Arts and English Language Development Specialist on the Educative English Language Arts Curriculum Materials study. He is a Senior Program Associate on WestEd’s English Learner and Migrant Education Services team. He creates and implements learning experiences for ELA and ELD educators in 4th through 12th grade schools through professional development and lesson design.
Previously, he served as an ESL instructional coach to teachers working with English Learners and was responsible for creating and implementing secondary ELA and ESL curricula. A former teacher of secondary students, he specializes in the education of language minority students with a particular emphasis on Newcomers.
Mary Schmida, PhD
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Schmida is Co-Investigator on the Educative English Language Arts Curriculum Materials study. She is a Senior Research Associate at WestEd and has deep expertise in designing educative ELA curricula for English Learners and in designing and delivering quality professional learning opportunities for educators who work with English Learners.
Dr. Schmida was previously a reading and writing instructor in College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley and also served as the Dean of Academics at a public school in Richmond, CA. Dr. Schmida holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Aída Walqui, PhD
CENTER DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Walqui is the Center Director and Principal Investigator for all four studies. For the last five decades, Dr. Walqui has dedicated her professional life to improving the expertise of teachers and educational leaders to deepen and accelerate the linguistic and academic achievement of English Learners.
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Having taught at all levels, Walqui is the author and co-author of multiple articles and books, including The Amplified Curriculum: Designing Quality Learning Opportunities for English Learners, published by Teachers College Press, and Reconceptualizing the Role of Critical Dialogue in American Classrooms: Promoting Equity through Dialogic Education, published by Routledge. At WestEd, Dr. Walqui initiated the Quality Teaching for English Learners initiative. Among the several awards received during her career, in 2016 she was selected by the International TESOL Association as one of the 50 most influential world researchers in applied linguistics. A native of Perú, Dr. Walqui holds a PhD from Stanford University.
Math Study
Haiwen Chu, PhD
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Chu serves as the Co-Principal Investigator on the Educative Math Curriculum Materials study. He is a Senior Research Associate at WestEd and specializes in secondary mathematics education. In this role, he designs educative curriculum materials that expand the expertise of mathematics teachers to support their English Learners.
Dr. Chu has expertise in mixed-methods research design, research-practice partnerships, and longitudinal data analysis.
He publishes widely in venues that reach both practitioners and researchers in mathematics education. Dr. Chu holds a PhD from the City University of New York.
Leslie Hamburger, MA
CO-INVESTIGATOR
Leslie Hamburger serves as Co-Investigator on the Educative Math Curriculum Materials study. She is Vice President of K–12 Systems for WestEd overseeing a portfolio of services that includes English Learners and Migrant Education, Quality Schools and Districts, Education Leadership, and Assessment for Learning.
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Her areas of expertise include English Learner pedagogy, mathematics curriculum, and professional learning for teachers of English and dual language learners. She has been a school and district administrator in high-poverty, diverse schools and facilitates professional development for school and district leaders, coaches, and teachers.
Center Staff
Patricia López-Hurtado
PROGRAM ASSISTANT
Patricia López-Hurtado contributes to the Center’s capacity-building and outreach efforts and is responsible for the Center’s web and social media presence. She serves as Program Assistant for WestEd’s English Learner and Migrant Education Services, where she designs and produces print and online materials, in both Spanish and English, for audiences of teachers, students, policymakers, and others.
Advisory Board
Carol Booth Olson
Carol Booth Olson is Director of the UCI/National Writing Project, Director of the WRITE Center for Secondary Students, and is Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine. She is an expert in the teaching of academic writing to English Learners and takes a cognitive strategies approach to teaching text-based analytical writing. Olson has edited three books, including Practical Ideas for Teaching Writing as Process; She is also the author of Helping English Learners to Write: Meeting the Common Core Standards, Grades 6-12 and The Reading/Writing Connection: Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Classroom, now in its second edition.
Joseph Cimpian
Joseph Cimpian is Professor of Economics and Education Policy at New York University. His research focuses on understanding the patterns and causes of social and educational inequities, and then identifying policy and practice solutions for removing barriers and promoting equity. His research has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Cimpian’s peer-reviewed research has been published in Science, JAMA Pediatrics, Child Development, the American Journal of Public Health, Educational Researcher, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, among many other journals. He is a recipient of a Spencer Foundation/National Academy of Education Dissertation Fellowship, and subsequently, a Spencer/NAEd Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Cynthia E. Coburn
Cynthia E. Coburn is Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at the School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the relationship between instructional policy and teachers’ classroom practices in urban schools, illuminating the critical issues that face public schools, including the relationship between policy and teachers’ translation of those policies in classrooms. A prolific writer, Coburn was awarded the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association in the first decade of her career in recognition of her contributions to the field of educational research.
Ester de Jong
Ester de Jong is Professor and program leader in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education program at the University of Colorado Denver. Prior to UC Denver, she was the Director of the School of Teaching and Learning and Professor in ESOL/Bilingual Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. de Jong was President of TESOL International Association (2017-2018). Her research interests include two-way bilingual education and other integrated models for language minority schooling, educational language policy, and teacher preparation for bilingual students. She is co-editor of the book Learning from Emergent Bilingual Latinx Learners in K-12.
Peggy Estrada
Peggy Estrada is an associate research scientist in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on promoting positive academic achievement and social-emotional development among culturally and linguistically diverse children and adolescents, with a special focus on English Learner and Latino students. In partnership with districts, she answers field-, policy-, and practice-relevant questions using a sociocultural lens and mixed methods. Early in her career, Estrada was a preschool teacher and a public school teacher for migrant education in rural northern California.
Kenji Hakuta
Kenji Hakuta is the Lee J. Jacks Professor of Education emeritus at Stanford University. An experimental psycholinguist by training, he is noted for his research, practice, and policy work. Hakuta is the author of numerous papers and books, including Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism and In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second Language Acquisition. Hakuta’s career has been guided by the principle of using research to create quality, equitable opportunities for language minoritized students, exemplified in his founding of the Understanding Language Initiative to inform the design and use of new standards with English Learners.
Gabriela Uro
Gabriela Uro is the Director for English Language Learner Policy and Research for the Council of the Great City Schools, where she is responsible for all matters pertaining to English Language Learners (ELLs). As part of the legislative team, she works on legislative matters relevant to ELLs, both with Capitol Hill and the Administration. She is the lead for Strategic Support Teams reviewing ELL programs in Council districts, and provides technical assistance, as needed. She is the Council’s lead for ELL issues related to the implementation of new state standards.
Guadalupe Valdés
Guadalupe Valdés is Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education at Stanford University. During her influential career she has researched issues of bilingualism, language use in families and communities, language assessment, giftedness in bilingual students, and the tensions of classifying and labelling students studying in intercultural, multilingual settings. Among her many books are two classics in the literature, Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait, and Learning and Not Learning English: Latino Students in American Schools. A prolific writer, she has also authored and co-authored over 130 articles.