CHAPTER 9: On Making Language Visible: Reciprocal Learning in a Professional Development Alliance

With the passing of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and the 2002 Massachusetts law eliminating bilingual education (Willett & Rosenberger, 2005), overnight all educators in Massachusetts became responsible for the learning of the state’s English learners. However, this was an enormous task that school districts were neither able to comply with nor ready to confront. With new federal funds available through Title III, many school districts turned to the universities for help in designing professional development programs with a focus on both raising teachers’ awareness about the language needed to construct and display knowledge in their content areas and on teaching them how to make this language visible to their students.