Stela and Miguel bring deep knowledge of how school districts work — and what works for them — developed through decades of experience working at scale as educators, district leaders, and change agents in the largest and most linguistically diverse school district in the United States. Collectively, they have designed efforts to support educators and schools that span all grade levels and content areas. Yet, particularly noteworthy is the deep knowledge that this team brings of how to support multilingual youth and their educators in creating classrooms that offer equitable opportunities for language learning.
Emily Phillips Galloway, Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University, Peabody School of Education
Stela and Miguel are accomplished educators with extensive experience in developing tailored instructional programs for multilingual learners in the largest school district in the nation. Their expertise lies in innovating educational strategies on a large scale, and they are driven by a strong belief in the potential and unique contributions that multilingual learners offer to the educational landscape. From advocating for multilingual learners’ needs and designing effective professional learning opportunities for educators, Miguel and Stela are true visionaries in building supportive environments for multilingual learners.
Richard Carranza, Former New York City Chancellor
Working on the redesign of schools so that they serve all their students, especially English Learners, with quality and equity is hard work that requires deep knowledge and commitment. Stela and Miguel bring to the task their expertise developed over many years of working critically at different levels of the system. They understand that context matters, and that improvement plans cannot be standardized, but have standards that need to be situated in the specific. Both bring a vision of excellence for all educators, district and school leaders, teachers, other educational personnel, and centrally for students, rich in resources and potential. I have always been impressed by their reflective, critical, and generative ideas, and I celebrate their decision to work with schools and communities as the leaders of a team that has tested their ideas extensively and has what is needed to make significant impact.
Aida Walqui, Director and PI, National Research and Development Center, WestEd
