# data[].attributes.body
Alongside the “mandatory” data that we are required to bring or enter into systems, I think that having descriptive narratives that give context to the student’s linguistic strengths in both languages goes a long way. Additionally, I think that it’s important to come guarded with questions to press into the practices that are readily accepted in the conversations. To interrupt the “analysis” of the data with questions surrounding the measures we are using and why they are being used is a powerful way to advocate for our students by discounting the measures that are meant to minimize their linguistic capabilities. -Meagan

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The diversity in experience that families bring with them to school is one way to acknowledge the humanity in our students. In recognizing students and families as individuals with different relationships to their first languages, I am able to get to know students for who they are. It is through this kind of careful “research” and understanding of each family and each student that I can best honor and amplify the ways that they are using all of their languages at school and at home. -Meagan

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"It matters who is at the table making decisions about curriculum and assessment and looking closely at data--across languages, across perspectives, and across research paradigms...The goal should be building an evidence-informed action plan for every reader, amplifying the voices of those who navigate multiple spheres and can bridge understandings and whose perspectives may be missing." (p. 315)

This quote stood out to me, because I think that it is easy to say that we want "emancipatory" pedagogy or that we are fighting for issues of equity and justice. Yet, at the end of the day, when we look at the people in power positions who are making decision that impact students, they are often white, often male, and often not representative of the groups that are most impacted by the decisions made at "the table." -Meagan

# data[].attributes.body
Data meetings are often so scripted and prescribed that I think one of the best ways we can advocate for our students with wide linguistic repertoires is bringing in artifacts, anecdotal assessment, and counter-narratives to the standardization of their growth. Flipping the script on the traditional data meeting and bringing in what we are actually using in the classroom as our data to inform our own instruction and track the student's growth. This works for an individual or few students, BUT to create more widespread change in perspective we need to really question and push back on what the purpose of data meetings are? Who are they serving? AND in doing this develop grounded, humanizing questions and language with our PLCs that hold everyone in the meeting accountable for viewing students as people.

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This will sound like an oversimplified answer but...build relationships with students and families. This process even though in its own name is individualized is becoming systematic while schools begin to standardize the process. We have to take time to truly build relationships with students and families and understand the ways in which their language repertoires interact with their day to day life in and outside of schools. When we have genuine connection and understanding we can then move forward in partnership with the students and families to create a space inclusive of their language experience.

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Collecting data and having these meetings or even dedicated days full of analyzing the results, always feels like another way to check off that to do list that someone is enforcing (whether at the administration level, district, or state level). Some of the ways I have advocated for my emergent bilinguals is bringing in my own data to counter the district assessments. I comply with checking off that item on the agenda where I bring in the BOY, MOY, or EOY data, but I also bring in various student samples of work. This is also something similar that I try to do during parent conferences. I usually present to parents the printed reports of the district mandated assessments, for example Istation or MAPGrowth. But I highlight to families that these ranges or labels printed on these computer generated reports (especially bar graphs of projected growth or at-risk label), do not represent their child as a learner.

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In thinking about how to value linguistic differences when I do not share the same language background as some families, I consider how my language can potentially enhance the parent/teacher relationship. If I come across as being the "expert" in my communication with families, I risk creating the idea that only my viewpoint is the be-all/correct way. If instead I create a partnership and base communications with openminded viewpoint, I can create a space for families with different language backgrounds from mine to feel valued.

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"Questions that can guide the ongoing dialogue about struc- tured literacy and underlying frameworks could be these: What studies and populations studied have backed up assertions about its effectiveness for emergent bilinguals? How are the instructional needs of emergent bilinguals dis- tinct from a more generic label such as at risk?"

When reading this part I immediately wrote these questions down on a sticky note for my "data binder". It was a reminder that we must come prepared with questions about why, for who, and what these conversations are moving toward. Often if you are pushing back in these meetings it is labeled as an "excuse" when realistically if we bring questions and more information to the table it can flip the conversation to a more productive and accurate representation of the readers at the center.

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"The goal should be building an evidence-informed action plan for every reader, amplifying the voices of those who navigate multiple spheres and can bridge understandings and whose perspectives may be missing." (p. 315)

Too often something that is promoted as "research based" or "intervention" yet is still not inclusive for all, especially those that such approaches are designed for. In considering inclusivity and equity, this quote resonated with me with its use of the language amplify and evidence-informed action plan. It's not enough to just identify the students that may need more support in literacy.

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I have found that as a teacher the only way I effectively demonstrate value amongst diverse families is by developing genuine relationships with students and their families.  These relationships grow through specific, positive conversations and interactions that are rooted in listening to and understanding the lived human experience of each child.  Conversations must be guided by positive acknowledgment of a student’s strengths and personal growth.  Taking time to create and maintain relationships can rid the asymmetrical power relationship and create a partnership between families and school.  This takes time, intentional effort, and an acknowledgment that lives outside of school enhance and are imperative to the academic experience.
Michelle

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“There is value in the aim and goals of structured literacy as a systematic and explicit instructional approach in foundational skills in English, but it would be a disservice to fully discard resources centered on meaning making that could help teachers understand emergent bilinguals’ language approximations and the ways they draw from their two languages when they read” (pg. 315).

This demonstrates that this is not an either-or conversation.  There is a time and place for explicit instruction, but it should never be at the cost of understanding and giving voice to a child’s specific literacy journey which encompass more than one language.  It is imperative to take away the binary lens that defines ‘effective’ literacy instruction within a narrow, linear tube and replace it with one that takes individual experiences into account while giving value to both languages during instruction and assessment.
Michelle

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I have found there is a dance that has to occur in order to properly advocate for emergent bilinguals in data meetings.  There is the beginning in which all required data is presented but it is of utmost importance that the conversational dance does not end there.  To prevent the hard stop which immediately places students into data boxes, individualized work samples which show strengths and growth must be presented. This must be well-organized and I must be able to talk quick and confidently as most meetings are only allotted time to organize numbers and not real, human experience.
Michelle

# data[].attributes.body
Although the entire tone of data meetings can be monotonous and defeating for both student and teachers efforts, coming prepared to show student work, anecdotal observations that display progress and skills in a variety of ways can help advocate for bilingual students. Recognizing the ways in which our assessments do not accurately represent these students unique assets along with providing specific examples of this work that happens daily in our classrooms can push back against administrators' sometimes narrow perspective of “data driven” decisions.

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I believe it is essential for educators to explore, learn and provide safe space to develop connections and trusting relationships with families. Create authentic, open lines of communication, value home language and linguistic practices within how you choose to communicate and how you speak about language learning with your students and their families. It is crucial for teachers to work towards creating partnerships- bringing families into the classroom, viewing them as an expert/teacher of native linguistic practices, their funds of knowledge- fostering respect for diverse representation. We must also purposefully utilize diverse texts in the classroom, encouraging students to share and bridge language learning.

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“It matters who is at the table making decisions about curriculum and assessment and looking closely at data—across languages, across perspectives, and across research paradigms. This is not an easy task, in what continues to be a very polarized discussion, where allegiances to approaches seem to force people to take sides (Gabriel, 2018). As I argued in this article, pushing for a single science or method is not enough. The goal should be building an evidence-informed action plan for every reader, amplifying the voices of those who navigate multiple spheres and can bridge understandings and whose perspectives may be missing.” (p.315) Drives home the point that our work advocating for our incredibly talented bilingual students and families is essential and continuing to build partnerships between communities, schools and stakeholders is necessary.

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Data meetings can often be a place where the whole child is ignored. Looking at one assessment or exit ticket typically doesn't tell the whole story of who the student is as a learner. When we show up to these meetings we have to know our students well enough to advocate for them. We can be ready to advocate for our students who are emergent bilinguals by having artifacts and observations ready to share so that administrators who do not know the child can better understand the child as well. I think we also have to  be ready to challenge the assessment tool that we analyze. What are the barriers to this assessment? How was this assessment helpful? What are some alternative assessments that might give us more meaningful information about our emergent bilingual students?

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Even if we don't share the same linguistic practices of our students, we more than likely learn about them as we get to know our students. I've found that once I know the languages that students speak at home, we can find ways to bring their language and/or cultural practices into the classroom. This could be through community circles where students share about their family traditions, language, or interests. We can also make sure our students see themselves in the books we read together. I had a student who began sharing his knowledge of Arabic after reading a book about Malala Yousafzai. This meant that I had to create space for the student to be able to share with his class community and from that, more students wanted to share about other languages they speak at home. We have to take time and create space during the school day for students to bring in their own funds of knowledge, even if it's not in the "lesson plan".

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"Historically, the school engagement of  Latinx and immigrant families has been shaped by asymmetrical power relationships, in the ways school administrators and teachers position parents and their contributions—in some cases, minimizing immigrant parents’ roles to that  of  learners  who  need  guidance  and  language  instruction  to be able to support reading at home (Baquedano-López, Alexander, & Hernandez, 2013)" (p. 310)

We have to get rid of the narrative that a parent who may not be proficient in English is unable to help their child be successful in school. Seeing parents through an asset-based lens is as critical and can help flip the experience children and their parents have with the education system.

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We can advocate for our students in data meetings by bringing our own work samples, as well as notes on qualitative and formative assessments. These types of assessments can showcase the language and literacy strengths that bilingual students have across languages. Showing the work that students are capable of across languages, highlights the brilliant and complex work that our learners are capable of... instead of focusing on the results of a monolingual test that only shows a portion of what they are capable of. As teachers collaborate with families and communities, teachers could also bring in artifacts that highlight family and community participation in learning as further evidence of the meaningful work taking place- work that cannot be captured by a quantitative assessment.

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Educators can value diverse linguistic practices by building relationships with families. Regarless of if educators share the same lingusitic/cultural background, building relationships provides an opportunity for educators and family's to learn from one another. Families are diverse in many ways, and even families with the same cultural or linguistic backgrounds will have differences. Taking the time to get to know parents, families, and community members is a great way to develop understanding and appreciation for ways of knowing and being that may be different from their own. Building strong relationships also allows teachers to learn about various funds of knoweldge that community members hold. In order to effectively utilize funds of knowledge, a teacher must have a strong relationship and understanding of the family in order to bring that knowledge and understanding into their curriculum and classroom.

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"Emergent bilingual students, older siblings, parents, and other caregivers have important contributions to make about ways to demonstrate their (bi)literacy knowledge, represent their full linguistic repertoires in assessment, and co-construct goals for home–school literacy connections, in addition to and in dialogue with the teachers and families of children experiencing reading difficulties" (p. 315).

I found this quote to be powerful because it centers the voices of emergent bilingual students and their families. It reminds us as educators that we are partners with families. We must treat parents, siblings, and community members as experts that have valuable funds of knowldge to share with their children, their peers, and with the education world at large. This frame of thinking disrupts white supremacy and typical power dynamics found in the U.S. education system. It honors culturally and lingusitically diverse families as co-creators and co-constructors of knoweldge.

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I hate data meetings with a passion because students are often looked at as numbers and statistics. In order to advocate for students in these settings, we must humanize our students and offer data showing the whole child-- not just data from arbitrary assessments. This means lots of qualitative data, observational notes, sample work, etc.

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One thing I love about my school is the incredible linguistic diversity among the students and families. It's important to build relationships with families even if you do not share the same language background. I also try to bring family and community members into the classroom by any means! Mystery readers (visits to read a story) are a great opportunity for loved ones to share books with the class and I've had parents in the past choose to read a story that was in one language or incorporated a second language into the main body of text that was English. This year has just been such a mess I never really got to do this... but NEXT year, I'm hoping to also encourage students to incorporate home languages in their multimodal activities-- such as audio recordings on seesaw, dramatic play, reading, and writing. My hope would be to share this meaningful work with  families in the hopes that they would see their home languages honored in the classroom.

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"As teachers, schools, and districts design plans and

adopt resources to provide equitable, high-quality literacy

instruction to students with diverse needs, linking discussions

of the science of reading/structured literacy with

the scholarship described in this article can be a complex

endeavor. Yet, recruiting multiple stakeholders in these

conversations, with a common goal in mind, may be a

fruitful first step. It matters who is at the table making

decisions about curriculum and assessment and looking

closely at data—across languages, across perspectives, and across research paradigms." (pg. 315)

This quote stuck out to me because it's so important to make sure that there are a variety of voices at a decision making table that effect students.