In The Spotlight

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition Begins New Contract

The George Washington University, edCount, LLC, and Barrera Associates, Inc., are pleased to announce that their team has been awarded the contract to operate the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA) on behalf of the Office of English Language Acquisition at the U.S. Department of Education effective June 23, 2008.

Dr. Jack Levy of GWU will continue to serve as the Director of NCELA and will be joined in leading this work by Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Joel Gomez of GWU and Dr. Ellen Forte of edCount, LLC.

NCELA's mission is to capture, coordinate, and disseminate a broad range of resources in support of an inclusive approach to high quality education for ELLs. This mission translates into an operational framework encompassing five substantive service areas:

1. English language proficiency standards and assessments: Resources and services related to the systems of standards that guide instruction for and assessment of English language development.
2. Inclusion in academic assessment systems: Resources and services related to alternate assessments and accommodation options for ELLs taking academic content assessments.
3. Accountability: Resources and services related to systems for evaluating the effectiveness of programs that serve ELLs.
4. Professional Development and Support for Curriculum and Instruction: Resources and services related to best practices for instruction of ELLs and the provision of professional development and technical assistance for state and local educators.
5. Administration of Title III programs: Resources and services related to the interpretation and implementation of Title III program requirements.

Under the new contract, NCELA will be offering a range of new opportunities for educators to engage with research and new developments in the field.

Conferences
NCELA will be beginning a series of monthly interactive Web conferences hosted by experts in the field of English language learning. Our first Web conference, Defining Academic English Language, will be hosted by Dr. Robin Scarcella on August 21, 2008.

Many of you have written to us telling us that you very much appreciated the past five years of OELA Summits. Beginning in October, NCELA will be offering a series of smaller conferences throughout the year. Our first meeting is the 2008 LEP Partnership Meeting [pdf], to be held October 15-16, 2008, in Washington, DC. Additional conference opportunities will be announced throughout the year.

As always, we will continue to make available information about outside conferences and educational opportunities in the field of English language learning on NCELA's conference calendar. The most recent additions can be viewed on our home page; the full list of conferences can be seen on the searchable calendar page.

News from NCELA: The NCELA-list
This is the final installment of Newsline as you have come to know it. Beginning next week, Newsline will be migrating to an email-only format. NCELA will still be delivering all of the high-quality content that you have come to expect from Newsline, but in ways designed to make accessing the content easier for our readers.

The NCELA-list will be dedicated to announcements of interest to our subscribers from NCELA and OELA. Federal grants and regulations, NCELA conferences and meetings, and other time-sensitive announcements from OELA and NCELA will be delivered through the NCELA-list.

Newsline subscribers will be automatically transferred to the NCELA-list. Announcements on managing your subscription will appear shortly.

NCELA's Quarterly Newsletter
Beginning in the fall, NCELA will be debuting its new quarterly newsletter. The newsletter will offer articles by leading experts on instructional strategies for ELLs, and will showcase best practices from schools and districts around the nation. The newsletter will also announce new resources and research in the field of ELL education.

As always, you can contact NCELA via askncela@gwu.edu.

source: [ The OELA Newsline from NCELA ]