UC Davis experts: Bilingual education

The University of California, Davis, has campus experts available to provide commentary related bilingual education. If you are looking for sources on any additional education- or linguistic-related topics, please contact Julia Ann Easley, News Service, (530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu or Claudia Morain, News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu.

Special Education Efforts

Richard Figueroa, a professor of education at UC Davis who focuses on bilingual special education. If bilingual education is eliminated from California's public schools, he says, many children will be wrongly diagnosed as mildly retarded or learning disabled simply because they don't speak English well enough. Figueroa, co-author of the book "Bilingualism and Testing: A Special Case of Bias," advises the Los Angeles Unified School District on how to provide special education for children who are from Hispanic and potentially bilingual families. Contact, Richard Figueroa, Education, (530) 752-6293, (fluent Spanish speaker) rafigueroa@ucdavis.edu.

English as a Second Language

Mary Schleppegrell, associate professor of linguistics. She can discuss the challenges children face when comprehending written, as opposed to oral, language. In addition to publishing research on the topic of teaching English as a second language, she is a consultant on language issues in environmental education. Her teaching interests include second-language acquisition. Contact: Mary Schleppegrell, Linguistics, (530) 752-3209, mjschleppegrell@ucdavis.edu.

Economic Issues

Patricia Gandara, professor of education at UC Davis and director of the university's Education Policy Center, a part of the UC-wide Linguistic Minority Research Institute. She says the failure of California schools to educate young immigrants may have to do more with economics than a second language. She says 39 percent of them are born into poverty, and their families, which are under economic stress, move a lot. Gandara also says there is a great deal of inconsistency in the education students receive because schools offer such different programs. She is author of "Over the Ivy Walls, the Educational Mobility of Low Income Chicanos" and "Paving the Way to Higher Education, K-12 Interventions for Underrepresented Youth. " Contact: Patricia Gandara, Education, (530) 752-8262, (fluent Spanish speaker) pcgandara@ucdavis.edu.

Historical Perspectives

Lenora Timm, linguistics professor at UC Davis and an expert in bilingualism, particularly the value of bilingualism. She researches multilingual and bilingual societies and can discuss global and historical perspectives on bilingualism. Contact Lenora Timm, Linguistics, (530) 752-4540, latimm@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts:

Julia Ann Easley, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu
Claudia Morain (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu

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Last updated January 22, 2004