Dr. Dayana Philippi

“Often, parents of English Language Learners (ELLs) only receive phone calls home to inform them of academic concerns or negative incidents. What’s more, novice teachers may be nervous about calling parents who themselves are limited English proficient (LEP), so teachers put it off. Through the EchoED program, we flip this pattern of under-acknowledgment and lopsided communication on its head and recognize students who demonstrate competencies in SEL. The project, which introduces SEL to the multilingual/multicultural community, helps educators and families connect and engaged in collaborative relationships by highlighting students’ social and developmental growth through communications in the home language.”