I had the honor and privilege of attending and presenting at the National Association of Bilingual Education’s (NABE) 54th Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia last week. It was a heartfelt and emotional conference. I love the power of educators. They are fierce, strong, and righteous, and there’s nothing they won’t do to support their students, especially when combining bilingual education and linguistic diversity.

National Association of Bilingual Education Conference Highlights

Here are some of the amazing messages that were shouted from the mountaintop. To kick it off, school children of all ages from the Atlanta schools sang, danced, and offered a land recognition. They came from many different cultures and spoke many different languages. A first grade girl, who spoke Mandarin as her first language, ended their portion of the presentation by thanking the educators and saying, 

“We have all come from different places to learn together.”

I’m not sure there was a dry eye in the house. The cultural and linguistic diversity was shining in that group of children.

Student Diversity is Celebrated

This is a conference where linguistic diversity is cherished and celebrated, and the importance of bilingual education is shared. There were 175 languages represented at the conference with people coming from 48 of the 50 United States and 24 countries and territories. Now, that’s diversity. And diversity is powerful! We need to embrace linguistic diversity and show how it is a true asset in education and in life.

Brian Johnson, Superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools, reminded us that the kids are the reason we are here doing the work we are doing. These kids have so much potential. These kids are our future. He also talked about the importance of linguistic diversity and bilingual education, recognizing the superpower that comes with bilingualism. .

We have some pretty amazing individuals in the education world. One NABE award recipient, was Ms. Monserrat Garibay, who shared her family’s story of coming to the United States when she was an adolescent. Monserrat shared a picture of herself on her first day of school in the United States.

She was a young girl who spoke no English. She was scared and intimidated. With the support of some incredible teachers, she persevered. And I mean PERSEVERED! She graduated top of her class and went on to serve in the Biden Administration’s Department of Education in the Office of English Language Acquisition. She was given a great educational opportunity, and she has done amazing things to promote linguistic diversity and support the educational trajectories of many, many school children.

The United States is a Leader in Serving Students with Special Needs

The United States has long been a leader in the field of education. Throughout my 30-year career as a speech-language pathologist, I have had the incredible opportunity to work with children in El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Belize, and the Dominican Republic. In so many countries, parents who have children with special needs DO NOT HAVE OPTIONS. They do not have school laws like IDEA, that guarantee a free and appropriate education for all.

Many families have to have one parent give up any job or career they had to care for their special needs child. And this comes at a great expense to the rest of their families, in terms of resources and emotional capacity. For those who have never had the opportunity to care for a special needs child, I can tell you that it takes tremendous patience, and it takes a village. It is not a one-person job. And In the educational system in the United States of America, we support special needs students and their families!

When Students are Scared, Attendance Drops and Learning Declines

The National Association of Bilingual Education supports students who speak languages other than English as their primary language. This is another group that fears changes. So many educators I spoke with over the course of the conference shared that student attendance is down and student engagement is down. Many shared that their students’ family members had  been detained—some who are in the country legally. This has driven anxiety and fear in students across the nation, and we all know that anxiety and fear can impede academic achievement.

Joe Bernal Honored

In the opening ceremony of the NABE conference, Joe Bernal. Joe was a passionate advocate for bilingual education and linguistic diversity in schools, dedicating his life to ensuring that students from diverse language backgrounds had access to equitable educational opportunities. As a Texas state legislator and educator, Bernal played a pivotal role in the passage of the Bilingual Education Act in Texas, which helped expand bilingual programs and support for English learners. His work focused on breaking down language barriers in education, promoting policies that recognized the value of multilingualism, and empowering communities to embrace cultural and linguistic diversity. Through his leadership, Bernal helped shape a more inclusive educational system, leaving a lasting impact on generations of students and educators.

A Focus on Supporting Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Students we Serve

While at NABE, I had the opportunity to present with Kari Kurto, National Science of Reading Director at The Reading League. Kari is an incredible educator who has built amazing resources of research-based supports for educators on the topic of literacy. This was our third conference to collaborate together and our second presentation together. We talked about building on the assets of our multilingual students to promote language and literacy development alongside linguistic diversity.

Kari kicked off our presentation sharing the vast body of peer-reviewed literature on reading. She shared Information from the Joint Statement between the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) and The Reading League. The Joint Statement emerged from the need to bridge the gap between bilingual education advocates and the structured literacy movement. For years, tensions existed between proponents of bilingual and dual-language programs and those advocating for evidence-based reading instruction, particularly the Science of Reading framework. Recognizing the shared goal of improving literacy outcomes for all students, especially multilingual learners, NABE and The Reading League initiated discussions to find common ground. These conversations culminated in a joint statement that acknowledges the importance of both structured literacy and bilingual education in fostering strong reading skills while respecting linguistic diversity.

In our presentation, we focused on how educators can best support multilingual students by understanding the language backgrounds they come from. We provided resources to help educators do this. And we reminded educators that bilingualism is an asset and linguistic diversity makes our schools and communities more rich. In sharing ways we can build upon the assets of home languages and engage in explicit literacy instruction, we built on one of the important themes of the NABE conference…that Bilingualism is a Superpower!

Why is it Important to Consider a Student’s First Language?

After our presentation I sat next to someone who asked, “Why should teachers have to do this if English is the language we speak in the United States?” I took a deep breath and answered . I shared, first, that our nation is built on diversity–both linguistic diversity and cultural diversity, and that is what makes it so rich. I also shared that if we don’t take a student’s home language into consideration, we risk putting them into special education programs, which is costly for the school districts and for the student. The school districts spend more money per student for those requiring special education services. The student ends up on an educational trajectory that may limit their potential. That’s not good for anyone.

I’ve bundled a lot of experiences and emotions into this post, and that was certainly the experience of emotions felt at the NABE conference.. I’ll leave you with this. As a country, we benefit from a good education system that allows ALL children the opportunity to maximize their potential and contribute to society. Educators unite. Let’s fight for our students and their families so that ALL students have the opportunity to learn, and ALL families feel supported.

More Information about the National Association of Bilingual Education

The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for educational equity and excellence for bilingual and multilingual students in the United States. Founded in 1975, NABE works to promote policies, programs, and practices that support bilingual education and language diversity. The organization provides professional development opportunities, conducts research, and collaborates with educators, policymakers, and communities to ensure that students from diverse linguistic backgrounds have access to high-quality education. Through its conferences, publications, and advocacy efforts, NABE plays a vital role in advancing bilingual education and empowering educators to foster multilingual proficiency and cultural understanding.