UNT Dallas dean co-chairing national conference
DALLAS— The dean of the Division of Education and Human Services at the University of North Texas at Dallas will serve as co-chair of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) conference in Dallas Feb. 15-17.
Sheryl Santos-Hatchett, who joined UNT Dallas as dean in 2010, said the conference will draw more than 2,000 participants from across the United States. She expects the “extremely relevant and critical” conference to focus on emerging demographic trends in the country that affect education.
“NABE is a professional educational organization dedicated to achieving academic excellence and equity for English language learners and others through bilingual education and bi-literacy for all,” Santos-Hatchett said.
“This annual conference provides educators, university professors, trustees, policy makers, parents, administrators, and future educators with knowledge about cutting-edge research, curriculum and instructional practices and materials, policy issues and cultural sharing so that our schools will be equipped and prepared to meet the challenges of demographic change and linguistic diversity in America.”
According to NABE, these challenges are exacerbated by severe shortages in bilingual teachers, school budget cuts, and a national movement toward higher levels of accountability. The population of students who are learning English and learning other academic subjects at the same time has increased 57 percent during the past decade, drawing sharp attention to the individual and instructional needs of these students who are not native speakers of English, but must be adequate and equitably educated.
With more and more language minority students across grade levels in many more states, Santos-Hatchett said, their education is critical for the economic, social, political, and educational health of the country.
“All children must be educated to fulfill the need to empower growth and progress,” she said. “NABE addresses multiple aspects affecting the education and wellbeing of this growing segment of the population – currently over 25 million nationally.”
For more information on the 5,000-member NABE, go to ... The title of the 2012 conference, which will be held at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, is “Celebrating Our Multicultural Nation through Bilingual Education.”
