The Daily Bulletin Archive

For the past three years, Barbara J. Dray, assistant professor, Exceptional Education, has been working with the Multilingual Education Committee of the WNY Hispanic Alliance to advocate for appropriate programming for English language learners (ELLs) in the Buffalo Public Schools. During the first year, the committee worked to provide the Buffalo Board of Education with recommendations for a policy to guide appropriate programming for ELLs and to hire a director of multilingual education. Both were achieved. As part of an ongoing collaboration with the Buffalo Board of Education and Superintendent James Williams, district personnel—along with the Multilingual Education Committee, the District Parent Coordinating Council, and the School of Education at Buffalo State College—co-hosted a parent conference on April 19 titled Multilingual Communities of Past, Present, and Future: Celebrating Our Diversity.Lori Quigley, associate dean, School of Education, presented the keynote address, and Dray led a session with Lloyd Elm, associate professor, Elementary Education and Reading, for native-English-speaking parents on the conference theme to highlight cross-cultural relationships. The event was held at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts.