English Language Learners: Shifting to an Asset-Based Paradigm: Voices in Urban Education 37

This issue of VUE presents the need to shift the paradigm and increase opportunities for students and families that support the acquisition of academic English, while simultaneously developing the students’ native language and teaching the students content. The authors make the case that ELLs are the future bicultural, bilingual leaders that our diverse global culture and economy need, offering their perspectives on ways to create school and district cultures that view ELLs and their families as an asset, rather than a problem.