Sydney Snyder

"Despite recent efforts to shift the narrative for our nation's English learners, most of our present policies and practices are indisputably informed by a deficit lens. The very label English learner (or EL) -- a term used both in federal (most recently in ESSA) and local policies -- suggests a deficit in that it focuses on what is lacking (English language proficiency) rather than on an emergent asset (developing multilingualism). This deficit perspective...