COUNTY
Yolo COE debuts Center for Language and Literacy
Goals include increasing the number of bilingual teachers in the area and improving literacy instruction
Cropped digital stock photograph image of a smiling Black woman with short black hair and big beige colored outer frame prescription eyeglasses wearing a patterned button-up shirt and a blue lanyard as she is holding a pen and notebook while looking at a man seated next to her; They are in a conference or lecture setting with other blurred out attendees in the background around them
In a county where nearly 60 percent of third graders did not meet state English language arts standards, a new center holds promise for improving literacy.

In January, the Yolo County Office of Education (YCOE) launched the Yolo Center for Language and Literacy, in partnership with the Center for Public Service and Education at the University of California, Davis, and the California Reading and Literature Project (CRLP) at UC San Diego. The center aims to enhance literacy and language development across Yolo County and the greater Sacramento region by improving classroom instruction and student learning. CRLP is a part of the California Subject Matter Project, which aims to improve K-12 instruction.

This is a first-of-its-kind partnership between a California university and a county office of education. While other COEs work with universities on various projects such as the CRLP, which will be one of the main focuses of the center, co-leadership of initiatives is a new piece.

“I feel like it’s a really exciting partnership,” said Heather Schlaman, YCOE’s language and literacy coordinator. “I think that the very real relationship between the university and the county office can be incredibly powerful and I’m excited about the richness that that partnership can bring to teacher learning, which then impacts students.”

The purpose of the center is to improve literacy outcomes, especially among multilingual learners, through teacher training and development using research- and evidence-based practices. The three main initiatives at the center are:

  • Being a regional site for the CRLP to offer literacy-focused professional learning for TK-12 educators. The CRLP site will be hosted by the Center for Public Service in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis and funded through a grant from the statewide office of the CRLP at UC San Diego.
  • Expanding the CRECEMOS: Growing Bilingual Teachers initiative to strengthen the bilingual teacher workforce, supported by a grant from the Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program (BTPDP). Crecemos means “we grow” in Spanish.
  • Offering local professional development opportunities in the Sacramento region, focusing on effective instruction for multilingual learners.

The center is also working on launching with the San Diego COE Project Clear, which will focus on early reading.

California Reading and Literature Project
CRLP actively develops teacher leadership to collaborate in teams with university faculty and researchers to develop CRLP’s professional learning content. All CRLP programs are aligned with California’s English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework (ELA/ELD). CRLP establishes partnerships with schools and districts to provide TK–12 teachers with comprehensive, high-quality professional learning for teaching reading, subject literacy and academic language.

CRLP works with local educational agencies to create professional learning designed to deepen teachers’ content knowledge and strengthen their classroom practice as they develop their capacity as leaders; maintain a statewide professional network to bolster teachers’ subject knowledge and instructional skills in reading, literature and academic language; and build professional learning communities that contribute to teacher retention and effectiveness.

Multilingual education
The vision of CRECEMOS is to expand the bilingual teacher workforce and to support and connect bilingual educators throughout Northern California through rich collaboration and professional learning informed by the best available scholarship in bilingualism and biliteracy. Through the state’s BTPDP, the Yolo center offers funding and support for bilingual credentialed teachers to add the Bilingual Authorization to their credential and for bilingual paraprofessionals interested in continuing their education with the goal of becoming bilingual teachers. The program also offers the chance to join the CRECEMOS Professional Learning Network, which will provide ongoing professional growth and collaboration for bilingual educators across Northern California.
“Our goal is to primarily build really strong teacher leadership in literacy.”
Heather Schlaman, language and literacy coordinator, YCOE
The center has a community of practice with its districts’ multilingual education leads that meets monthly to discuss issues and get support. One project the group completed to support all multilingual students and teachers in the region was an ELD standards training for teachers, according to Schlaman. The center also provides funds to send teachers to quality trainings outside of the county office.

“Our goal is to primarily build really strong teacher leadership in literacy,” Schlaman said. “We’re building capacity. So, we’re not just rolling out webinars and conferences that people come to and then they walk away. The focus of all the California Subject Matter Projects is to center educators as leaders and learners. That has really been a goal of mine — to really engage interested teachers who have the potential to lead and really support them.

“The other big goal for us in the partnership with UC Davis is bringing scholarship to practice,” Schlaman continued. “Being in proximity to UC Davis and having this direct partnership — through the bilingual grant, we have two UC Davis faculty, a San Jose State faculty member and a UC Santa Cruz faculty member collaborating to develop our professional learning as part of the grant focus. They’re all bilingual scholar educators and that was really important to us in the writing of the grant — we’re serious about being research-based.”

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