Libia Gil, assistant deputy secretary and director of the U.S. Education Department's Office of English Language Acquisition, will participate in several events at the National Association for Bilingual Education's (NABE) annual conference Thursday-Friday, March 3-4 in Chicago. She will be joined by the Department's James Ferg-Cadima, acting deputy assistant secretary for policy, Office for Civil Rights.
The theme of this year's conference is "Advancing Biliteracy Through Global Leadership and Partnerships."
On Thursday at 10 a.m. CT, Gil will deliver welcome remarks and share a video address in English and Spanish from U.S. Acting Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.
On Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. CT, Gil and Ferg-Cadima will co-host a session titled "Preparing English Learners for College and Career Readiness." The session will provide an update on the national profile of English learners, focusing on equity and opportunity gaps. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights' jointly-issued guidance for supporting legal obligations to English learners will be featured and resources such as the EL Tool Kit and Civil Rights Data Collection will be highlighted.
On Friday afternoon at 2:10 p.m. CT, Gil will participate in a leadership forum and share the Department's efforts to support teachers to prepare students to be global citizens and leaders. Later, at 5:15 p.m. CT, Gil and Ferg-Cadima will participate in a panel on teacher diversity hosted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).