In this session, Dr. Doris Luft Baker will examine the research on screening and progress monitoring multilingual learners with special needs in a multi-tier system of support. She will particularly emphasize the language needs of multilingual learners who are struggling in reading, science, and social studies. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Doris Luft Baker is associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. She shares an appointment in the Department of Special Education and in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her research focuses on developing and testing interventions and assessments designed to improve academic outcomes for English learners, and bilingual students, particularly students who speak Spanish as their native language. She is also interested in engaging families in the academic education of their children, and the use of technology to reduce academic inequities among underserved populations.

Dr. Baker has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on multiple grants funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Oregon Child Development Coalition, an organization that supports thousands of migrant children attending Head Start. She has received awards from AERA Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning, a Fulbright fellowship to work in Chile, and the Kirk award for excellence in a research publication in learning disabilities, research and practice.

Her work has been published in the Journal of School Psychology, Exceptional Children, Review of Research in Education, Bilingual Research Journal, International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, Learning Disabilities: Research and Practice and School Psychology Review, among others.

Dr. Baker has provided workshops or conducted research in the US, and in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Finland, Spain, Qatar, Korea, and Norway. She is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and semi-fluent in German.

About the Series

The Community Talks series provides researchers, practitioners, families, and community stakeholders learning opportunities to increase their understanding and ability to apply knowledge related to language development for multilingual populations in their respective settings. An attendance certificate will be provided at the end of each session.
These community talks on multilingualism and assessment issues are sponsored by Dr. Sharolyn D. Pollard-Durodola, Professor and Dunn Family Endowed Chair of Educational Assessment. The events are co-hosted by the Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center and the COE Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education Department.