Supporting multilingual students and taking part in state and national advocacy work (with Puja Goel and Prabhu Eswaran)

Language evaluations are challenging enough; but when we’re evaluating multilingual and bilingual students, they become even more complex. When clinicians ask me about language evaluations, the questions are typically:What tools/protocols can I use? Who can I go to for help? How can I advocate for change if current policies don’t support best practices?That’s why I invited Prabhu Eswaran and Puja Goel to episode 186 of De Facto Leaders to help answer some of these questions as they relate to multilingual learners.  Prabhu Eswaran is an ASHA certified school-based speech-language pathologist in Los Angeles, California. His areas of interests include child language disorders, communication disorders in culturally and linguistically diverse populations and technology in special education. He is now serving in the advisory board of MCCG SAC-ASHA’s Executive Board. Puja Goel, MA, CCC-SLP, PNAP, (she/her/hers) is a multilingual school-based speech language pathologist (SLP) who has worked for the Chicago Public Schools and currently works in New Mexico as a supervising SLP. Puja recently completed her administrative licensure in the state of NM which allows her to work as an administrator in schools. Puja is a member of ASHA, CASE and appointed to NAP. She completed the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Leadership Development Program and Minority Student Leadership Program and served on the Multicultural Issues Board. Puja is a first-generation South Asian born in the United States. Puja can be contacted via email: pujagoel2020@gmail.com.In this episode, we discuss:✅What to do when standardized assessments aren’t normed in a student’s language. ✅Making a case for non-standardized data when standard scores don’t provide quality information.✅Service planning for multilingual students and recommended resources✅Getting started with advocacy at the state and national level. We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Om Podcasten

On the De Facto Leaders podcast, host Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan helps pediatric therapists and educators become better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. With over 15 years of experience supporting school-age kids with diverse learning needs, Dr. Karen shares up-to-date evidence-based practices, her own experiences and guest interviews designed to help clinicians, teachers, and aspiring school leaders feel more confident in the way they serve their students and clients. She’ll cover a range of topics designed to help you support students' emotional and academic growth and set kids up for success in adulthood, including how to support language, literacy, executive functioning, and how to help IEP teams working together to support kids across the day. Whether you want to learn more effective strategies for your therapy session or classroom, be a more influential leader on your team, or find creative ways to use your skills to advance in your career, Dr. Karen has you covered.