Jim Cummins, Ph.D.
is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning of the University of Toronto. His research focuses on literacy development in multilingual school contexts as well as on the potential roles of technology in promoting language and literacy development. In recent years, he has been working actively with teachers to identify ways of increasing the literacy engagement of learners in multilingual school contexts.
Expertise: English Language Learners and English Language Development
White Paper: The Central Roles of Language Awareness and Literacy Engagement in Accelerating Students’ Academic Development
White Paper: Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction: The Central Role of Literacy Engagement
White Paper: Unfinished Learning: Accelerating Student Catch-Up through Literacy Engagement
Kelly Gallagher
teaches at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California, where he has been teaching for more than 30 years. He is the former co-director of the South Basin Writing Project at California State University, Long Beach. Outside of his work with students and educators, Kelly loves watching baseball, playing with his dog, Scout, reading, hiking and spending time with his family. Kelly’s latest book is In the Best Interest of Students (Stenhouse/February 2015).
Expertise: Writing, Close Reading, and the Role of the Teacher
White Paper: New Perspectives in Building Readers and Writers
White Paper: Teaching and Supporting Writing and Close Reading in the Classroom
Elfrieda “Freddy” Hiebert, Ph.D.
is President and CEO of TextProject, a nonprofit that provides resources to support higher reading levels. She is also a research associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Hiebert has worked in the field of early reading acquisition for 45 years, first as a teacher’s aide and teacher of primary-level students in California and, subsequently, as a teacher and researcher. Her research addresses how fluency, vocabulary, and knowledge can be fostered through appropriate texts.
Expertise: Vocabulary, Text Complexity, and Assessment
White Paper: Text Complexity Systems: A Teacher’s Toolkit
White Paper: Recovery and Rebuilding for Unfinished Learning in English/Language Arts
White Paper: New Perspectives in Learning Vocabulary: Generative Vocabulary
Ernest Morrell, Ph.D.
is the Coyle Professor and the Literacy Education Director at Notre Dame Center, English and Africana Studies Departments Fellow, Institute for Educational Initiatives. He was the Macy Professor of English Education and former Director of Teachers College’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME), Columbia University; a class of 2014 Fellow of the American Educational Research Association; and the Past-President of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Dr. Morrell also received recognition for being one of the top 100 university-based education scholars in the 2016 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Ranking. He is also an award-winning published author.
Expertise: Assessment, Writing and Research, Student Engagement, and Collaborative Learning
White Paper: New Directions in Literacy Teaching: Engaging Readers and Writers in 21st Century K-12 Classrooms
White Paper: Cultural Responsiveness and Engagement
in Classrooms
White Paper: Becoming Powerful Readers of the Word and the World: Promoting Multicultural Readings of Children’s and Young Adult Literature
