In late spring of 2005, a couple of long-time bilingual educators met for one of their monthly lunches and had a conversation familiar to many – they envisioned what they could accomplish if they focused exclusively on what they cared about most: school equity for language-minority students.
Combining Susana Dutro’s years of professional learning experience and recently completed handbook on student-centered English Language Development and Michelle Thelander’s experience supporting systemwide improvement and vision for organizations centered on adult learning, we founded E.L. Achieve.
After launching with a handful of California districts and a statewide initiative in Oregon, our work continued to grow and so did our team. Over the past 15 years, E.L. Achieve has partnered with over 300 school systems across the country to train more than 60,000 educators in our initiatives: Systematic ELD and Constructing Meaning.
This has been possible because of our exceptionally talented team and their dedication to supporting our partners in creating more equitable systems for English learners.