Richard Durán, Professor of Education at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, was recently invited to serve as a member of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council’s Committee on Fostering School Success for English Learners: Toward New Directions in Policy, Practice and Research.
As a member, Durán will help conduct a study to review, synthesize, and critically analyze evidence on the developmental progress and school success of English Learners (ELs) who live in homes in which a language other than English is spoken. The committee looks at children from birth through grade twelve and will focus on the early development of ELs and instructional practices and systems that support ELs. Studying these two specific areas will provide the basis from which to develop findings and recommendations on policies and practices in the range of settings where ELs learn, grow, and develop, including homes and classrooms.
Richard Durán is a professor in the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School and an affiliate of the UCSB Office of Educational Partnerships. Since joining the GSE faculty in 1984, Professor Duran has carried out a research program investigating learning and culture itself as socially constructed. A Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), he centers his research interests on assessment, literacy, and learning of persons from varied language and cultural backgrounds, but they are not confined solely to learning in school settings. He is deeply involved in implementing outreach interventions improving college preparation and college access among youths from backgrounds underrepresented in higher education. Durán’s recent research also involves working with undergraduate and graduate students on how to use computers to assist youths to learn STEM skills in after school learning settings. This latter research is being supported in part by the UC Office of the President UC Links Project.