S9/E5: Using ESSER Funds to Support Multilingual Learners with Rosario Quiroz Villareal and Cici Matheny

Highest Aspirations

What parameters do districts have for spending ARP ESSER funds, specifically relating to multilingual learners? How are some districts already using these funds to offer high impact supports for their language learners? What guidance can we offer educators who want to advocate for their district to include and even prioritize this population of students in their ESSER fund spending plans?

We discuss these questions and more with Director of Policy and Advocacy Rosario Quiroz Villareal and Policy Analyst Cici Matheny of TNTP. As you’ll here in our conversation, rosario and Cici have spent a lot of time learning about best practices for using ESSER funds and they have a lot of valuable information to share.

Rosario Quiroz Villarreal is director of policy and advocacy focused on multilingual learners and immigrant students at TNTP, an organization with the mission of ending the injustice of educational inequality by providing excellent teachers to the students who need them most and by advancing policies and practices that ensure effective teaching in every classroom. Rosario got her start in policy through Next100, a startup think tank created for—and by—the next generation of policy leaders. Her orientation to education started with multilingual learners, as a bilingual educator in Texas and New York, and as a multilingual learner herself.

Cici Matheny is a policy analyst at TNTP and holds a master’s of public administration from the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York. She worked with middle, high school and college students for eight years at a sports-based afterschool program in New York City before pivoting to education policy. At TNTP, she researches policy issues across the country impacting the teacher workforce and student outcomes in the wake of the pandemic.

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