What does the term advocacy mean to you? As ESL professionals we know we have a responsibility at the local level to speak up for the legal rights of our students, but what are some effective ways to raise awareness and communicate to our legislators? The TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit is a forum for this high-level communication. This summer the summit was held on June 21–23, 2015, in Washington, DC. The PennTESOL-East board was proud to announce two attendees this year: Grace Qizhi Li and Yvonne Faison-White. The summit prepared all attendees to meet with their local members of Congress to discuss key issues and laws concerning English language learners (ELLs) and, more specifically, immigrants and undocumented students and their families. The following are some of the highlights.

An informative panel presentation was given by the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, on civil rights regarding ELLs and Immigrant students. John Segota, of TESOL International, and Ellen Fern, of Washington Partners, LLC, provided the group with legislative overview and updates.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Libi Gil, assistant deputy secretary and director, Office of English Language Acquisition, U.S. Department of Education, advocates that a seal be placed on students’ diplomas demonstrating that they are bilingual.

In addition, there were sessions held on career, technical, and adult education; advocacy for ELLs; ELLs and the Common Core State Standards; and student visa policy and student exchange visitor program.

Both members of PennTESOL found the Advocacy Summit to be exuberating and advanced their knowledge of how TESOL International is a major component for advocating for fair legislative outcomes surrounding the ELL community.

According to Yvonne Faison-White, a teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, the PennTESOL-East team was able to meet with Roger Jackson Jr., chief of staff for Congressman Chaka Fattah; Deborah Goldman, legislative correspondent for Senator Patrick J. Toomey; and Jared Solomon, legislative assistant for education policy for Senator Robert P. Casey. They discussed concerns around the possible merger of Title I and Title III funds and how the collapsing of these funds could potentially limit resources and supports coming to English language learners, their families, and their teachers. Teachers of English language learners need Title III resources to become increasingly prepared to meet the needs of this diverse population in the 21st century and beyond. Teachers need guidance in terms of how to accommodate for instruction and assessment, and deepen their knowledge of second language acquisition research and best practices. Title III often provides much needed supplemental training and materials to this vulnerable multilingual and multicultural population, many of whom come to the United States with limited formal schooling.

Yvonne shared her point of view that removing federal oversight of Title III funds would be an enormous step backward for this often marginalized population. Title III was authorized this fiscal year; however, she says that these funds were never fully released.

Furthermore, our PTE representatives advocated keeping the definition of WIOA–Adult Education and Family Literacy Act definitions in tact. Changing the definition could prevent adults currently seeking a diploma or even thwart their participation in postsecondary school programs. Kudos to PennTESOL-East for supporting this important advocacy work and for carving out time at our meetings and at the conferences for conversation centered on current and new immigration issues. Any questions or ideas for going deeper with advocacy work can be addressed to Leslie Kirshner-Morris at lmorris@philasd.org or to any of the PennTESOL-East board members.

Leslie Kirshner-Morris is a Multilingual Manager at The School District of Philadelphia and has served as Chair of the Interest Section Leadership Council. She is also on the board of Penn TESOL East as Chair of Socio- Political Concerns.

Yvonne White is an ESOL teacher in The School District of Philadelphia and currently serves at Interest Section Chair K-12.