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Defining quality education for English language learners and multilingual learners in the United States begins with educator awareness of three key ideas:

• The role and purpose of education in a democracy
• The need to change the current state of education for English language learners (ELLs) and multilingual learners (MLLs) to allow their full participation in our evolving society
• The importance of using solid theory to drive transformation in the education of ELLs and MLLs

This brief, written by Aida Walqui of WestEd’s Quality Teaching for English Learners, explores these three interrelated themes and provides a rationale for educators to rethink and reinvent quality education for English language learners and multilingual learners.

The brief also serves as an introduction to a series of New York State Education Department-published briefs that explore the dimensions of what quality education for English language learners and multilingual learners looks like when informed by the ideas described by Walqui.

Download other briefs in this series:

• Quality Student Interactions: Why Are They Crucial to Language Learning and How Can We Support Them
• De-Mystifying Complex Texts: What are “Complex” Texts and How Can We Ensure ELLs/MLLs Can Access Them?
• The Zone of Proximal Development: An Affirmative Perspective in Teaching ELLs/MLLs
• Dispelling the Myth of “English Only”: Understanding the Importance of the First Language in Second Language Learning