District Supervisors’ Sensemaking and Implementation of English Language Development Standards: WIDA 2020 Edition

Abstract

English language development (ELD) standards are federally mandated in all U.S. states and impact the experiences of multilingual learners (MLs) in local schools and classrooms. This study examined district supervisors’ sensemaking and implementation of WIDA 2020—the latest and most widely adopted ELD standards in U.S. K–12 education—as well as the contextual factors that supervisors perceived as shaping their sensemaking and implementation. Based on in-depth interviews with 18 English as a second language (ESL)/bilingual supervisors across diverse districts in one northeastern state, we found that supervisors’ emerging understandings of WIDA 2020 and patchwork implementation efforts (e.g., retrofitting existing curricula) were shaped by multiple factors, including their multiple and varied roles and responsibilities and their limited opportunities for collaboration with content area colleagues. We discuss implications for policy and practice and future directions that can advance research on ELD standards as an understudied policy lever for pursuing ML equity.