Multilingual Academic Services
At OCDE, we believe that multilingualism is a powerful asset that enriches learning, strengthens communities, and opens doors for students’ futures. Our Multilingual Academic Services team partners with educators and leaders to provide customized professional learning and guidance designed to uplift English learners and advance high-quality multilingual education.
We offer support in areas such as:
- English Language Development (ELD): Integrated and Designated ELD, Long-Term English Learners, and ELAC/DELAC guidance.
- School Leadership & Improvement: Centering English learners through the California EL Roadmap.
- Multilingual Education: Dual language program design, Seal of Biliteracy implementation, and world language standards.
Together, we are committed to ensuring every student thrives academically while honoring their linguistic and cultural identity.
2026-2027 MAS Professional Learning Calendar
Feel free to contact us at MAS@ocde.us
To join our mailing list for MAS updates and upcoming events, click here.
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- Upcoming Events
- California Educators Together
- California State Standards and MTSS
- Instructional Materials
- Educational Resources
- Parent and Family Resources
Upcoming Events
California Educators Together
California Educators Together is a community of practice designed to provide educators, administrators, specialists, and state program leads a common space to communicate, share strategies, and access resources.
In partnership with California Educators Together, you can also join for free and take advantage of their online resources!
You will need to register on their website, a quick process that takes only a minute. Once you've joined, you'll unlock access to an extensive library of over 20,000 resources!
The following FREE professional learning opportunities for teachers, paraeducators, and school/district leaders can also be found on the EPiCC Zone D Group page:
- English Language Development
- Bilingualism & Biliteracy
- EL Roadmap Policy Implementation
California State Standards and MTSS
California's Multi Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a comprehensive framework that aligns academic, behavioral, and social-emotional learning in a fully integrated system of support for the benefit of all students. MTSS offers the potential to create needed systematic change through intentional design and redesign of services and supports to quickly identify and match to the needs of all students.
- MTSS and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
- MTSS and Special Education
- MTSS and English Learners
CA Practitioners' Guide for Educating English Learners with Disabilities
Guide that provides information on identification of ELs, MTSS, interventions, pre-referral and referral, assessment, individualized education program processes, educational programs and instructional strategies, proposing exit from special education services, and reclassification from English learner status.
Guide to assist local educational agencies to implement California's 21st century college-and-career-ready standards, curriculum, instruction programs, and assessments. The CA EL Roadmap articulates a common vision and mission for educating English learners and supports LEAs as they implement the CA State Board Policy.
Long-Term English Learner Resources
The research and policy work on Long Term English Learners (LTELs) by California Together has created urgency for the state and nation to focus on this group of English Learners.
- Meeting the Unique Needs of LTELs: A Guide for Educators
- Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity for CA's LTELs
- Secondary School Courses Designed to Address the Language Needs and Academic Gaps of LTELs
Resources for Emergent Bilinguals and Translanguaging
The CUNY NYSIEB website provides resources to educators to better understand translanguaging as a strategy that teachers could use to help students draw on their linguistic resources in order to make meaning and engage in learning, and to develop language practices for academic use.
Support for Immigrant and Refugee Students
Resource developed by Californians Together that provides a multi-pronged approach toward creating a safe learning environment for students of all backgrounds.
Instructional Materials
ELA/Literacy and ELD
- CDE ELA/ELD Instructional Materials Website
- Information and resources for ELA/ELD instructional materials.
- SBE Adopted ELA/ELD Framework Chapters
- The framework provides guidance to the new ELA/ELD standards implementation. For information specific to instructional materials, refer to Chapter 12: Instructional Materials to Support the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and CAL ELD Standards.
Multilingual Education
- SBE-Adopted World Languages Framework Draft Chapter on Instructional Materials
- IQC) provides guidance to the 2019 World Languages Standards implementation. For information specific to instructional materials, refer to Chapter 13 of the framework. The chapter includes the evaluation criteria for the State Board of Education (SBE) adoption of Instructional materials and information regarding the social content review process, supplemental instructional materials, and accessible instructional materials. Adoption of instructional materials are expected to take place November 2021.
- K-5 Vietnamese Resources: CSUF National Resource Center for Asian Languages
- The National Resource Center for Asian Languages at CSU Fullerton provides free access to a collection of and instructional materials for teachers. The site also includes resources for Vietnamese culture and language.
Educational Resources
English Language Development (ELD)
This toolkit is designed to be used in both Integrated and Designated English Language Development. The strategies address reading, writing, speaking and listening to prepare ELs for literacy in the 21st century.
These toolkits are designed to help classroom teachers understand and make meaning of the CA EL Roadmap policy. They include tools for individual and collective assessment of practices through the lens of the EL Roadmap principles, enabling teachers to hone in on their own professional learning needs and priorities.
The Teaching and Learning Cycle (TLC) is a pedagogical framework for scaffolding academic writing through deep and critical thinking tasks, academic discussions, interactive reading, and language development. Through the TLC, students delve deeply into disciplinary learning, examine and unpack discipline-specific written text types, practice writing the same text type, and independently write using tools that support their reflection on (and self-evaluation of) both the content and language they are using.
The English Learner Tool Kit helps state and local education agencies help English Learners (ELs) by fulfilling these obligations.The Toolkit has 10 chapters (one for each section of the DCL), and contains an overview, sample tools, and resources.
The Newcomer Tool Kit is designed to help U.S. educators; elementary and secondary teachers, principals, and other school staff who work directly with immigrant students—including asylees and refugees—and their families. This resource has 5 chapters, and contains an overview, sample tools, and resources.
The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) website serves as the portal for resources that a local educational agency (LEA) will need to administer the ELPAC.
ELD & Multilingual Education
This document provides sample questionnaires across grade bands that are designed to provisionally identify students as English learners (ELs) during the COVID-19-related school closures, which impede the administration of face-to-face screening protocols.
These toolkits are designed to help classroom teachers understand and make meaning of the CA EL Roadmap policy. They include tools for individual and collective assessment of practices through the lens of the EL Roadmap principles, enabling teachers to hone in on their own professional learning needs and priorities.
Information provided by the CDE regarding the California Education for a Global Economy (Ed.G.E.) Initiative (Proposition 58). The CA Ed.G.E. Initiative authorizes school districts and county offices of education to establish language acquisition programs for both native and non-native English speakers, and requires school districts to solicit parent and community input in developing language acquisition programs.
The Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) is the official National Training Center (NTC) for the Project GLAD® (Guided Language Acquisition Design) model. The goal of the NTC is to support Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) in building sustainable implementation structures to meet the needs of English learners/emergent bilinguals through the development of trainers.
The CUNY-NYSIEB website provides resources to educators to better understand translanguaging as a strategy that teachers could use to help students draw on their linguistic resources in order to make meaning of content, engage in learning, and to develop language practices for academic use.
Multilingual Education
The World Languages Standards for CA Public Schools, K-12 are intended to provide guidance to teachers, administrators, students, parents and the community at large in implementing World Languages programs to ensure successful entry at any point in the curriculum from K-12.
The World Languages Framework provides guidance to educators, parents, and publishers, to support implementing CA content standards. The curriculum framework was adopted by the SBE in January 2019 and is currently accessible as a pre-publication version.
The 3rd edition of the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education was designed for educatorswho are interested in effective dual language education. The resource is an effective tool for planning, self-reflection, and continual improvement.
The initiative is a call to action that asks that stakeholders expand access to world language classes, programs, and experiences, provide more training to bilingual teachers, and improve the quality and availability of advanced language classes so that by 2030 half of all K–12 students in CA will have participated in programs leading to proficiency in two or more languages, either through a class, a program, or an experience.
The State Seal of Biliteracy is a statement of accomplishment for gaining competency in two or more languages, and may be viewed as an asset when applying for employment and/or college admission.
Common Core en Español: State Standards Initiative ProjectThe following state guidance documents were translated and linguistically augmented to serve as a guide for equitable assessment and curriculum development, resulting in high levels of biliteracy. These documents were produced by San Diego County Office of Education, in collaboration with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the CDE.
The purpose of this Toolkit is to assist staff in dual language programs that serve English language learners (ELLs) to understand how to meet assessment and accountability guidelines. Produced by Kathryn Lindholm-Leary, Ph.D., and Gary Hargett, Ph.D. and the California Department of Education.
- CDE Multilingual FAQs
- Multilingual Education frequently asked questions on instructional approaches and other issues related to dual language education. CDE Resource.
Dual Language Elementary Eduation:
- How to Prepare Dual Language Elementary Students to Engage in Conversations Around Central Ideas with High-Quality Texts
- How to Engage Dual Language Elementary Students with High-Quality Texts
- CommonLit en Español
This resource provides quality texts to support Spanish literacy development for dual or world languages programs. There are over 100 3rd through 8th grade Spanish lessons on the site, with plans to add hundreds more in the coming months.
As one of the United Nations system libraries, the UNESCO Library collection contains practically all publications issued by UNESCO, as well as a selection of scholarly titles devoted to the areas covered by UNESCO's fields of expertise, such aseducation, culture, social and human sciences, communication and information.
Links to resources to support language teachers with the shift to remote teaching and learning. Such topics include building relationships and virtual communities, embedding authentic texts in world languages, and engaging all language learners in online instruction.
Resources for remotely teaching Chinese during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Resources include such topics as assessment, curricula and curriculum frameworks, lessons, and books and articles about early language and immersion education.
Parent and Family Resources
CA State Standards
- ELPAC Resources for Parents
- Resources for parents to learn more about the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC).
- ELAC and DELAC Guidance from the CDE
ELA/Literacy and ELD
- ¡Colorín Colorado!
- Resources for bilingual parents and families that offer tips on helping children learn to read, succeed in school, and learn a new language. The resources also provide information about the U.S. school system and share ideas on how to build a relationship with teacher and school.
Multilingual Education
- State Seal of Biliteracy
- Information about the CA State Seal of Biliteracyprogram and its requirements for students, families, and educators.
- ¡ColorínColorado!: Raising Bilingual Kids
- Dual Language and Immersion Family Education Resources
- The Dual Language and Immersion Family Education program was developed by a team of Dual Language and Immersion (DLI) educators from the University of Minnesota and teacher contributors from surrounding school districts. The site houses an online repository of useful resources in English and Spanish for families who wish to deepen their understanding of DLI.