RBERNing Questions

From Classrooms to Communities: A Conversation with Alicia Baez

• Yasmeen Coaxum • Season 3 • Episode 15

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Episode Summary:

In this episode, Alicia Baez, the Assistant Superintendent for the Division of Multilingual Education at Buffalo Public Schools discusses her extensive role in overseeing ENL programming, bilingual education, and community outreach. Alicia shares her personal journey inspired by her father, also an educator, and her tireless advocacy for bilingual and dual language programs. She highlights the importance of culturally and linguistically inclusive education, teacher support, and effective leadership. Alicia also discusses various initiatives like the Bilingual School Principals’ Consortium and new programs designed to support immigrant and refugee students in Buffalo. As we wrap up, Alicia emphasizes the need for educators to ensure every student feels represented and safe in their learning environment.

RBERNing Questions for this Episode:

1- In your role as Assistant Superintendent of Multilingual Education, what are you most proud of in terms of initiatives you’ve developed to better serve our MLs?

2- As Director of Bilingual Education, you established a bilingual school Principals’ Consortium. How did the collaboration of these leaders impact the effectiveness of education for MLs in the Buffalo area? 

3- What are the most important steps educators can take to better promote biliteracy, bilingualism, and biculturalism in classrooms all over America and how do you think administrators can support them in these efforts? 

Full BIO:

Alicia Báez began her career with the New York City Department of Education and has more than seventeen years of experience in education. This term includes more than thirteen years of service in bilingual education. While working in the South Bronx, she supported English Language Learners (ELLs) and Multilingual Learners (MLs) as a classroom teacher, literacy/data coach, and as an Assistant Principal. She coordinated the development of literacy curriculum in both English and Spanish, integrated technology to meet the needs of ELLs and MLs, facilitated numerous professional development opportunities for teachers, implemented an adult ENL program for parents, and supervised Title III Saturday programs.

Alicia returned to her hometown of Buffalo, New York more than seven years ago where she proudly accepted the position of Assistant Principal at City Honors School. She then served the ELLs and MLs in the City of Buffalo through her role as Director of Bilingual Education for the Division of Multilingual Education. 

Alicia served as the Associate of Bilingual Education for the Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages at the New York State Education Department. In this role she worked with various school districts across the State of New York as implemented and enforced the regulations and policies that govern the rights of English Language Learners and their families.

Recently, Alicia has returned to the Buffalo Public Schools as the Assistant Superintendent of Multilingual Education where she has continued the work she began as directed and expanded upon the programming offered in Buffalo.

Alicia is currently a Regional Director and Secretary for the New York State Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.

Resources:

Websites/Social Media:

https://www.buffaloschools.org/o/dept-multilingual-education/page/multilingual-education

To find out more about Mid-State RBERN at OCM BOCES' services, listen to season 1 of the show with host Collette Farone-Goodwin, or to receive CTLE credit for listening to episodes, click here: https://midstaterbern.org/


Yasmeen:

Welcome to RBERNing Questions, a professional learning podcast where we answer your most compelling questions about teaching, serving, and supporting multilingual learners. I'm your host, Yasmeen Coaxum, and through our talks, I look forward to bringing the methods, philosophies, and stories behind teaching multilingual learners to light. Let's get into the show.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Okay, so hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the RBERNing Questions podcast. I'm really happy to be speaking with Alicia Baez today, and I just can't wait to dive into her story. An advocate for dual language, for bilingualism, for multiculturalism, for all of those things that we are always talking about here on the RBERNing Questions podcast. So welcome, Alicia.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Hi, Yasmeen. Thank you for having me this morning.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

All right, so why don't you just tell us a little bit about your current role in education at this time.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Sure. So currently I serve as the Assistant Superintendent for the Division of Multilingual Education for Buffalo Public Schools. It encompasses a lot, but essentially what I do is oversee, ENL programming, our Bilingual Education program, which is a dual language model. I also oversee identification and placement for the district in addition to translation and interpretation, for the entire district.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Wow. So you're wearing many hats, underneath the umbrella of that position. So in the O-B-E-W-L December newsletter, this was way back in 2021, the announcement of your then new position as Bilingual Associate, at the end it says"She believes that together we can achieve great things for our children. We have a duty to them to continue our efforts with ensuring that our children have every opportunity to succeed and that language continues to enrich the life of our nation as a whole." So is it safe to say that this belief is what makes you really advocate for dual language programs?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Absolutely. It is not just my belief, but it's also our obligation to make sure that our English language learners have equitable access to curriculum, to good instruction, good programming, ensuring that, their families have access, which means materials should be available in their first language, that schools and districts and teachers are communicating with families in their first language. All of that is encompassing and it is their right. It is our legal obligation to make sure that we do that for them and their families.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Now I'm gonna take it a step back before I go back to this family piece. So what inspired you to enter this field? To, become an educator of ELLs, of MLs and then to just keep going and keep moving up the ladder and having more and more, leadership in this field?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Sure. I really give all the credit to my father who, was an educator, a teacher. I always say I'm a teacher first and foremost, regardless of the titles that I carry or that I've had. I am a teacher and I'm rooted in the classroom. And so that was my dad. And I watched my dad, go through leadership and also hold, which I did hold previously as Director of Multilingual Education. My father held that here in Buffalo as well. So I've had the privilege and honor and been blessed to follow in his footsteps. And so as a child, I grew up watching him advocate for bilingual education and for English language learners. he was also a Past President of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education, which I also followed in those footsteps. I have many colleagues who refer to me as a NYSABE baby, so I was just ingrained and always fascinated by the work. And it is just my honor to stand on his shoulders and those that came before me to be able to carry the baton and the work and to keep fighting and to keep advocating. but that's really where it came from for me and where it lives in my heart. It's very personal to me.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

All right. I love hearing people's stories. Everyone's is just so different in terms of what has brought them to this field. But I feel like one common thread that I've been hearing, in terms of my guests is some type of personalization, right? Something personal that has made them, wanna get in the field, wanna stay in the field, want to keep improving themselves, their practices, everything in the field. Alright, so now I wanna go back to the piece where you mentioned family. You mentioned community, in a sense when you talked about advocating, right? So I was, watching a little, clip of you at the eighth Annual at the Eighth Annual Hispanic Heritage Community Breakfast, where the theme was"Esperanza: A Celebration of Hispanic Heritage and Hope." Okay, so this was also in 2021, back in the summer of 2021, and something that you said was that our community has a heartbeat and it's so important that we can continue to foster that and let it breathe and give it life. So, what are some of the ways that you have fostered community building in your various roles?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Sure. So I think it's so important to make those connections with the families and with the communities, building those relationships. So me personally, making sure that I speak to the agencies that are dealing with our refugee and immigrant families. The influx that we've had with asylum seekers and what that looked like across the state of New York at the time. When all of that was really coming to a head, I was still serving at the State Education Department and watching the impact that it was having across the various districts. Um, communicating with these agencies was huge. Here in Buffalo, we do the same thing. We partner with them. We have, MOUs in place with them, caseworkers. We'll bring families in and we build relationships with them. They know who we are. We work together to make sure that our families are safe, that they leave here with supplies, with clothing if that's what they need. We just wanna make sure that we wrap our arms around our families and that it means, locking arms and collaborating with our agencies and our community-based organizations so that way we can do this work together because we can't do it in silos. And in order to foster that, we have to make sure that we're doing that work. I think it's also important for me that the community sees my face and who I am and why I'm here. Titles are great and they have a purpose, and I do believe you know that there's a moment when there's that top down, but we also have to take a collaborative leadership approach. And so when I have the opportunity and I'm invited out into the communities to speak. To meet, various language groups. I make sure that I do that. I'll serve on panels because I need them to hear my voice and know that I'm here for them and here to advocate for whatever it is they need.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

All right, you mentioned this collaborative approach. Right? Um, but before I get into that, I know that another way that you brought community together when you were working in the South Bronx and this kind of like... there were a lot of lights that went off when I saw this particular aspect of what you had done, because I'm from the South Bronx, I grew up, not too far from Yankee Stadium, so I'm like, oh, she worked in the South Bronx. Fantastic. Okay. Um. So what you did there as the Assistant Principal was, you implemented an adult English as a new language program for the parents. So, you know, when I read that I'm like, yeah, that's, definitely a way to enrich the lives of the community members and to also foster this sense of confidence and wellbeing and, it's really showing that someone cares and. it's eliminating some of the angst because I feel like often that's the case. There's a lot of angst that comes with not knowing the dominant language. So not only, you supporting them in terms of having materials in their own language, but then also building up their confidence so that they can, really adapt to, their new areas. Now I wanna go into, this idea of collaboration because, in one of your positions as the Director of Bilingual Education, you established a bilingual school principals consortium. So how did the collaboration of these leaders really impact the effectiveness of education for the multilingual learners there in the Buffalo area?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Sure. This really was born because I was brought in as director and asked to reform bilingual education and bilingual programming for the Buffalo Public Schools as director. And so one of my beliefs in education, regardless of whether we're speaking of English language learners or students with IEPs, whatever the situation, leadership is very key and it's very important that we make sure that we equip our leaders with what they need to make informed decisions. Otherwise, programs will fall apart. We'll see gaps at the building level, and it's not so much because we have leaders who don't want to, where they have ill intent, but many times, especially when we're looking at such a specific and specialized lens, they don't have the background. They don't have the certifications or the credits, right? So, we have to position ourselves, we're supporting our leaders as well. And so one of the things that we did was we established a bilingual school principal consortium where I brought all of the principals together from the bilingual schools here in Buffalo and gave them a space, a safe space, one, to continue their education, so really learn, what is bilingual education? And then let's add the layer of what is dual language and all the different models that come with that. What is a language allocation policy? What does it mean to deliver instruction in two languages? We're not translating here. How do we bridge the gap between the two languages? What should these classrooms look like when you have side by side models and those rooms should mirror each other? What does that look like? Because until we equipped them, they were trying to support the teachers as best that they could, but they were limited as well. Having these meetings also allowed us to bring in a consultant, Dr. Sonia Soltero, who was well known out in the field of bilingual education. So she was able to come in and directly work with the principals, conduct school visits with them, non-evaluative. Really, they were just conversations that were had as we visited classrooms and things that we started to point out. And what we were able to do was build their capacity. The other thing too is that it's so important to have a voice. And as the Assistant Superintendent or the Director at that time, I. I'm sitting at the table, but I'm one voice, and so I knew that in order to make change and to get things to move and to move that pendulum in the way I needed it to, I needed those principals to stand behind me, stand beside me, stand with me in order to say,"Hey, we need to fix this program. Where is my title three funding. I need additional allocations for ENL teachers. We're not meeting our units of study," Right? And I needed their voice alongside mine at the building level, and I knew that in order to make the changes, that's what I needed and I needed to equip them. And so that's really what that work was about, and to this day, we still have those meetings. We have Associate Superintendents join us as well, other stakeholders, of different content areas, so it has expanded and we're looking forward to this year beginning consortium for our high ELL buildings. So now we're looking at our schools where we have a high number of English language learners, and they're receiving ENL services, and how can we create a consortium for those principals?

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Now, something that you said that really struck me was this idea that it's not in an evaluative way, that people still are learning how to lead in certain situations. And often you think, oh, principals, okay, they know everything they need to know. They're already, highly ranked in the school system, et cetera, et cetera. So. the idea that okay, yes, principals are people too who are

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

right.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

still having to grow and learn, in their field, right. Um, in order to lead properly. And then bringing them together and making them feel like it's okay to do that, and so that you can be in better service of the entire school population.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Right? Correct.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Um, now you mentioned dual language in there, like a dual language program. So, I think this was on, another podcast that you appeared on Bilingual in America.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

You did your homework.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

This, well, you know, my guests are important to me.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Yeah, no, I love it. I love it.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

So you were on this, episode called, this was in back in 2022, Leadership in Action, and you were on this episode along with, Elisa Alvarez. And, I love this picture that you painted of dual language. You, painted a picture where ELLs and English dominant students are learning Spanish alongside each other. Um, and. I can really imagine the amount of support and growth that would happen there. And I feel like this is only a vision in a specific type of program though. And I'm wondering how can this level of support be mimicked like in an everyday classroom situation with ELLs and other students.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

I think if, we're talking about outside of that dual language model, that dual language classroom, I think one of the most important things, and it's interesting'cause yesterday we were welcoming our new teachers into Buffalo and we have about an hour and a half that we spend with our new ENL and bilingual teachers that we're bringing in. And one of the things that I especially tell the ENL teachers is that they are one of our biggest supporters in terms of being in the schools. And so having the ENL teacher build that relationship with those classroom teachers is very important'cause again, similar to the leaders, right, we'll have classroom teachers that aren't familiar with an English language learner, or how do I support them? What strategies do I need to use? So that's definitely number one. Number two is I always remind teachers that we're all in the blueprint. It's very clear on that for the state of New York, that we're all teachers of English language learners. So you're going to have them in your classroom and you have to be ready, and it's our job to support you and get you ready for that. The other thing that I remind teachers is that you can't be afraid to allow students to use their home language. It's beautiful. It's part of who they are. It's their identity, it's their culture. And so many of them are coming in experiencing things that many of us will never experience in our lifetime. The trauma, just their journey on getting here. I can't even begin to put into words what some of them have seen, these babies, right, our littlest New Yorkers. And so we have to be sensitive to that and allow them to use their entire language repertoire and honor that in the classroom. So it should be up on the walls and if they're able to give you a word and you can add it to the anchor chart, add it to the anchor chart, that way they have something that they can connect to, and they feel a sense of belonging. And that will also help them to grow and to blossom because I have to unfortunately, many times remind individuals that they don't need tier three interventions coming in right away. We don't need to sit them down to be evaluated and they need an IEP. They're here and they're learning English, and we need to give them the space to do that, but the space has to be a safe space. We're honoring them, their culture and their language, and so that's one of the biggest things that I share with the monolingual classrooms, is to just honor that and let it be a part of their space and not be afraid of it.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Okay. So during this same talk, you also posed a couple of questions. You said, what is cultural diversity? What is language diversity? And then you answered it by describing language equity as allowing our ELLs, the space to access their language repertoires, which is what you were just talking about, but do you think there's still the belief in many classrooms that ELLs or MLs should not be accessing their L1s? And if so, like how do you think we can move past this?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Absolutely. unfortunately it is out there. There are many individuals who think that we'll just sit'em in the classroom and they'll just get it and they can't speak their language and it's English only. Then we wonder why they struggle at times and education has changed over the years. It's not the same of what it was 20, 30 years ago. We hear that misconception, well, you know, my grandmother came here and she didn't have bilingual education, and she did fine. But we also have to take into account all of the changes that have happened over the years and look at what the expectations are now. Look at what the standards are. Look at things, the academics and what does that look like. And so we have to help them and we have to allow them that space, but yes, it does happen. How do I deal with that? Number one, I make sure in my role, in any role, even at the state level, one of the things I loved to do was build those partnership with the superintendents and then get into the schools. My role, even with, the State Education Department wasn't always the big bad wolf. I wasn't coming in and looking at regulations, and I'm gonna give you a corrective action plan, but it was also supportive in nature. So how do we go in, how do we work with superintendents, with, again, with the leadership to take these walks? Again, I think, relationships are so important because people need to see that you're accessible and that you're approachable and you're open to conversations. And I tell my staff all the time, you can push back on me. It's okay. In this field there's many different philosophies. We're gonna find different pedagogy and we can talk that through. And so I know that we need to establish that space even when we do these walkthroughs, but being present is important. And again, I go back to equipping the leaders. I have seen so many times that once the principal feels strong in this work and knows what the expectations are, then they can translate that to their staff. Then I have principals telling me, can you come into my building and do professional development? Can I have your staff come in and do workshops on cultural sensitivity, on language? And that's how all of that happens. So for me it's, also a trickle down effect, and I think it's about positioning and making ourselves, like I said, just in a place where we're approachable and we can have the real conversations.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Okay, now, on this issue of language equity, basically fostering it, making sure that there's maybe like a top down approach to making sure that, it is there, it is existing in these different schools, you have mentioned a few times in your talks that equality is not equity. So can you explain the difference?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

One of the visuals that I've seen often is that, I can, let's say for example, we're all hungry, right? And there's three students in front of me and they're all hungry, and so I give them each a banana. And now you can't be hungry anymore'cause they gave you all a banana. But I have one student who's allergic to bananas, or I have one student who doesn't like bananas. And so while you each got a banana, and you're equal with your banana, you can't all have your banana and you can't access that food, that nutrient that you need. And so it's the same concept. Or I've seen another visual where we have children at a fence. And so they can't see over the fence and their heights are at different levels. And so, okay, we give them the same type of box to stand on. That's not gonna help the shorter one because they still can't see even though those boxes are all the same height. So you need boxes that are different heights to accommodate for how tall they are, so that way they can all see over the fence. And that's the difference between equality and equity.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Great. That was explained very well and in a really nice and visual way. I wanna go back to your role now as the Assistant Superintendent of Multilingual Education. So what are you most proud of in terms of the initiatives you have developed to better serve our multilingual learners?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

So I think, as I reflect back on this year especially, one of the things that we were able to do that made a big impact for Buffalo is identifying our immigrant and refugee students. Coming in, I noticed that, there were some discrepancies, and so. really looking at the data and tracking our students, where they were coming from, that ELL identification and ELL placement is so very important. It's the heart of everything that we do. If we get it wrong there, then we've set them up as they enter the classroom already behind the eight ball. And so really spending a lot of time, here we call it the Language Assessment Center, looking at our numbers, identifying our students, because while we don't like to think of it this way, they are attached to funding. And so being able to see Buffalo being awarded that refugee and immigrant fund that they hadn't received in a couple years was huge for us this year. And that was just awarded a few weeks ago. So I think that was a big one for me. Also, navigating and looking at, the teacher shortages and how that's impacted Buffalo and the amount of vacancies that we had last year versus as we're going into this year and reducing those vacancies down, over 10 to now we're looking at two. And so the work that we put in building those relationships with institutions of higher education, looking at the ITI grants that O-B-E-W-L makes available, and again, the partnerships, and building community around this district has been huge. Just a couple of the things that we've done, but I think they're exciting and we're excited to get started for this academic year.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Okay. For this academic year, are there any interesting plans, specific uh things that you have in the works that you wanna see come to fruition as we're coming upon this year?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

So one of the things that, we had a very successful summer program this year, that we named the Multilingual Learner Summer Academy, where we brought in many of our students, we had steam activities for them. We really, elaborate on that and had over, close to 250 students join us. And it was also in partnership with the families, so bringing their families in and giving them the space. Field trips. here we're very close to Niagara Falls. What does that look like? And just watching their faces as they've experienced, right, these, field trips, getting ready for the academic year, equipping them for what they need. We target our newcomers. So these are students that are brand new to Buffalo coming in. Again, with that thought of wrapping our arms around them and giving them what they need to get them ready. The students, we'll continue to work with them as we start the school year, and have meetings with their families as well, and workshops and opportunities to strengthen them and have them feel comfortable. ENL courses for the adults, what does it mean to register and vote in this country? Is citizenship, and I know that's a sensitive one, so we're very careful of that, but do we need to bring in immigration lawyers, do we need to just table events where they have those resources available to them? So that's something that we're looking to do. And then the other big one that comes to mind is, a new regents support program that we're gonna put in place for extended learning time. So looking at our English language learners and targeting those high school students to make sure that we help them finish and achieve the credits they need to get those diplomas. So, creating a program that will last over several months where they can come into one of our schools and receive after afterschool support, but with that we'll include, so, for example, many of our students struggle with science with the labs, right? They run out of time to write them. Um, just the writing can be intimidating at times for them. It's a lot. So working with the division of science and having certified teachers come in and getting those approvals to say, yes, you can run some science labs in this extended learning program to provide your ELLs an opportunity and more time to finish their labs, and then that will go back with them to school and they'll get their credits and their grades. I've allocated everything that needs to be in place for this to run and run smoothly, and, we're excited.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

All right. I can't wait to hear about and keep following up on the success there in the Buffalo region. Uh, so. As we kinda wrap up a little bit, where can people find information about your work? Now you just talked about some things that you have coming up in terms of plans for the area, for the district, et cetera, for the school year. Do you personally have any upcoming projects or publications or anything that you wanna make the audience aware of?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Sure. In terms of my current work here in Buffalo, Buffalo Public Schools has their website. It's really easy to navigate. You can go in under the departments and you'll find Multilingual Education and that will open up our website. There you'll see all the resources that we have in place, how we handle, translation, interpretation, the portal that we've created to submit documents or request interpreters and what that looks like for the schools. I have to say, for myself personally, um, I continue to be an active member of the New York City Association of Bilingual Education. So NYSABE has their annual conferences coming up in March of this coming year, and like I said, as a Past President, I am forever part of NYSABE, so I continue my work there and I'm also currently a Regional Director and the secretary for the New York State Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents. So, that also allows me to network and work with superintendents. And both of those websites are available. You can see them and you can see our work through there as well.

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Such a busy woman. Hearing all of this, I'm even more grateful that you took some time out to talk to me, today. So now I'm just going to ask the question I ask all of our guests, which is, what burning question should today's educators consider in order to improve their service to the ELL and ML community?

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

I would say that as we get ready to start the school year, and you walk into your school and you walk into your classrooms, is every single child represented on the walls and in the classrooms? They tell a story. Even without them sitting in the room, the walls in the rooms tell a story. And are your students represented? Do they feel safe and have you put things in place to provide equitable access to instruction and content?

yasmeen--she-her-_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Nice. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Alicia Baez, thank you so much for being a guest here on the RBERNing Questions podcast.

alicia-baez_1_08-27-2024_091336:

Anytime. You're amazing. Thank you so much.

Yasmeen:

Thank you for tuning in to RBERNing Questions, produced by Mid-State RBERN at OCM BOCES. If you would like to learn more about today's guest or any of the resources we discussed, please visit Mid-State RBERN's webpage at ocmboces.org. That's O-C-M-BOCES.org. Join us next time where we hope to answer more of your burning questions.