2007 CREATE Conference
Academic Language and Content:
A Focus on English Language Learners in the Middle School
Speaker Biography
JANA ECHEVARRIA (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1993) is a Professor of
Education at California State University, Long Beach. Her professional experience
includes elementary and secondary teaching in general education, special education,
English as a Second Language and bilingual programs. She has lived in Taiwan and
Mexico where she taught ESL and second language acquisition courses at the
university level, as well as in Spain where she conducted research on instructional
programs for immigrant students. Her UCLA doctorate earned her an award from the
National Association for Bilingual Education's Outstanding Dissertations Competition.
Her research and publications focus on effective instruction for English learners,
including those with learning disabilities. She is an internationally known expert on
English learners and has, among other publications, co-authored nine books including, Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners: The SIOP Model and Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching Students With Diverse Abilities, both published
by Allyn & Bacon. The SIOP Model of instruction is used widely in all 50 states and
several countries. Currently, she is Co-Principal Investigator with the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
(IES). In 2005, Dr. Echevarria was selected as Outstanding Professor at CSULB.
Dr. Echevarria presented Academic Uses of English: A Focus on Science at the 2007 CREATE Conference.