Samuel Aguirre is the Senior Director of the Consortium and State Relations Department at WIDA. His team engages and supports WIDA Consortium member states to ensure successful implementation of all WIDA products and services. The Consortium and States Relations team also engages and facilitates state expertise within WIDA to deliver high quality products and services for multilingual learners and their educators. Sam’s life experiences as an immigrant and language learner in the U.S., work as a classroom educator, advocate working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and director of multilingual student services at a state education agency provide a strong foundation for his role at WIDA. Sam joined WIDA in fall of 2019 as director of WIDA Español and transitioned to his current role in August 2024.

Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in Bilingual Bicultural Elementary Education from Northeastern Illinois University and a masters in Second Language Studies with a concentration in Engaged Language Policy and Practice from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Sam is currently completing a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Bilingual Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

E-mail: saaguirre@wisc.edu

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WIDA Webinars

Explore how digital-age teaching strategies can transform learning for multilingual and multicultural students in this engaging podcast. We’ll uncover the advantages of flipped learning and discuss how to design equitable approaches that meet the needs of diverse learners. Dive into practical methods for balancing the six language domains—listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and visually representing—within innovative, tech-enhanced curricula.

Learn how to craft assessments that foster critical thinking and creativity, and discover the power of virtual communities in enhancing collaboration between students, parents, and educators. Finally, we’ll examine how schools can create holistic digital ecosystems that ensure equitable access while celebrating the linguistic richness of all students. Perfect for educators, administrators, and advocates committed to inclusive, forward-thinking education!

Links:

Digital-Age Teaching for English Learners and Appendices & Resources

David Rogers supports the work of Dual Language Education of New Mexico-DLeNM whose mission is to promote the effective design and implementation of dual language education in New Mexico, and beyond.

In his thirty-five years as an educator, David has served as an education volunteer and program coordinator in Peace Corps Paraguay, South America, a bilingual special education teacher in South Bronx, NY, and as a dual language classroom teacher, bilingual program coordinator, and school principal in the South Valley of Albuquerque. In 1996 David and his colleagues helped to organize the first La Cosecha Dual Language Conference, which was hosted by DLeNM, where David served from 1999 until 2022 as its first Executive Director.

David is an advocate for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and has provided leadership support for advocacy groups like Transform Education New Mexico and NM Hispanic Education Advisory Council, and NCEL.

David is husband to dual language educator Rosie González-Rogers, and together they have four bilingual/multicultural daughters and call Albuquerque, New Mexico their home.

www.dlenm.org

https://www.lacosechaconference.org/