School districts have sought to create systemic plans for multilingual learners that move beyond compliance to insure coherence across their programs, policies and practices for their students and families. Understanding Language partners with districts to co-create, implement and refine their plans based on student evidence.

These six professional development essentials were created by Understanding Language to assist schools, school districts, state or county offices of education, and professional development providers as they design well-balanced professional development plans for educators of multilingual learners.

How do school communities create environments that fully prepare both English learners and dual-language learners for colleges and careers? UL staff contributed to the research and writing of this book, which profiles six high-performing high schools that had a singular focus on improving the educational outcomes of English learners.