The School of Education (SOE) has an ESL Advisory Council that provides input regarding program strengths and challenges. This council consists of ESL educators in P-12 schools and in adult ESL settings. Many council members are alumni of UAB's ESL teacher education program. The SOE's ESL Advisory Council meets about once a year with ESL faculty who greatly value and appreciate the perspectives and suggestions provided by council members and also by other school partners.

As part of its accreditation process, the SOE is required to maintain ongoing relationships with its partnering educational institutions and routinely incorporates feedback as impetus for program changes and progress. These reciprocal relationships greatly impact the quality of preparation programs for teacher candidates. Through quality preparation, alumni from our ESL program are able to provide highly effective instruction for supporting the linguistic and academic progress of English language learners, from pre-school through graduate school and beyond.

From 2015 to 2018, the SOE's Department of Curriculum and Instruction convened the advisory councils from each of its program areas, including ESL, for a joint dinner meeting. These meetings took place on the following dates: 2/10/2015, 2/13/2016, 2/13/2017, and 4/05/2018. During each of these meetings, ESL Advisory Council members met with ESL faculty and provided feedback to the following questions:

• What do you view as strengths of our program?
• What do you view as challenges for our program?
• What recommendations do you have for improving our program?

April 5, 2018 Advisory Council

ESL: Early Childhood/Elementary
Agenda
Moderators: Kelly Hill and Julie Paul
Members: Robin Kelley (Birmingham), Margaret Sholar (Etowah), Abby Becker (Homewood), Wendy McBride (Hoover), Kiffany Gebhardt (Shelby), and Sherlen McDonald (Tarrant)

ESL: Secondary Education
Agenda
Moderator: Richard Littleton
Members: Karen Hill (Alabaster), Jesse Smith (Attalla City), Jenny Harvey (Homewood), Marianne Pledger and Tanya Hiers (Jefferson), Julie Caine (Shelby), and Anne Pace (Tarrant)

ESL: Adult Learner Settings
Agenda
Moderator: Melissa Hawkins
Members: Anna Skees and Oscar Garcia (INTO UAB), Stephanie Lyas (Literacy Council), Stacye Thompson (Community Colleges), Linda DeRocher and Tricia Merritt (Community ESL), Sandra Flynn (Faith-based ESL), Gonul Uguralp (Translating)

ESL Grants Advisory Councils

In addition to this program-wide ESL advisory council, each of the UAB K-12 ESL grants has also had its own advisory council. Each of these grant-specific councils has met regularly throughout the life of its program.

2009-2014 Advisory Councils

With respect to the teaching of ESL to adult learners, an advisory council met from 2009 to 2014. Its main purpose was to ensure the quality preparation of teachers for providing ESL services to adult language learners. Representing a wide range of ESL services for adults, council members came from community-based and faith-based programs in both urban and rural areas as well as from community colleges and higher education.

The earlier ESL Advisory Council had the following objectives:

• Support the MAED/ESL's new International Track for preparing ESL teachers of adult learners
• Identify needs of diverse service providers that offer ESL classes to adult language learners
• Receive feedback on how the MAEd/ESL can better help providers in meeting these needs
• Evaluate outcomes of the International Track in preparing ESL teachers of adult learners
• Make recommendations to improve the MAEd/ESL program's International Track 

Below are the 2009-2014 agendas and members of the Advisory Council for teaching ESL to adults:

January 13, 2014
Agenda
Members

January 19, 2012
Agenda
Members

February 15, 2011
Agenda
Members

February 9, 2010
Agenda
Members

February 10, 2009
Agenda
Members