When Brooke Martin got promoted to executive director of career and technical education at Aldine Independent School District in Harris County, Texas, last year, one of the first people she heard from was the district鈥檚 multilingual services executive director.
The director, Altagracia 鈥淕race鈥� Delgado, had been looking into how the district鈥檚 English learner students engaged with electives. She had just collaborated with district leaders in the arts and had set her sights on how to ensure English learners at Aldine had equitable access to CTE programs.
Thus began an ongoing collaboration between the two education worlds. This year, the pair worked together to provide professional development for new CTE industry instructors on how to best teach English learners and to better inform English learner families what their students could get out of CTE programs.
Such cross-departmental collaboration is key for English learners鈥� success in CTE and all other aspects of school, according to a new analysis.
Delgado and Martin spoke with Education Week on advice for effective cross-departmental collaboration.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why is it important for departments to collaborate when providing services to ELs?
Martin: My students are her students, her students are mine. And while sometimes our circles of overlay may not be as large in some areas, we鈥檙e all speaking the same language, and supporting in the same manner. So something that students may see in one class, it鈥檒l transfer over to another.
Delgado: Before we put any additional labels, students are students first. So we need to do as much as we can to support them from all angles so they get the benefit of the school district as a whole.
How did you collaborate to ensure emergent bilinguals have access to quality CTE programming?
Delgado: [The Office of English Language Acquisition within the U.S. Department of Education] actually did a report on CTE with ELs last summer, when [Martin] was coming into her position. That was the first email she got from me. I was like 鈥淥h, this report just published.鈥� And her response was, 鈥淎ctually, I鈥檝e been thinking about some work that we need to do together. So let鈥檚 go ahead and have lunch.鈥�
She had been analyzing the needs of her demographics in her classes and I had been thinking, OK, we really need to address CTE, because that鈥檚 a massive component of our high schools and we know that kids need access and support in those classrooms.
Martin: Building relationships, it鈥檚 not mandatory, but let me tell you how much easier and how seamless it becomes. When I first became an executive director, [Delgado] was one of the first ones that texted me and said, 鈥淗ere鈥檚 my cellphone number.鈥� As you transition from program director to executive director, you have questions.
It was just an olive branch to a new role that I had not experienced. And so that鈥檚 when we went into collaboration. Outside of just pedagogy and content support, it just became easy. We started talking about ideas, and it鈥檚 like, 鈥淥h, wait, this will be good for you. That鈥檚 a great idea. This will work well for us. This is how you marry this.鈥�
I think when we鈥檙e so stuck in our silos and not collaborating together, I become very defensive of the same kids that she鈥檚 defensive about. And so, if we already have this easy collaboration going on, anything that we鈥檙e going to do moving forward becomes that much easier. And then our teachers see that we鈥檙e supporting students from our end and it just kind of brings everything together.
Delgado: We just started trying things with the departments. But the personal part, just having lunch, that 鈥淗ey, what are you doing today for lunch,鈥� we鈥檙e talking about the family. Building a personal relationship has helped in work collaboration.
What advice do you have for those facing obstacles to collaboration such as time constraints?
Delgado: Find your allies. It鈥檚 a phrase that I use a lot, because there鈥檚 always somebody that is trying to solve the same problem. So it doesn鈥檛 have to be massive, it can be like, 鈥淥h, can we do something, the two of us for these kids.鈥� And maybe it鈥檚 two classrooms in a school, maybe it鈥檚 one document that鈥檚 going to support something, and it鈥檚 something little. I think just something that鈥檚 relatable鈥攖hat we can build together, and solidify鈥攃an then become the foundation for more things to come for more people to want to work in collaboration.
Martin: [Delgado] can鈥檛 speak 100 percent on CTE and I can鈥檛 speak 100 percent on multilingual. But the fact that we鈥檝e now built to where we鈥檝e gone to separate groups, now we鈥檙e just this one big group where now we can all speak the same in common verbiage.
What other advice do you have in engaging with cross-departmental collaboration?
Delgado: I would just say stay curious. What our kids have access to鈥攊t鈥檚 so different from what we had, for me, years ago. So just stay curious and listen to the kids. They have a lot of interesting ideas that can be integrated [into] a lot of these things.
Martin: The biggest advice that I can say is, it鈥檚 not personal, it鈥檚 intentional. It鈥檚 not about me, it鈥檚 not about what I want, what I think is going to be best. If I鈥檓 implementing something, I need to touch it, feel it, see it in action. And if you鈥檙e not doing that, and you鈥檙e not being intentional about the work, and you鈥檙e just throwing it out there, you鈥檙e not thinking of students.
So if you鈥檙e not in it with the work and you鈥檙e not dealing with the kids, you鈥檙e not physically there seeing it, then you have no connection. And I don鈥檛 know how you make real change, if you鈥檙e not physically doing it.
