WABE 2026 Annual Conference

This session explores how a district can scale inclusive, research-based instructional strategies—using GLAD—to strengthen language development, student engagement, and equitable access to grade-level content for all learners. Participants will walk away with one district’s map of structures for training, coaching, and sustaining practices that support multilingual learners and all students based on experiences growing GLAD in a district with 10,000 students.

This presentation highlights leadership as the driver of dual language success, using Manor ISD’s partnership with Ensemble Learning to illustrate how a clear vision, aligned systems, and sustained professional learning—consistent with the TxEDLIF Leadership Lever—enable program coherence, instructional quality, and improved outcomes for emergent bilingual students.

Break the box! Learn simple, creative strategies that spark student ownership through deeper student & family connection, engaging conversations, and passion based hooks that slide seamlessly into everyday lessons. PLUS: best practices to align leaders, teams, departments, families, and community partners so students become active participants, and architects of their learning.

Join Katelynn Brown, a Professional Development Specialist in the world of Multilingual Education, in this practical, high-leverage session. Katelynn will guide participants through deconstructing the WIDA Standards to identify the “hidden language clues”—the specific grammatical features, cohesive devices, text structures, and disciplinary vocabulary—that underpin each Key Language Uses in rigorous academic text.