SRI examined the implementation and impact of an online professional development program for K–8 pre-service and in-service bilingual educators and in-person math workshops for caregivers of bilingual children.
Summary
SRI partnered with educators at the University of California, Davis, San José State University, and Santa Clara University to understand the implementation and impact of an online professional development series—Bilingual/Biliterate Instruction for Bilingual Youth (BBILY)—designed to increase bilingual educator efficacy. Funded by a National Professional Develoment grant from the U.S. Department of Education, hundreds of K–8 teachers completed the workshops between 2022 and 2026. SRI examined feedback on courses, changes in educator beliefs and confidence, and student achievement. Findings show positive engagement from teachers and improvement in educator confidence with respect to meeting the needs of their bilingual and biliterate students. SRI also found evidence suggesting that teachers’ participation in the BBILY professional development program led to positive, statistically significant impacts on their students’ Spanish language arts achievement.
About the Project
Spanish-speaking students classified as multilingual learners (MLs) or English Learners (EL) thrive when educators build on and strengthen their existing Spanish skills—often in the form of dual-language education (Steele et al., 2017). As students deepen their proficiency in Spanish, they draw on knowledge from their first language to support learning in English (Proctor et al., 2017). California serves the largest share of MLs in the nation—more than 19 percent of its students, but has long faced a shortage of educators prepared to provide bilingual instruction (Alvarado, 2024). At the same time, prospective bilingual teachers may lack confidence in their ability to teach in Spanish (Briceño et al., 2018), while many practicing bilingual educators report needing opportunities to learn about current evidence-based practices (Figueroa, 2023).
What is BBILY?
The Bilingual/Biliterate Instruction for Bilingual Youth program sought to fill a dearth in Spanish-language professional learning opportunities for bilingual teachers in California by providing K–8 pre-service and in-service teachers flexible online professional development (PD). Intended to be taken over 6-months, the 34-hour PD series is conducted primarily in Spanish and covers key components of bilingual theory, culturally and linguistically responsiveness, and evidence-based literacy practices (Vaughn et al., 2009). Funded by a five-year National Professional Development grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the PD program has been completed by hundreds of educators across California and New Mexico between 2022 and 2026.
During this same time period, the BBILY project team offered a five-session, two-hour Spanish-language workshop series to parents and caregivers of bilingual elementary students. The workshops were offered in-person in both 2024 and 2025. Each workshop focused on a subject within mathematics—foundational skills, word problems, geometry, and fractions—and was led by local elementary teachers.
How was SRI involved in the BBILY project?
SRI supported the BBILY project team by conducting an independent evaluation examining the implementation of the professional development program and its impact on teachers and students. The research team collected data in the form of workshop evaluations, surveys, interviews, and observations to provide ongoing formative feedback to the BBILY project team, which informed continuous improvement and project revisions. SRI also conducted a one-year quasi-experimental design (QED) study using extant data from standardized tests to estimate the impact of grade 4–8 teachers’ participation in BBILY on their students language and literacy achievement in English and Spanish.
What did the evaluation find?
Teacher experiences with BBILY were overwhelmingly positive. Between 90–100% of teachers who finished workshop evaluations across modules within the PD reported the content was relevant and effective.
The evidence-based BBILY professional development workshops also increased teachers’ efficacy in their knowledge and skills with MLs. To measure these constructs, SRI leveraged a pre- and post-survey to track changes in participants’ beliefs about working with multilingual learners and confidence with linguistically and culturally responsive teaching competencies. Results show positive increases across all scales across all years of BBILY completers, with statistically significant changes in confidence and beliefs in literacy learning.
The BBILY mathematics workshops also served as a school-to-home bridge, bringing Spanish-language content instruction directly to caregivers. Caregivers overwhelmingly felt supported in the workshops, reported learning something new, and deepened their relationship to the school community, including with teachers and other caregivers. These sentiments were also reflected in caregiver interviews, where caregivers reported feeling empowered to support their children’s math learning, that the workshops fostered authentic engagement with teachers and other caregivers, and that they affirmed their ways of knowing math.
Finally, SRI found that teachers participating in BBILY had a positive, statistically significant impact on their students’ Spanish literacy outcomes but did not have an effect on comparable English language and literacy measures. These findings provide limited evidence to support BBILY’s effectiveness in improving academic outcomes, particularly in Spanish, for bilingual youth. The absence of significant effects on English outcomes after one year does not rule out the possibility of longer-term improvement. Impacts on English language outcomes may take longer to emerge as teachers integrate BBILY practices into their bilingual instruction.
Resources
- Briefs
- The Impact of of the Bilingual/Biliterate Instruction for Bilingual Youth (BBILY) Professional Development Program on Student Achievement
- In-Service Teacher Perceptions of the Bilingual/Biliterate Instruction for Bilingual Youth (BBILY) Professional Development
- Blog
- Microsite project page
- Journal Article
- Journal Article
- BBILY Professional Development Project Page
Associated fields of research
Associated SRI team members
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Sara Rutherford-Quach
Principal Education Researcher, SRI Education
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Haiwen Wang
Senior Principal Education Researcher and Evaluation Methods Lead
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Qican (Sunny) Cao
Data Analyst, SRI Education
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Elisa Garcia
Principal Researcher, SRI Education
