In Philadelphia schools, you might hear students switching between English and their home languages sharing stories, tackling math problems, or greeting peers and teachers. These multilingual learners of English (MLEs) bring with them not only rich cultural knowledge, but also new opportunities for schools to grow. Therefore, supporting their success needs more than just language instruction. This takes a coordinated effort from educators, leaders and families alike. As Sabina Neugebauer explains, “Improving school culture, instruction and family engagement for MLEs must therefore be a coordinated, whole-school effort.” The School L.I.F.E. (Leadership Instruction and Family Engagement) Project was designed with this reality in mind.
Established in 2022 and led by the Principal Investigator, Neugebauer at Temple University’s College of Education and Human Development, the project takes a school-wide approach to promote the well-being and academic achievement of MLEs.
What makes the School L.I.F.E. Project stand out is its comprehensive model. Improvement isn’t limited to classrooms alone; it involves everyone in the school community. Principals, ESL specialists, bilingual paraprofessionals, teachers, and families/caregivers participate in collaborative professional development through workshops, podcasts, coaching and practical tools. The goal is to align efforts so that whether students are learning in class, engaging at home or navigating school systems, the adults around them are working toward the same goal.
The project isn’t just theoretical aspiration, it’s evidence-based. Drawing on empirical research on effective professional development models and evidence-based practices, the project provides professional development that is ongoing, hands-on and responsive to practical school contexts. Importantly, the strategies are flexible. They can be applied across subjects, grade levels, and curricula ensuring MLEs are supported in everyday environment within the school building.
A commitment to sustainability is also emphasized. Once the project’s professional development ends, the team works directly with school leaders to design long-term plans, policies and practices that ensure MLEs continue to be supported well into the future.
One of the most innovative features is its dual-pathway model for teacher professional development, where pre-service undergraduate students from Temple University are paired with in-service mentor teachers and receive synchronized and aligned training on the same core practices.
“Our program is the first, to our knowledge, to pair in-service mentors and pre-service mentees in a dual-pathway model centered on 10 core evidence-based strategies,” Neugebauer highlights. This integrated training facilitates strong mentoring relationships, collaborative conversations about practice, a joint mission and commitment to MLEs, and builds connections between teacher preparation and real-world practice.
Families and caregivers are central to the project’s sustainability, with opportunities to participate in workshops in their home language led by project-trained bilingual paraprofessionals that provide resources to support biliteracy at home. These spaces not only promote biliteracy and multiliteracies but also strengthen home and school connections and build supportive linguistic communities across schools.
The School L.I.F.E. Project is more than professional development. It is a movement to have schools as places where linguistic diversity is celebrated and sustained. With its focus on leadership, instruction and family engagement, the School L.I.F.E. Project creates a blueprint for how schools can honor the voices of multilingual learners and prepare the next generation of educators to do the same.
Neugebauer affirms, “We want schools to view this work not as a temporary initiative but as a critical and enduring part of their identity and one that continues to grow capacity, strengthen instruction and support multilingual learners well into the future.”
More information about the School L.I.F.E. Project, including how Temple students and educators can get involved, can be found on the program’s website.