ACE-STEM Spotlight
ACE-STEM Summer Institute 2025
Thank you for attending the ACE-STEM Summer Institute 2025! The Summer Institute ran from June 16th to June 18th, 2025. The Summer Institute, attended by ACE-STEM Cohort 2, in-service and pre-service teachers, and school leaders, was a three day conference filled with engaging discussions, inspiring workshops, and a community of teachers eager to help their multilingual learners in the classroom. The Institute also welcomed experts in educational research to present on new and current strategies for working with multilingual learners and hold workshops for attendees, which included presenters from our Cohort 1 teachers! Presentations and workshops included topics such as music in language learning, translanguaging, Universal Design for Learning, and panel discussions from local school leaders on multilingual learner advocacy. Teachers also got a chance to learn about Multilingual Family Literacy Projects in PWCS schools. Check out the video highlights from the Summer Institute!
Year 4 MFTP – Storytelling Night @ Graham Park Middle School
Seventeen multilingual students and families at Graham Park Middle School participated in a book creation project as a part of their classroom activities, facilitated by Ms. Janira Collado, an ESOL teacher. ACE-STEM supported Ms. Collado’s Multilingual Families Transliteracies Project by funding the book publishing. The Graham Park Middle School community celebrated and showcased their accomplishments at the Storytelling Night on February 27, 2025.
Year 4 MFTP – Heritage Night: Benton Loves to Read! @ Benton Middle School
“Benton Loves to Read!” is a literacy engagement initiative spearheaded by two ESOL teachers, Ms. Karen Edwards and Ms. Christa Clore-Edmonds at Benton Middle School. Interactive stations during the Heritage Night introduced multilingual books and literacy games funded by ACE-STEM’s Multilingual Families Transliteracies Project. Transliteracies activities will continue until the end of the school year with their multilingual students and their families. Ms. Edwards was also invited to present to the new teachers at Benton MS about supporting multilingual students in the content classrooms. The title of Ms. Edwards’ presentation was, “Every Teacher is a Language Teacher,” and she shared valuable insights she gained from her interactions with the MLs and the learning from her experience in ACE-STEM Cohort 1.
ACE-STEM Mission
Throughout the 5-year project, ACE-STEM will serve 60 PWCS teachers in K-8 classrooms to build competence as educators with strong knowledge and expertise in designing instruction that promotes deep content learning and language and literacy development simultaneously. Additionally, extensive engagement opportunities using innovative digital education tools will build PWCS teachers’ capacity for teaching with technology. Professional learning opportunities and family engagement events will be planned as an overarching approach to ensure an integrative and cohesive continuum model of equitable EL education that is in alignment with culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies.
Research Grant
ACE-STEM is a National Professional Development (NPD) Grant Project funded by the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), U.S. Department of Education (Fall 2021 – Summer 2026). ACE-STEM aims to support the education of English learners by providing quality professional development for English Learner (EL) educators.
Partnership
In partnership with Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS), George Mason University’s ACE-STEM Project Team will provide a rigorous, evidence-based, and innovative PD program to enhance participating teachers’ content-integrated instruction with a focus on STEM. PWCS is the second largest school district in the Commonwealth of Virginia with increasingly diverse EL populations.
