Robert Linquanti

Robert Linquanti helps education leaders, policymakers, and practitioners better meet the needs of English learners, one of the nation’s fastest growing student populations.

As Project Director for English Learner Evaluation and Accountability Support (ELEAS) in WestEd's Comprehensive School Assistance Program, Linquanti helps school districts and state education agencies improve their assessment, evaluation, and accountability policies, practices, and systems for English learners. For example, he has helped several states (e.g., California, New York, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, West Virginia) analyze English language proficiency data and develop state policy to implement Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act. He continues to advise states on implementing Title III annual measurable achievement objectives, and serves on the California Department of Education’s California English Language Development Test Technical Advisory Committee. Linquanti is also a consultant to the 16-state WIDA Consortium, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) on state Title III assessments, accountability policies, and field guidance.

As a result of ELEAS's Evaluating English Learner Services and Results for Accountability and Instructional Improvement institutes, as well as ongoing technical assistance and consultation, Linquanti and other ELEAS staff have helped leadership teams in over 250 California districts analyze English learner language proficiency and academic achievement data; identify critical instructional issues; set goals; and monitor progress in English language development and academic core subjects. This work has led to ELEAS's collaboration -- via WestEd's California Comprehensive Center -- with CDE and other state service providers on strengthening technical assistance and capacity building for school districts needing to improve under Title III.

Linquanti is a Senior Research Associate for WestEd's Regional Educational Laboratory West. As such, he conducts and advises on applied research studies related to English learner instruction, assessment, evaluation, and accountability policies and practices.

Linquanti served as Associate Director of the five-year legislatively mandated, statewide evaluation of Proposition 227, conducted by WestEd and the American Institutes for Research. This research on the implementation and effects of Proposition 227, which requires English learners to be taught overwhelmingly in English and restricts bilingual instruction, has been widely cited and closely followed by policymakers, the national press, and other researchers in the field.

Linquanti has published and presented widely on evaluating EL education policies, language proficiency reclassification, and improving accountability for ELs.

Prior to joining WestEd in 1992, Linquanti administered and evaluated language training programs for Fulbright grantees with the Institute of International Education; taught English as a second language at the State University of New York (SUNY)-Buffalo and the U.S. Cultural Center in Madrid, Spain; and managed organizational change projects in local government and the private sector.

Linquanti earned a BA in English and Spanish literature and linguistics from SUNY-Buffalo; did postgraduate work in linguistics at the University of Madrid; and received an MPA in public policy analysis from Columbia University, where he was a Columbia Public Service Fellow.