Rachel Lagunoff supports schools, districts, and states in designing and implementing programs and practices to improve the success of students designated as English Learners, supporting their simultaneous development of linguistic proficiency and academic content knowledge.
Lagunoff has extensive experience developing and aligning K–12 and adult English language development standards. She collaborates with states and districts to create resources that help educators successfully implement these standards in schools and classrooms. She evaluates districts’ programs for English Learners and collaborates with stakeholders to develop comprehensive master plans for English Learner success.
Lagunoff coauthored Supporting English Learners During School Closures: Considerations for Designing Distance Learning Experiences, which explains the value of practices known to be effective in meeting the instructional needs of English Learners and suggests how each practice might be applied in distance learning contexts.
Lagunoff also coauthored two WestEd guidebooks describing effective strategies for teaching language within science and mathematics courses in grades 6–12: Making Science Accessible to English Learners: A Guidebook for Teachers, and Making Mathematics Accessible to English Learners: A Guidebook for Teachers.
Prior to joining WestEd, Lagunoff taught college courses in sociolinguistics and developmental writing for English learners and taught teacher education courses in second language acquisition, high school English and French, and a variety of English as a second language classes for adults.
Lagunoff received an MA in French from Middlebury College, an MA in teaching English as a second language and a PhD in applied linguistics, both from University of California, Los Angeles.