Cheryl McElvain, Ed.D.Lecturer - Interdisciplinary Education and Basic Teacher Credential ProgramsCheryl McElvain personifies the legacy of three generations of California public school teachers. Growing up in San Jose California, she frequently visited her grandparents who experienced the Dust Bowl migration from Oklahoma to the Salinas Valley as migrant farm workers. Their resilient spirit instilled a strong work ethic and passion for justice that Cheryl continues to share with many immigrant families today. From the age of 5 Cheryl knew she wanted to be a teacher, so it was not a surprise that she received her teaching credential in 1975 from San Jose State University, her parents’ alma mater. For the next 30 years, Cheryl taught K-8th grade multilingual populations in northern California public and private schools focusing her attention on marginalized immigrant populations and English language learners. In 2001 she earned an M.A. in Language and Literacy along with a Reading Specialist Credential from San Jose State University. In 2005 she earned an Ed.D. in International and Multicultural Education with an emphasis in Second Language Acquisition from the University of San Francisco.Understanding the obstacles facing underserved first and second-generation immigrant students in California, Cheryl has focused her research efforts on ELL literacy instruction, bilingual cognition, and developing transactional learning communities for second-generation immigrants. Collaborating with Discovery Counseling Center and South County Housing, in 2007 Cheryl developed and began to study an after school tutorial program called The Bridge Project that continues to support educational advances for low income preschool-high school English language learners and their families. http://youtu.be/5yl0Nt89kR The study investigated student’s L2 reading skills, and attitudes about literacy. It also explored parental attitudes about education, immigration, and their socio-cultural identity within the community. The 2-year study found that students in the program increased their average reading scores by 1.5 grade levels compared to their peers not in the program who typically fall behind .5 years in reading for every year they are in school. Funded by the Santa Clara University Dean’s Grant, Cheryl coauthored a case study during the 2010-2011 school year to research the effect of inquiry learning on the cognitive academic language proficiency skills of 5th grade bilingual students at a K-8 French/English immersion school in the San Francisco Bay Area. Preliminary findings showed an increase in student academic achievement on standardized tests compared to the control group in the traditional immersion program. Cheryl lives in Morgan Hill California with her husband Larry. She enjoys morning hikes, discovering with her two young grandsons, and traveling around the world.Cheryl’s recent publications include: McElvain, C. (In Submission). The role of family in the acculturative experiences of Latino immigrants. In J. Moreno and J. Benitez (Eds.), Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today . McElvain, C. (2010). Transactional literature circles and the reading comprehension of at-risk English learners in the mainstream classroom. Journal of Research In Reading, 33 (2), 178-205 McElvain, C. (2009). English learners reading in the transactional learning community. In J.L. McConnell-Farmer (Ed.), The education of young children: Research and public policy (pp. 47-64). Louisville, KY: Linton Atlantic Books, Ltd.
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