Dr. Natalie Kuhlman, Ph.D.
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Professor Emeritus |
Education
- Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Arizona
- M.A. English Language Studies, San Francisco State University
- B.A. English, CSU Los Angeles
Background
A native Californian, I grew up in the Los Angeles area. I began my teaching career in Tucson, Arizona and have since taught in Puebla and Queretaro, Mexico and Krakow, Poland in addition to Arizona and California. I have been involved in education since 1970 as a teacher, teacher educator, activist for social justice, researcher and consultant. My current work is in the area of standards and performance based language assessment, and student and teacher standards for English Language Development. My dissertation focused on academic literacy acquisition by Tohono O'odham.
For twenty years I served as the Graduate Advisor for the Policy Studies Department at SDSU. I was also the co-coordinator for the California-site of the Mexico BCLAD credential program and served as the Resident Director for the program in Queretaro, Mexico during 2002-2003. I taught courses at the graduate level in language policy, assessment and bilingual research for the M.A. in Policy Studies and the Joint Doctoral program with Claremont Graduate University. While still associated with the department, I currently am primarily working as a consultant.
Projects, Grants, Research and Honors
I have received two honors over the years of which I am particularly proud. Most recently was the 2003 COE "Monty" Outstanding Faculty Award for Education. This award is especially meaningful as it comes from my colleagues at SDSU. In 1999, I received the CATESOL Sadae Iwataki Award for Outstanding Service to the organization and the field. This too came from my colleagues in my professional organization.
Nationally, I am a member of the NCATE Board, 2004-2007 (National Council on the Accreditation of Teacher Education) and the NCATE/TESOL Committee which has developed national p-12 ESL teacher program standards. I served as the Task Force Chair for English Language Development (ELD) Standards for the State of California under SB 748 (1997-99) and the Board of Directors of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages,1996-99) and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, English as a New Language, Advisory Board (June, 1998-June, 2001). In addition, I served as President of the California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL) organization from 1993-94.
Over a period of about twelve years (1989-2001), I received a Title VII grant (U.S. Office of Education, Bilingual Education) for over $1,000,000 which helped fund doctoral student work in the joint SDSU/Claremont Graduate University program.
Program Development
Mexico BCLAD. This program, now in its twelfth year, is made up of a consortium of ten CSUs stretching from Sacramento to San Diego, administrated through the CSU International Programs office. I have been involved with this program since its conceptual stages over fourteen years ago. The program combines educational course work, conducted in California and Mexico, with cultural immersion and intensive language study in Mexico. Practice teaching occurs in both public (urban and rural) and private schools in Mexico and in public schools in San Diego County resulting in bilingual certification for its participants. It has been supported both by CSU IP funds and a five year Title III professional development grant. The consortium has also received a five year grant, worth over $1,000,000 to support a similar program for in-service teachers who are not bilingually certified. I served as the Resident Director in Queretaro, Mexico for these programs in 2002-2003.
Teacher Standards Development
Over the past fourteen years, I have served on a variety of task forces and committees which have developed standards for children, pre and inservice teachers in the area of ELD and bilingual teacher preparation. These include the California CLAD and BCLAD credentials, the BCLAD Specialist, the CLAD and BCLAD Certificates and the k-12 California ELD Standards for students. At the national level I have been the TESOL Board Liaison to the TESOL p-12 ESL standards (for students) task force, and oversaw as a representative of the board several publications resulting from this committee's work. Currently I am a member of the NCATE/TESOL Task Force which has developed national p-12 ESL teacher program standards. In the past I have been a member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, English as a New Language, Advisory Board (ETS). As a result of this work, I have given workshops at the state, national and international levels regarding the need for teacher standards.
Performance Based Assessment Development: LOTS
I developed the Language Observation Task System (LOTS), as a performance based instrument for the San Diego County Office of Education. It is used by k-12 classroom teachers to document the growth in English of English Language Learners. It is based on the California ELD Standards and provides for the systematic input and feedback required of teachers for their schools and for the parents of their students.
Publications
Recent publications and presentations have focused on the area of language assessment, standards development and teacher preparation in an international setting. I have made presentations at various national and state conferences, as well as international conferences in Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay in recent years. Other research focuses on a five year longitudinal study of literacy development through journal writing of children in a two-way (Spanish/English) bilingual program, from first through fifth grade. Three articles were published in addition to numerous presentations at state and national conferences and two M.A. theses. I am also the co-editor of Cross Cultural Literacy, an edited volume with Fraida Dubin, (Prentice Hall, 1993).
Vitae
Available upon request: nkuhlman@mail.sdsu.edu
Other Interests
Away from the educational arena, I am an avid tennis player, mystery reader, amateur photographer and frequent traveler.