Barbara Marler

Barbara Marler

Barbara Marler has more than 30 years of experience in bilingual/ESL education. She has taught students in both ESL and bilingual programs in grades K‑8, served as a Title VII preschool director, and directed the bilingual/ESL and foreign language programs in a large suburban school district in Illinois. She is certified in both ESL and special education and has a master’s degree in administration and supervision from National Louis University.
Since coming to the Illinois Resource Center (IRC) in Arlington Heights, she has served as the primary consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education in the area of Newcomers’ Centers, coordinated Project READ WELL (a Title III professional development program for mainstream teachers working with English language learners in northeastern Illinois), and mentored a cadre of adjunct instructors teaching the graduate course, Assessment of Language Minority Students. Marler also coauthored Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services, was retained as an expert in ELL matters by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and served as the lead developer of the Perfect Match staff development series (a joint IRC and World‑Class Instructional Design and Assessment [WIDA] endeavor) focused on research/evidence‑based ELL program design. Her focus and interests are program design/management, systemwide reform/restructuring, assessment/evaluation, Title III programming, partnering with community agencies, response to intervention (RtI) and special education for language minority students, effective instructional strategies, and school efforts to reduce cultural conflict.