Karla del Rosal, Ph.D. is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Annette Simmons School of Education and Human Development. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on bilingual education, ESL instruction, student diversity, and classroom assessment. Karla del Rosal has a Ph.D. in Educational Equity and Cultural Diversity from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her areas of expertise are teacher education, second language acquisition, cultural responsiveness, and formative assessment. She also has specialized in best practices for English learners in Mathematics and Science classrooms.
Karla has experienced our nation’s educational system through a wide variety of lenses. She is a Mexican immigrant who decided to become a bilingual teacher due to her son’s experiences in U.S. schools as an English learner. Karla is also is a former educational researcher who decided to go into the classroom full time and focus on preparing teachers.
Karla has experience teaching and coaching in elementary, middle school, and high school classrooms. She taught in bilingual and dual language classrooms in Texas and Colorado. In her previous job, she was a curriculum specialist at Plano ISD coaching teachers, offering training, developing curriculum, and accommodating assessments.
Previously as a researcher, Karla collaborated at 5 research projects at SMU investigating teacher education and the design of culturally responsive learning spaces. She also was Co PI in the 2.5 million Project Connect grant that prepares ESL teachers in West Dallas. Drawing from this work, Karla published seven academic articles, four book chapters, and one teacher article. Five of these publications were published in top tier academic journals of teacher education, bilingual education, science education, and urban education.
In regard to educating teachers of English learners, at CU Boulder, Karla designed and taught courses that integrated disciplinary content instruction and second language acquisition methods at CU . Also, while working at the BUENO Multicultural Education Center, she offered professional development to teachers of ELs in the region. At SMU, she has taught six Masters level courses including: Instruction and Assessment for English Learners, Diverse Learners, Differentiated Instruction, Bilingual Content Instruction, Culture and Community in Education, and Design and Assessment for Learning. For these classes, Karla has designed syllabi that develop teachers’ conceptual understanding of the role of language in learning and of the process of second language acquisition. These syllabi also ensure that teachers reflect on what they learn and apply it to their practice.
