Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Second Language Acquisition: Data Analysis of Emergent Bilingual Students
Presenter: Roxana Stanley, M.Ed
Understanding second language acquisition is essential for making informed evaluation decisions for emergent bilingual students. In this session, participants will explore how the stages of second language acquisition influence assessment results and learn how to analyze multiple sources of data to distinguish language difference from disability. Through practical examples and real-world scenarios, attendees will gain strategies for interpreting language proficiency data, academic performance, classroom observations, and evaluation results to develop defensible, data-driven conclusions. This presentation is designed to help all evaluators (both monolingual and bilingual) increase confidence in their decision-making while promoting equitable assessment practices for emergent bilingual students.
Roxana Stanley, M.Ed., earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and her master’s degree in Special Education from Midwestern State University. She is a bilingual educational diagnostician, speaker, and founder of The Bilingual Diag, LLC. As a former emergent bilingual student herself, Roxana brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work, giving her a unique perspective on the importance of equitable, culturally and linguistically responsive evaluation practices. With more than a decade of experience evaluating emergent bilingual students, she is passionate about helping educators accurately distinguish language difference from disability through practical, research-based assessment practices. Roxana provides professional development across Texas and nationally, equipping educational diagnosticians, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and special education teams with strategies they can immediately apply in their evaluations. Her engaging, real-world approach makes complex assessment concepts accessible, practical, and relevant for today’s practitioners.
