Education

Life After Being an Education Department Official

By Mary Ann Zehr — February 19, 2009 1 min read
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Margarita Pinkos, a former director of the U.S. Department of Education’s office of English-language acquisition under the George W. Bush administration, has gone back to where she left off in Palm Beach County as an administrator for English-language learners. She’s quoted in a South Florida Sun Sentinel article published today as challenging the Florida Department of Education’s proposal to reduce hours of training that reading teachers in Florida must attain to work with English-language learners.

Pinkos is the executive director of multicultural education for Palm Beach County schools. She had that same job before she moved to Washington in May 2006 to become a policy adviser in the Education Department. From December 2007 to May 2008, she directed the office of English-language acquisition.

The article reports that Florida education officials, though they had considered lessening the requirement for ELL training for reading teachers, decided to keep it in place until after they can properly review the 25 standards for what teachers must know and be able to do.

A number of educators in favor of keeping the requirement in place have been active in commenting on this blog. I haven’t heard much from those who want to see the requirement eased up, though I know they’re out there.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Learning the Language blog.