McGraw-Hill Education Joins with National Association for Bilingual Education to Drive Awareness for "My Name, My Identity" Campaign

NEW YORK, March 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- McGraw-Hill Education, a learning science company, today announced partnership with the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) to support their "My Name, My Identity" campaign, as part of a collaboration with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE). The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the importance of properly pronouncing each individual student's name, thereby respecting one's identity while building an inclusive and caring school environment that values diversity. McGraw-Hill Education is the founding educational partner in the campaign and has initiated its support with a monetary donation for NABE's work around policies, programs, research, pedagogy and professional development for bilingual and multilingual students and teaching.

To advance this cause and inspire action, the My Name, My Identity campaign is encouraging educators, students and communities to pledge their promise to properly pronounce every student's name and has a goal of securing one million pledges by February 2017.

"NABE's mission to promote educational equality and excellence for bilingual and multilingual students aligns with one of our core values – to keep the learner, including English learners, at the heart of everything we do," said Christine Willig, president of McGraw-Hill Education's PreK-12 group. "At McGraw-Hill Education we empower great teaching, and learning how to pronounce and value students' names is just another critically important way of building a positive teaching and learning culture that is founded on respect."

"I started the My Name, My Identity campaign based on my own personal experiences," said Yee Wan, NABE president and director of multilingual education services at SCCOE. "Mispronouncing a student's name truly negates his or her identity, which, in turn, can hinder academic progress. We need to revitalize our commitment to English learners, and that's why we are excited to be working with a leading education company like McGraw-Hill Education to help raise awareness for this important issue."

McGraw-Hill Education's support for NABE underscores the company's overall commitment to diversity, demonstrated through a number of community programs supported annually, as well as recruiting efforts and employee resource groups that promote a diverse, inclusive workplace. We are committed to providing appropriate learning scaffolds across all curriculum areas to help students learn academic language and increase their proficiency.  For example, in K-6, McGraw-Hill Education offers core programs such as Maravillas, a Spanish Language Arts program that supports students as they become bilingual and biliterate.

About McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill Education is a learning science company that delivers personalized learning experiences that help students, parents, educators and professionals drive results. McGraw-Hill Education has offices across North America, India, China, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and makes its learning solutions available in nearly 60 languages. Visit us at mheducation.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

About the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) 
The National Association for Bilingual Education is the only national professional organization devoted to representing English learners and bilingual education professionals.  NABE has affiliates in 18 states, which collectively represent more than 5,000 members.  NABE's mission is to advocate for educational equity and excellence for English learners in a global society.

Contact: 
Tiffany Eckelberg 
McGraw-Hill Education 
(646) 766-2434 
tiffany.eckelberg@mheducation.com

Yee Wan, Ed.D. 
Santa Clara County Office of Education/NABE 
(408) 453-6825 
yee_wan@sccoe.org

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SOURCE McGraw-Hill Education