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Growing Bilingual Teacher Shortage in California

Teacher and school kid using digital table in library at schoolA new report released by Californians Together shows that many school districts across the state are currently facing a growing bilingual teacher shortage, and that in the near term, there is a pool of at least 7,000 bilingual teachers who are well positioned to begin to address this shortage, and need to be supported with professional development.

As more families choose language programs that lead to biliteracy for their children, the state should make it a priority to address this shortage without delay. But this is just the beginning. Of equal importance is building the bilingual teacher pipeline that will ensure sure programs succeed. These are the main recommendations presented in a report by Californians Together, a statewide group whose mission is to championing the success of English Learners.

The report confirms the fact that many districts fear facing shortages of bilingual teachers. Eighty six percent of those who participated in the survey anticipate major shortages with the expansion and growth of new programs. Despite this, few districts have a formal plan to deal with shortages, which could leave many students without access to the significant benefits of multilingualism.

“Almost 3 out of 4 voters supported Prop. 58 in November calling for multilingual programs in our schools. Without experienced and prepared bilingual teachers, districts will be unable to offer students the education that prepares them for a multilingual, interconnected and interdependent world,” says Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, Executive Director of Californians Together.

Research shows young children are wired to learn multiple languages, that the brain is most receptive to language learning in the earliest years of life, and that the home language is central to developing English proficiency and overall academic achievement.

The good news is that there are nearly 7,000 bilingual teachers, the majority of whom would be willing to teach in bilingual programs if they could have access to needed supports. Bilingual teachers need support to get caught up on the current research, pedagogy and best practices, opportunities to strengthen their second language, and additional compensation.


To ensure there is an adequate supply of teachers in the long term, the report recommends that higher education teacher preparation programs expand bilingual certification and credentialing opportunities, and that future bilingual teachers are recruited from among the 126,000 students who earn the Seal of Biliteracy.

“There’s no time to waste, we must advocate to make sure critical investments are in place so we may fully equip our current bilingual teachers to serve California students now, and develop the infrastructure to build the pipeline that meets the growing demand of families for bilingual education,” said Dr. Magaly Lavadenz, President of Californians Together.

Wales Government Aims to Increase Welsh Speakers to 1 million

Flying Wales FlagThe Welsh government has announced a new, ambitious plan to almost double the amount of Welsh speakers in the country. The declaration follows the 2011 census, which showed a drop in the number of speakers in Wales from 21.7 percent to 19 percent of the population, or 562,000. The government also seeks to increase the percentage of the population that speaks Welsh daily, and can speak more than just a few words from 10 percent to 20 percent. The goal’s deadline is 2020, and Welsh government aims to accomplish it through a three-step program.

1. Increase the Number of Welsh Speakers

Through the use of Welsh-medium (classes taught in the Welsh language) early education and an addition of 150 nursery groups, the government hopes to seamlessly transition elementary age students into Welsh-medium schooling. They will increase the proportion of school groups receiving Welsh-medium education a total of 18 percent, and increase the number of primary and secondary teachers who can teach Welsh, and teach in Welsh-medium from 5,200 to 10,600 over the course of the entire program. They also aim to “transform how we teach Welsh to all learners in order that at least 70% of those learners report by 2050 that they can speak Welsh by the time they leave school,” and “reform post-16 Welsh-medium education and skills,” although the details of how that will be accomplished is not laid out.

2. Increase the Use of Welsh

By reviewing the legislation that controls the usage of the Welsh language, and “ensure it offers a strong foundation for promoting and facilitating the use of Welsh,” the government hopes to spread the overall usage of the language. Certain laws have yet to be pointed out in the government’s announcement, although they do say that they aim to lead by example “by promoting and facilitating increased use of Welsh by our own workforce.”

3. Creating Favorable Conditions in Wales

The final strategy laid out was to develop a regional focus to shift economic development into all regions of Wales, in order to facilitate different areas to develop their own separate identities. They also hope to include technology for the advancement of the language, a tactic that has been used widely for other languages across the globe.

Doubling the amount of speakers is not an easy feat, but First Minister, Carwyn Jones, says the government is up for the challenge, saying, ““Reaching a million speakers is a deliberately ambitious target to so that the Welsh language thrives for future generations. There are challenges ahead, but we can undoubtedly face those in the knowledge that we are building from a position of strength.”

International Students Steadily Interested in U.S.

Diversity Casual Team Cheerful Community ConceptThe Institute of International Education (IIE) has announced a new survey on international admissions, and the conclusions are more optimistic than some may have expected.

The survey, titled “Shifting Tides: Understanding International Student Yield for Fall 2017” outlines the admission cycle in the 2017/18 year in the face of raised concerns among U.S. higher education institutions due to debates over visa and immigration policy. Based on the responses received from 165 colleges and universities, findings revealed that interest among international students remains steady overall.

Undergraduate Yields

While the findings were overall impressive, the interest did vary depending on the survey location within the U.S. The top four host states in the U.S. are California, New York, Texas, and Massachusetts, and all but Texas compare favorably to national patterns. While New York and Massachusetts remained steady in enrollment interest, and California reported a slight increase, Texas reported a sizable decrease in yield from 44 percent to 35 percent. Texas isn’t completely off the map though, since even though the state reported the sizable decrease, their interest is still notably higher than the national average.

While there was not a significant dip in international students’ willingness to enter U.S. higher education institutions, the findings of the survey did find that undergraduate yields have dipped slightly from 26 to 24 percent over the past year. The shift, though, is not necessarily indicative of purely international trends, as domestic students fell from 30 to 28 percent over the past year as well.

The survey findings also suggest that international interest varies by institutions, possibly due to the diverse institution types, programs, and locations that can shift student interest. Yields varied due to criteria such as private and public institutions, as private-not-for-profit institutions grew 5 percent, while public institutions dropped 6 percent.

Geographic regions also had differing yields, with the South seeing the greatest decrease in yields, falling 5 percent in yields. Institutions in the South also reported a 13 percent drop of offers that were extended to international students.

Another factor in decisions was students’ places of origin. According to the survey, “distinct patterns emerged in yield depending on students’ places of origin, as can be seen in the following graph.

Graduate Yields

The interest of international graduate students in U.S. higher education fared similar to undergraduate results as reported by a separate survey conducted in May 2017 by the Council of Graduate Schools. Graduate yield is showing evidence to similar shifts among master’s students, which is declines at 46 percent of responding institutions. The survey explains, “Given that the large majority of international graduate students are offered admission into master’s degree programs, this may have implications for first-time enrollment of international graduate students for Fall 2017.”

Conclusions

While many international students have concerns about studying at a higher institution in the U.S., the concerns do not seem to be hindering admissions. It is, however, difficult to draw conclusions base on a 2 percent average yield decrease, notably because many institutions “many institutions have adjusted their recruitment and admission strategies in an effort to minimize the impact of possible declines in international and domestic student applications, more aggressively following up with accepted students and mobilizing alumni and current students, among other strategies to increase yield. Many institutions also make strategic decisions based on the number of applications they receive and they calibrate their admissions offers to generate the desired class size and profile based on expected yield rates.”

There is a concern that the 2 percent decrease could be a signal for larger decreases in the future, and some respondents indicated that they are more concerned about possible declines in the 2018/19 year. At the moment, though, it seems that institutions continue to have a substantial amount of draw for international students to contribute academically.

Music Educator Spreads Spanish Through Song

Sara Quintanar, an elementary school music educator, bilingual songwriter, and performance artist, has taken the international community by storm with her songs in Spanish for English-speakers to learn the language.

Her work in bilingual music began when she volunteered for her daughter’s Spanish language immersion program at Franklin Magnet School in Los Angeles in 2010. With her background in Bilingual Education and music, she was later hired by the school to teach language education through music with her program “Music with Sarah.”

Much of her music is available online for free through bandcamp, and feature songs that educators all over the world can use. Her first CD, Canciones en Español, debuted in 2010, and began receiving messages from teachers all over the world who were interested in her music. Two years later she released her second CD, “Más Canciones en Español,” and has later released a holiday album. In February she released her first truly bilingual album, with songs having lyrics in both Spanish and English. A songbook published by Scholastic with First Five California titled, “Talk. Read. Sing.” accompanies the album. The “Talk. Read. Sing.” program features comprehensive literacy materials like posters, lessons, classroom charts, and bilingual tracking charts and activity prompts.

The program features music by Sara along with award-winning bilingual children’s author and recording artist José-Luis Orozco, who is notably known for his songbook De Colores.

Quintanar serves as an example for educators taking creative paths towards bilingualism. She told LA Times, “I saw a demand for simple music in Spanish — repetitive and easy for children to learn.” She went on to say, ““I’m a local Glendale mom getting two million views online for simple bilingual music,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be quick, flashy or fancy. It’s a voice that isn’t too fast or complicated. This is exciting for me.”

 

View Sarah’s music at http://musicwithsara.bandcamp.com, her website at http://sara-quintanar.squarespace.com, and her work with Scholastic at http://www.scholastic.com/first5ca/.

Speaking Spanish

group of school kids writing test in classroomVista Higher Learning’s Norah Lulich Jones explains how their new Senderos program gets students speaking in class

First, let us take a look at what students are hoping for, what we are hoping for as teachers, and why speaking in class might not happen as spontaneously as we might have hoped.
Students, even those who have not necessarily signed up for a world language class because of their own intrinsic interest (“My friends are all in this class”), usually say what they hope to get is the ability to speak with young people and make friends. That touches on what we want, too. Being sympathetic and knowledgeable, we use our friendly tone to warn them that they will not be able to speak fluently right away, that they should be ready to take risks and not be perfect, and that we are there to help them so they can make new friends all over the world. Why, then, does all that not get and keep students talking?
While we could spend a lot of time on adolescent psychology, goodness knows, we can sum up both students’ needs and students’ blockages with three words: survival, belonging, and competence. In the hierarchy of needs, these three come in order.
The students in our classes are adolescents who already have a native language; they have survived and do not need this new one to stay alive. So we can encourage, set up an immersive environment, and so forth, but the need to communicate is not linked to survival. Next, adolescents’ brains are wired so they really do feel like they will die if their friends reject them in any way. So, if taking a risk and failing loses them the group they belong to now, our promises of a larger group to belong to in the future provide little comfort. Even if students thread their way through these first two visceral needs, the very nature of learning a new language with an adult brain means they notice they sound like babies (lack of competence).
With these three strikes against adolescents, it is a wonder they speak at all. Yet there is hope, for these young-adult learners will respond to a corresponding trio of gifts we can provide them that will, indeed, get them talking. We can immerse them in motivation for the short term (so they can survive), in purposefulness for the long term (so they belong), and within personalization always (so they are competent). These three aspects are key no matter what instructional programs or resources are being used, and Vista Higher Learning’s Senderos program was specifically designed to address these key aspects in its instructional design, in its content, and in the integrated digital environment which was developed specifically for language acquisition.
Motivation short term for speech comes from a safe environment to explore without judgment, while receiving immediate feedback. It is like providing each individual student a flashlight to illuminate a pathway in the darkness. Motivation is the purpose and design around the student-directed learning approach of our program, both in print and online.
The first step we can take to invite motivation for speaking is to break the broader language topic into comprehensible, manageable language chunks. We tap on students’ successful survival in the world, as it were, by activating their prior knowledge, experiences, and opinions and then connecting each aspect to the material they are about to learn. Students go to their password-protected personal course on VHLCentral.com, where they begin in the Explore activity sequence. Through audio, text, photos, and media in storyboard video-clip format, students figure out where they “fit” in their new language, in a safe environment where they get immediate and private feedback without judgment. Their participation, not their performance level, is key. Just like using the flashlight on the pathway, each student can walk at the pace he or she wants. Comprehensible input is paired with self-pacing. Students feel like they are still in control of their lives: they can relax; they can survive.
Motivation for that short-term, daily support next comes through our shifting and leading students from purely receptive to interactive learning. The powerful Learn activity sequence of the online environment, for example, provides embedded quick checks which give students immediate, personalized feedback as they begin to speak, without grading (and thus demotivating) them. In the important area of vocabulary development, Learn is a cyclical learning sequence that moves from listening and repeating (“How does the word look and sound?”) to matching (“Which photo represents the word?”) to saying it (“Do I know how to recognize the photo and say the word?”). Students develop a sense of hope and confidence as they proceed in (literal) baby steps in learning how to speak, without peer judgment, and spending as much or as little time as needed for personal success.
Next, we lead students toward the deep end of the pool, as it were: actually saying something, but—here is our motivational goal—receiving immediate, appropriate feedback. Notice here that the feedback does not always have to be positive. In fact, students understand that real feedback in small doses, with pathways to improving personal performance quickly, respects them as adult learners. Such feedback is more “real” and more motivating than our well-meaning “Well done!” in any language. In Senderos, such instant and specific feedback is provided by the unique speech-recognition feature embedded in the presentation of vocabulary, pronunciation, and media sections. Developed for Vista Higher Learning by speech-recognition experts in the app world, this feature identifies student utterances, compares them against those of hundreds of native speakers, and provides instant thumbs up/thumbs down feedback. For digitally responsive adolescents, this is a captivating challenge and a game they utterly buy into.
And even though they may not know this, students intuit the reality of their experience with this software: they do not have to sound exactly like the native speaker in order to be judged understood (thumbs up); small things they may not have noticed as they first started learning can make the difference between being understood and not (thumbs down); and small efforts on small tweaks make all the difference (thumbs up). In other words, yet again students learn that they can stay in control and that mistakes can be overcome—and quickly and at low levels of effort.
Let us now combine the frequent motivation sequence we have explored (and which allows students to feel they will survive if they talk) with the longer-term purposefulness aspect (which will ensure students know that they will belong in the world). Purposefulness is more than a periodic bow to “relevance.” It is, as it were, the pathway all lit up, leading a student forward with confidence. Purposefulness comes, in a classroom setting, from instructional design that replicates natural human language development and use in the world. The stages are: (1) life context (personal experience); (2) vocabulary as a tool (target-language building blocks in that familiar context); (3) shared experience (in instructional settings, through media which bridges the language and culture of the student to the target in the same context); (4) target experience in the life context (linguistic and cultural target perspectives and practices in the context); (5) grammar as a tool (gaining communication complexity and accuracy in the context); and (6) synthesis (gaining linguistic and cultural fluency in the context). These inherent human steps focus students’ attention on meaning and community, versus personal performance, and help them feel they belong.
We have gotten students to know they can speak. How do we keep them speaking? How do we ensure they keep on talking? We make sure that, throughout all the contexts in the instructional design where they are talking about contexts in which they have experiences, being asked about their reactions to things they see and hear, are comparing their lives (products, practices, and perspectives) to those of their target peers and doing activities that use vocabulary and grammar as tools to talk about their own situations. That is, as much as possible, every activity is personalized. Students know themselves best and apply their daily practice and longer view to their own real interests. Confidence building is a feedback loop of its own. Again, in this matter, Senderos focuses on this truth of human psychology and learning, carefully constructing scaffolded activities that personalize each context and experience.
We are almost done in our consideration of how to get students to speak. But there is one more element: you, the teacher. You are motivated as you see students engaged daily. You see purposefulness as you achieve your course objectives. And, using good tools and good approaches, you are able to integrate your objectives into your style and your personal dreams, making your work easier and more effective. That is also a key goal and purpose of Senderos, both in its student content and in the teacher resources, course setup templates, and digital planning, teaching, and assessing tools.
That is how you get and keep students talking—for life.

Norah Lulich Jones, MEd, is professional development liaison for Vista Higher Learning (VHL). She has been a teacher for multiple decades of Spanish, French, and Russian in public and private schools, a member of and trainer for NADSFL, a keynoter and workshop presenter for conferences and school districts, and a writer of student and teacher materials for VHL and (historically) several other publishing companies.

Indigenous Collaboration in Canada

Churchill Manitoba Canada

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) has announced a new collaboration with Canadian Heritage, along with the Assembly of First Nations and the Métis Nation state. The collaboration aims to “Work collaboratively, transparently and on a distinctions-basis to co-develop national First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation languages legislation whose content will reflect the distinct geographic, political, legislative, and cultural contexts impacting language revitalization, recovery, preservation, protection, maintenance, and promotion,” among other objectives.

The ITK is a Canadian nonprofit organization that represents over 60,000 Inuit of the Inuit Nunangat, and also represents the Inuit before the government of Canada.

The collaboration will aim to address the following:

  • Co-develop legislation that addresses the revitalization, recovery, preservation, protection, maintenance and promotion of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation languages, through two mechanisms: a joint co-development working group to discuss issues of common concern and bilateral working groups with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Assembly of First Nations, and the Métis Nation to address issues that are specific to each cultural group.
  • Co-develop legislation in a way that supports the full and meaningful implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action (for those impacted) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the federal government’s commitment to a nation-to-nation, government-to-government, or Inuit-Crown relationship.
  • Co-develop legislation that recognizes First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation language rights and jurisdictions, and that recognizes that Indigenous languages are fundamental to Indigenous self- determination. Such legislation would, among other things, further affirm and address the right of Indigenous peoples to revitalize, use, develop and transmit their languages to future generations, including through the control of their educational systems and institutions.
  • Adopt a collaborative process that includes funding for all Statement parties to undertake meaningful engagement; regular meetings of a co-development and bilateral working groups; and early agreement on roles and responsibilities, including terms of reference for a co- development process.
  •  Each of the Indigenous organizations will conduct engagements with their constituency, financed by Canadian Heritage; Canadian Heritage will assume responsibility for securing input to federal positions from other relevant departments and agencies; and where necessary, Canadian Heritage and each Indigenous government or organization will be seeking engagement from other governments, organizations and individuals.
  • Work towards an introduction of the legislation in Parliament in 2018.

 

Study Finds Visual Rhythms in Sign Language

A new study has found that patterns exist within the visual structure of sign language. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) by Geoffrey Brookshire, Jenny Lu, Howard C. Nusbaum, Susan Goldin-Meadow, and Daniel Casasanto and other researchers sought to find if sign language had similar patterns to that of auditory languages.

When people are listening to a language, they “entrain” or lock up with the speaker’s speaking patterns. The study states, “By showing similar entrainment of visual cortex to sign language, we establish that this phase-locking is not due to specific properties of auditory cortex or of oral speech perception. Rather, low-frequency entrainment is a generalized cortical strategy for boosting perceptual sensitivity to informational peaks in time-varying signals.” Essentially, this means that the way one speaks forms patterns, whether or not the language is spoken or visual.

These patterns serve a purpose, in that when people listen to conversations, their brains “phase lock” with the volume of the speaker. This means that even if a listener is distracted via outside stimuli, they can follow the volume of the speaker and anticipate when important information will be said.

The study looked at speakers of American Sign Language, German Sign Language, British Sign Language, and Australian Sign Language, as all of these languages are genetically unrelated. They created a metric to measure visual change over time and measured the fluctuations of periodic pattern fluctuation in sign language.

Prior results suggest that auditory and visual perception may be differently modulated by rhythms at different frequencies. In speech, listeners begin to phrase lock when phrases occur below 8Hz or 8 pulses per second. The researchers found that visual speech also has a frequency in which people begin to lock in, which is about 10Hz.

“By looking at sign, we’re learning something about how the brain processes language more generally. We’re solving a mystery we couldn’t crack by studying speech alone,” Casasanto said to Science Daily.

“This is an exciting finding because scientists have been theorizing for years about how adaptable or flexible entrainment may be, but we were never sure if it was specific to auditory processing or if it was more general purpose,” Brookshire added. “This study suggests that humans have the ability to follow perceptual rhythms and make temporal predictions in any of our senses.”

Mexico and Canada Collaborate Linguistically

Languages Canada and the Ministry of Education of the Mexican State of Guanajuato have signed a cooperation agreement to formalize and expand collaboration in English and French language education.
The signing took place during a visit to Ottawa by the secretary of the Ministry of Education of Guanajuato, Eusebio Vega Pérez, accompanied by senior representatives of EDUCAFIN—the state agency responsible for administering programming and funding on behalf of the Ministry of Education. “[To] educate is to transform people. [To] educate is to have a better society. Education is necessary and vital to the construction of a learning society; it simply cannot develop itself without knowledge,” said Vega Pérez.
The signing, held at the University of Ottawa, was followed by a roundtable meeting with twelve Languages Canada member programs to identify the tools and mechanisms necessary to operationalize the agreement and develop a program framework to strengthen English and French language education in the public school system of the state of Guanajuato, with the participation of Canadian language experts.
Jorge Hernández, EDUCAFIN’s director, stated that “My work (passion) is for the young population of Guanajuato to be brave, dream big, and transform their destinies forever with the strengths provided by education. An international and intercultural education allows them to find the affinities and differences that build agreements and promote peace, development, and sustainability for our society.”

Senate Considers Reclassification for ELL’s

Girl standing by chalkboard with GATO on itThe senate is considering updating the criteria for reclassification for English Language Learners (ELL’s) in the state of California with Senate bill 463. When ELL’s are deemed proficient in English, they are moved from being ELL’s to being Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) students. These students move into English only classrooms and move away from needing resources to continue learning English.

The curricula in reclassifying ELL’s is disputed among researchers, educators, and language experts, with some rallying for earlier reclassification (since students who are reclassified tend to outperform ELL’s) while others are content with the current reclassification methods.

Because districts determines their own reclassification standard, the level of advancement demanded to reclassify depends on the district, and is disputed. The bill aims to create a more streamlined reclassification across the state, and would impost a state-mandated program. The bill would also aim to delete obsolete provisions related to reclassification for ELL’s.

The proposed bill would

  • Delete the provision requiring the department to establish procedures for the reclassification of a pupil from English learner to English proficient,
  • Require a local educational agency that has one or more pupils who are English learners in any of grades 3 to 12, and who do not have an individualized education program, that specifies the pupil requires assistance due to language proficiency issues, to determine whether to reclassify such a pupil as English proficient according to specified factors.
  • Authorize a local educational agency to determine whether to reclassify such a pupil in kindergarten, grade 1, or grade 2 according to similar specified factors.
  • Require the department, with the approval of the state board, to develop guidance for local educational agencies to implement those provisions.
  • Require the department, in consultation with the state board, to develop and submit recommendations to the Legislature regarding the appropriate reclassification criteria for ELL’s with individualized education that specify the pupil requires assistance due to language proficiency issues.
  • Determine minimum scores on specified assessments for reclassification of a pupil as English proficient, and would provide that an ELL is immediately eligible for reclassification if the pupil attains those minimum scores on the assessments, unless the local educational agency determines there is academic-related evidence the pupil will not be successful in a mainstream curriculum.
  • Require the department to develop a rubric to measure academic-related evidence.
  • Require a local educational agency that has a numerically significant pupil subgroup of English learners or that includes specific goals and actions for that pupil subgroup in its local control and accountability plan to complete specified actions for purposes of reclassifying pupils as English proficient.

 

 

Murals Teach Education is Not a Crime

Changing the World, One Wall at a Time is a new documentary on Education Is Not a Crime—the world’s largest street art and human rights campaign, which raises awareness about education apartheid by Iran’s government against tens of thousands of Bahá’ís in the country through murals.

The film, produced by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, features interviews with popular artists—such as Rone from Australia, Astro from France, Marthalicia Matarrita from New York, and Elle from Los Angeles—as well as activists with experience of the civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and human rights work on behalf of Iranians of all backgrounds. Iranian Bahá’ís with personal experience of being denied their right to higher education also share their stories.

Education Is Not a Crime raises awareness of the discrimination against the Bahá’ís, who believe in ideals such as the equality of men and women, peaceful nonviolence, and universal education. The campaign began in 2014, and since then street artists and human rights activists have teamed up to use art, social media, and community outreach to build a new audience for their message of education equality in Iran.

The Bahá’ís, Iran’s largest religious minority, are denied access to higher education. There are 74 Bahá’ís currently imprisoned, and more than 200 were executed in the early 1980s after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Thousands of Bahá’ís are currently studying through an underground education system known as the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE). Not a Crime is working to stop the human rights abuse of young people barred from studying because of their beliefs and is encouraging universities worldwide to admit Iranian Bahá’í students. The education campaign started in 2015 with an Education Is Not a Crime Day (the last Friday of February 2015) and screenings of a film Bahari made called To Light a Candle—and now it has grown into a movement. Mark Ruffalo of The Avengers, Rainn Wilson of The Office, Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and rights activist, and Shirin Ebadi, also a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, have spoken against the persecution of the Bahá’ís. Nearly 100 universities—including Stanford and Yale—currently accept the BIHE certificate.

Forty-one murals have been painted in U.S. and international cities as part of the project—Atlanta, Cape Town, Delhi, London, Nashville, Sao Paulo, Sydney, and two dozen in New York City. Nineteen of the New York murals were painted in the iconic Harlem neighborhood because of its long association with cultural innovation during the Harlem Renaissance and the 1960s civil rights movement.

www.notacrime.me/thefilm

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