Cristian has been part of Bank Street College’s faculty since 2003. He teaches Curriculum Development and Sheltered Instruction in Dual Language Bilingual Classrooms, Native Language Literacy for Spanish-Speaking Children, and advises students in dual language bilingual and special education settings. Before joining the Bank Street community, Cristian was an early childhood educator and later a dual language bilingual NYC elementary school teacher. His degrees include an MSEd in dual language bilingual childhood special and general education and a MEd in school leadership from Bank Street College. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Urban Education at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Mr. Solorza is also an educational consultant that has been working with schools and districts for over a decade in helping them improve the design and delivery of programs for emergent bilinguals in New York and abroad. Cristian supports administrators, English as a New Language (ENL), special education, bilingual, and monolingual classroom teachers with the assessment of English/bilingual learners, reading/writing with beginner/intermediate language learners, language & disability, implementation of the Common Core State Standards, coaching, lesson study, bilingual word study, ICT/ENL/classroom teacher collaboration, translanguaging, and the restructuring of curricula and modification of lessons to meet the needs of multilingual learners.
Educational Background
Qualifications
EdM, Leadership for Educational Change, Bank Street College of Education
Publications
García, O. & Solorza, C. R. (2020). Academic language and the minoritization of U.S. bilingual Latinx students. Language and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2020.1825476
Solorza, Cristian R. (2019). Trans + Languaging: Beyond Dual Language Bilingual Education. Journal of Multilingual Education Research, 9(15). Available at: https://fordham.bepress.com/jmer/vol9/iss1/15
Solorza, C.R., Aponte, G.Y., Becker, T., Leverenz, T., & Frias, B. (2019). Translanguaging in dual language bilingual education: A blueprint for planning units of study. New York, NY: CUNY-NYSIEB.
Sánchez, M. T., García, O., & Solorza, C. (2018). Reframing language allocation policy in dual language bilingual education. Bilingual Research Journal, 41(1), 37-51.
Solorza, C., Aponte, G., & Becker, T. (2016, April 10). A blueprint to incorporate translanguaging in dual language bilingual education. [CUNY-NYSIEB Webinar]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apczkJJRa2A.
Solorza, C. (2017, January 19). Seeing the wind: English in classrooms [Faculty blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/seeing-wind-english-classrooms-cristian-r-solorza/ .
Menken, K and Solorza, C. (2015). Principals as linchpins in bilingual education: The need for prepared school leaders. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(6), 676-697. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2014.937390.
Menken, K., & Solorza, C. (2014). No child left bilingual: Accountability and the elimination of bilingual education programs in New York City schools. Educational Policy, 28(1), 96-125.
Menken, K and Solorza, C. (2013). Where have all the bilingual programs gone?!: Why prepared school leaders are essential for bilingual education. Journal of Multilingual Education Research, 4(3), 9-39.
Menken, K., & Solorza, C. (2011). Factors in school administrators’ decisions about educational programming for emergent bilinguals. A report for the Division of Students with Disabilities and ELLs of the New York City Department of Education.
