Molly Faulkner-Bond

Overview

Molly Faulkner-Bond is a national leader in policies, programs, and research for multilingual learners. Her work is driven by a commitment to elevating the strengths of multilingual learners and advocating for their right to quality educational experiences. As a Research Director on WestEd’s English Learner and Migrant Education Services team, Faulkner-Bond collaborates with educators, researchers, and communities to conduct high-quality, equity-oriented research around multilingual learner education and support educators and leaders to understand, interpret, and act on data and research results.

Faulkner-Bond currently leads several multistate initiatives focused on English learners, including a 30-state study of entrance and exit policies and a cross-REL working group on multilanguage, bilingual, and heritage language learners. She has collaborated with state education agencies (SEAs) across the country to support them in evaluating, implementing, and updating or changing state-level English learner policies related to language instruction, reclassification, and assessment implementation. She currently leads multiple federally funded research grants and contracts focused on English learners and also regularly contributes products, thought partnership, and technical advising to various federally funded centers, including Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs), Regional Comprehensive Centers (CCs), the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA), the National Charter School Resource Center, and the National Research & Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners.

Prior to joining WestEd, Faulkner-Bond was a grant program officer at the Institute of Education Sciences, where she provided technical assistance and monitoring to applicants and recipients of multiyear research grants focused on improving educational opportunities and outcomes for EL students. She has coauthored a book on federal policies affecting EL students; coedited a book on educational measurement and assessment; and coauthored articles, guides, briefs, infographics, and federal reports designed to increase awareness and understanding around data, research results, and best practices for multilingual learners’ education and success.

Education

• PhD in research, educational measurement, and psychometrics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• AB in philosophy (with certificate from mind, brain, behavior program), Harvard University

Select Publications

Office of English Acquisition. (2024). English learner educational experiences and opportunities: A report using federal datasets. U.S. Department of Education. https://ncela.ed.gov/reports-on-title-iii-state-formula-grants

Bailey, A. L., Martinez, J. F., Oranje, A., & Faulkner-Bond, M. (2023). Twin pandemics: How a global health crisis and persistent racial injustices are impacting educational assessment (1st ed.). Routledge.

Heritage, M., Faulkner-Bond, M., & Walqui, A. (2021). A new direction for assessing English Learners in the secondary grades. WestEd

Van Houten, L., Dunn, L., Bond, M. F., Blitz, J., Makkonen, R., & Austin, K. (2021). Supporting integrated English learner student instruction: A guide to assess professional learning needs based on the Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School Practice Guide (REL 2022–122). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory West. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs

Faulkner-Bond, M., & Soland, J. (2020). Comparability when assessing English learner students. In A. I. Berman, E. H. Haertel, & J. W. Pellegrino (Eds.), Comparability of large-scale educational assessments: Issues and recommendations (pp. 149–175). National Academy of Education. https://doi.org/10.31094/2020/1

Faulkner-Bond, M., Spycher, P., Olsen, L., & Gándara, P. (2020). The power and promise of California’s multilingual learners. In California Department of Education, Improving education for multilingual and English learner students: Research to practice (pp. 27–62). https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/documents/mleleducation.pdf

Faulkner-Bond, M., & Forte, E. (2016). Assessing English learners. In C. Wells & M. Faulkner-Bond (Eds.) Educational measurement: From foundations to future.Guilford. Forte, E., & Faulkner-Bond, M. (2010). The administrator’s guide to federal programs for English learners. Thompson.

Honors, Awards, and Affiliations

• Appointed advisor to the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators (NAELPA)
• Coauthored the California Educational Research Association (CERA)’s 2023 Outstanding Paper, Research Evidence to Support Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) in Reclassification Decisions