Transforming Immigrant Digital Equity (TIDE)

​Welcome to the TIDE Project!

To serve adult immigrant and refugee English language learners equitably and holistically, there is a pressing imperative to educate and engage service providers, policy makers, institutional decision-makers, and advocates for re-envisioning adult education, digital equity, and immigration at the national, state, and local levels.

Transforming Immigrant Digital Equity (TIDE), which builds upon the findings of the Remote ESOL Project, will dramatically expand access to ESOL learning and related immigrant inclusion supports for immigrants and refugees through scalable, sustainable program models and services that optimize the use of technology. It will also educate service providers and policymakers at three tiers of the ecosystem:

  • Effective Practice: Enhance our documentation of effective tech-enabled ESOL program models and promising practices, and ensure uptake by a broad and diverse segment of immigrant and refugee-serving organizations that already provide or are considering providing or supporting adult ESOL instruction.
  • Effective Advocacy: Make a data-driven case for tech-enabled learning as an efficient option, and impact Digital Equity Act implementation as well as potential changes to immigration and workforce development policies to support tech-enabled ESOL learning.
  • Replicable Local Models: Select and support 3 pilot site communities in diverse contexts to develop equitable ESOL and digital equity ecosystems that dramatically increase access to ESOL instruction, digital inclusion activities, and immigrant inclusion services.

The Equitable ESOL Ecosystem

The equitable ESOL ecosystem proposes an intentional, interdependent, and sustainable system-wide collaboration to serve adult English language learners, interweaving digital equity, immigrant and refugee inclusion, and language justice. The model places adult English language learners at the center, with nonprofit, for-profit, community, and government entities working together to 1) expand access to ESOL, digital inclusion, and immigrant and refugee inclusion services for all, 2) effectively remove barriers to ensure full participation in these services, and 3) support immigrants’ and refugees’ right to choose how they engage in the society, economy, and government of the U.S.

Circular ecosystem graphic with immigrant and refugee adult learners at the center, surrounded by stakeholders from different sectors working collaboratively
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