E.g., 04/16/2024
E.g., 04/16/2024
Delia Pompa
Experts & Staff
Delia Pompa photo cropped

Delia Pompa

Senior Fellow for Education Policy

Delia Pompa is Senior Fellow for Education Policy at MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy where her work focuses on research and policy analysis related to improving educational services for immigrant students and English Learners (ELs).

Media Requests
Michelle Mittelstadt
+1 202-266-1910
[email protected]

Ms. Pompa came to MPI from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), where she was Senior Vice President for Programs, overseeing its education, health, housing, workforce development, and immigrant integration work, and where she previously served as Vice President of Education. She has had a key role in shaping federal education policy through her positions as Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in the U.S. Department of Education, and as Executive Director of the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Ms. Pompa came to Washington, DC to serve as Director of Education for the Children’s Defense Fund after serving as Assistant Commissioner for Program Development at the Texas Education Agency. Her previous experience as Executive Director for Bilingual and Migrant Education in the Houston Independent School District and as a bilingual classroom teacher and instructor to prospective teachers at the graduate level has anchored her work.

Her influence has been felt widely throughout the field of education policy; she has served as an advisor or board member for many key institutions including the Chapter I Commission and the Stanford Working Group, the Civil Rights and Business Coalition on the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the American Youth Policy Forum, EdReports, the National PTA, International Baccalaureate, and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

Bio Page Tabs

Cover image for Refining State Accountability Systems for English Learner Success
Reports
January 2024
By  Megan Hopkins, Pete Goldschmidt, Julie Sugarman, Delia Pompa and Lorena Mancilla
Cover image for Recommendations for the Task Force on New Americans
Policy Briefs
March 2023
By  Margie McHugh, Jacob Hofstetter, Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix, Valerie Lacarte, Maki Park, Delia Pompa and Julie Sugarman
Cover image for the parent's guide on English Learner assessments
Fact Sheets
February 2022
By  Delia Pompa and Jazmin Flores Peña
Cover image for the Spanish-language parent's guide on English Learner assessments
Fact Sheets
February 2022
By  Delia Pompa and Jazmin Flores Peña
The Patchy Landscape of State English Learner Policies under ESSA
Reports
February 2020
By  Leslie Villegas and Delia Pompa
Coverthumb_ESSA DLLs ECEC Workforce
Policy Briefs
December 2017
By  Delia Pompa, Maki Park and Michael Fix
Students in Classroom
Video, Audio
May 17, 2022

Marking the release of a report examining the assessment of English Learner (EL) students after pandemic-induced disruptions, this webinar examines ELs’ learning experiences during the 2020-21 academic year and their performance and participation in statewide testing, and how schools are using data to inform interventions and instruction this year. 

Video, Audio
April 21, 2021

MPI analysts discuss their analysis comparing key sociodemographic characteristics of immigrant and U.S.-born parents of young and school-age children, along with the two-generational implications of these findings.

thomas park 6MePtA9EVDA unsplash
Video, Audio
September 29, 2020

Practioners from California and Tennessee join MPI researchers in a discussion on key challenges to meeting English Learners’ needs during the pandemic and the policies and practices school systems will need to put in place to support them and their families through the public-health and education crisis, as well as when schooling returns to normal.

flickr KOMUnews Columbia School Board to Discuss English Language Learners Program
Video, Audio
February 12, 2020

Experts share how states have approached Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) implementation, areas where the law and state efforts to support English Learners can be improved, and findings from the compendium, The Patchy Landscape of State English Learner Policies under ESSA

Flickr Katelyn Brown and 3 ell students at Vaile rcs aprill 2014
Video, Audio
March 9, 2017

This discussion focuses on practices and options that states could adopt to hold schools accountable for English Learners’ achievement in the fairest and most accurate manner as part of the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act. This webinar marks the release of a set of 13 state fact sheets, available on MPI's web page English Learners and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), that provide a sketch of EL demographics, student outcomes, and accountability mechanisms under ESSA and its predecessor.

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Testimony
February 2016

Testimony of Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow in Education Policy, before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for the February 23, 2016 hearing on the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Recent Activity

Reports
January 2024

State accountability systems are designed to identify and close student achievement gaps. Yet most do not report and interpret English Learner (EL) outcomes in a way that paints a full picture of how different instructional services have contributed to academic development. This report sketches a vision for reimagined accountability systems that can support better understanding of ELs’ learning and inform school improvement strategies.

Policy Briefs
March 2023

The Task Force on New Americans launched by the Biden administration represents an important occasion to deepen understanding of immigrant integration issues and to identify ways to address them. MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, which has long argued for the need to create such an office within the White House, has developed recommendations for the task force in key areas, drawing from its extensive record of research, policy analysis, and technical assistance.

Video, Audio, Webinars
May 17, 2022

Marking the release of a report examining the assessment of English Learner (EL) students after pandemic-induced disruptions, this webinar examines ELs’ learning experiences during the 2020-21 academic year and their performance and participation in statewide testing, and how schools are using data to inform interventions and instruction this year. 

Fact Sheets
February 2022

La interacción de padres y miembros de la comunidad con los sistemas escolares de sus hijos es fundamental para asegurar su éxito académico. Para apoyar a las familias de estudiantes de inglés (EL, por sus siglas en inglés) mientras interactúan con escuelas locales, esta guía y glosario de términos clave contesta preguntas comunes, como por ejemplo por qué estos estudiantes toman exámenes anuales y cómo las escuelas utilizan los datos que resultan de tales exámenes.

Fact Sheets
February 2022

Parental and community engagement with schools is an important part of ensuring students’ educational success. To support English Learners’ families as they engage with their local schools, this question-and-answer document and glossary of key terms aim to help parents answer common questions, including why these students take tests and how schools use the test data.

Policy Briefs
May 2021

A large and growing number of young children in the United States have at least one parent who speaks a language other than English at home. These Dual Language Learners (DLLs) have been shown to benefit considerably from high-quality early childhood programs, but better data are needed to make sure these services are responsive to the experiences and learning needs of these preschoolers. This issue brief sets out a framework for comprehensive DLL identification.

Video, Audio, Webinars
April 21, 2021

MPI analysts discuss their analysis comparing key sociodemographic characteristics of immigrant and U.S.-born parents of young and school-age children, along with the two-generational implications of these findings. Speakers also explored potential ways to incorporate measures with an eye to achieving more responsive and effective service designs and improving equity and access more generally for these families.

Video, Audio, Webinars
September 29, 2020

Practioners from California and Tennessee join MPI researchers in a discussion on key challenges to meeting English Learners’ needs during the pandemic and the policies and practices school systems will need to put in place to support them and their families through the public-health and education crisis, as well as when schooling returns to normal.

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