New Horizons In Education-EduTrainers Founder

Jo Gusman

Jo grew up in a Spanish-speaking family that faced the many obstacles that farm working, non-English speaking families experience. As a “limited English speaker,” during her childhood, she became the first in her family to learn English, but even so she found herself excluded in school because she spoke Spanish, educators and students did not value or understand her culture, and also due to her family’s socioeconomic status.  As a result, Jo truly understands the complexities and multiple variables that surround your Culturally and Linguistically Diverse learners and their families. While some people view cultural and linguistic differences as deficits, Jo sees them as asset-based superpowers. She proudly tells fellow educators, students and policy makers, “I, like your students, am a Bilingual-Biliterate-Bicultural-Bicognitive learner. These superpowers serve as my foundation, and they influence and inform my message, methods and materials.”

Jo’s parents instilled in her the guiding principle to always be of service – para servir. Because of her background and parents’ guiding principle, she is committed to be of service to all who attend her professional learning experiences, participate in personalized coaching sessions, and seek her counsel.

Jo’s parents instilled in her the guiding principle to always be of service – para servir. Because of her background and parents’ guiding principle, she is committed to be of service to all who attend her professional learning experiences, participate in personalized coaching sessions, and seek her counsel.
 
Fellow educational leaders consider Jo “an outstanding teacher of culturally and linguistically diverse learners, an empathetic and compassionate leader and advisor, and a highly effective professional learning provider.” Thousands of school district administrators, teachers, students and their families, policymakers, and community leaders have participated in one or all of Jo Gusman’s  Foundation-Frameworks-Tools Model© professional learning opportunities:
 
 
 
  • Neuroscience-Based Language, Literacy and Leadership Process©
  • School Improvement and Transformation Coaching Process©
  • Culture-Context-Contact-Content Curriculum Development, Lesson Planning and Lesson Delivery Process©
  • Listen-Learn-Lead: Transformational Leadership Coaching Process© and
  • Review-Recommendations-Results: Process-Focused Categorical Program Review©.
These workshops, seminars, institutes and personalized coaching sessions are filled with practical ideas, inspiration and a vision that all learners are highly intelligent and can be successful in all aspects of their lives, regardless of race, gender or socioeconomic status.

Teaching Experience

Jo began her teaching career as a Bilingual Education instructional assistant. She then served as a K-12 Bilingual Education teacher, Multilingual Cross-Cultural Education Specialist, and Biliteracy Reading Instruction Specialist. In 1981, Jo’s career led her to the nationally known Newcomer School, where she worked in a multilingual setting with refugee and immigrant Emergent Biliterate Multilingual Learners. While there Jo developed her many Brain-Based Language and Literacy Strategies™. She also served as a Master Teacher for Phase 1, 2 and 3 student teachers attending California State University, Sacramento, California State University, Chico, the University of California, Davis, and National University.

Because of her curriculum development expertise, neuroscience-based language acquisition and biliteracy teaching methods, and state and federal categorical program policy knowledge, Jo was asked to teach at California State University, Sacramento in the Multilingual Multicultural Teacher Education Department. Jo taught Introduction to Bilingual Education, Principles of Curriculum, and Language and Biliteracy, and also supervised student teachers for 20 years.

Jo was asked to join the Multiple Intelligences Institute at the University of California, Riverside, as an instructor and Board member. She served in these roles for 10 years.

Jo is the founder of New Horizons In Education-EduTrainers, an education consulting company dedicated to assisting school districts and businesses to design and implement highly effective language and literacy programs for culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their families. Currently, Jo conducts workshops in Foundation-Frameworks-Tools School Improvement and Transformation Coaching©, Review-Recommendations-Results EL Program Quality Review©, ESSA implementation technical support, Biliteracy, English Language Development, and Mind-Brain-Education Science. Administrators, teachers, students, parents and policymakers throughout the world seek Jo’s counsel and insights. Her workshops are fast-moving, energetic, and focus on scores of evidence-based practical ideas and materials that participants can use immediately.

Print and Digital Educational Materials

Publications

Jo is the creator of the Foundation-Frameworks-Tools Model© and author of five Seminar Resource Handbooks:
  • The Science of Reading and Your Multilingual Learners: Policies, Principles, Frameworks, Processes, and Strategies©
  • Helping Your Superdiverse English Learners Become More Successful Readers: Neuroscience-Based Differentiation, Scaffolding, Intervention, and Remediation Processes and Strategies©
  • Response to Instruction and Intervention: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Frameworks, Processes and Strategies©
  • Accelerating Your Multilingual Learners’ Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Development, and Reading Fluency©
  • Ayudando a Su Hijo A Tener Éxito En La Escuela – Helping Your Child Succeed In School

English Language Development and Literacy Curriculum Programs

  • ACCESS: Building Literacy Through Learning, a content-area program specifically designed for fourth through eighth-grade multilingual learners (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Jo was a coauthor of this program.
  • Read 180: Strategies for Teaching Reading to English Language Learners (Scholastic)

Professional Learning Programs

  • What All School District Administrators Need To Know About How to Differentiate Reading Instruction for “Superdiverse English Learners”/MLL/Emergent Biliterate Learners: Policies, Procedures, Processes and Practices©
  • Helping Your English Learners/Multilingual Learners Become More Successful Readers: Neuroscience-Based Processes, Strategies, and Activities©
  • Foundation-Frameworks-Tools: Neuroscience-Based Language, Literacy, and Leadership Process©
  • Foundation-Frameworks-Tools: School Improvement and Transformation Process©
  • Culture-Context-Contact-Content Curriculum Development, Lesson Planning and Lesson Delivery Process©
  • Listen-Learn-Lead: Transformational Leadership Coaching Process©
  • Review-Recommendations-Results: Process-Focused Categorical Program Review©
  • Mind-Brain-Education Science: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Frameworks, Processes and Strategies©

Professional Learning Programs – Online and video

  • Multiple Intelligences and the Second Language Learner (National Professional Resources)
  • Optimizing Intelligences: Thinking, Emotion and Creativity (National Professional Resources)
  • Every Teacher – A Teacher of English Language Learners: Jo’s Foundations-Frameworks-Tools English Learner Program Model (School Improvement Network)

Webinars

  • Mind-Brain-Education Science: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Frameworks, Processes and Strategies (AEI Speakers Bureau)
  • The Every Student Succeeds Act and Our English Language Learners: Frameworks, Processes, Strategies and Resources (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). In this online seminar, participants learn how the Every Student Succeeds Act accountability directives and requirements will influence the teaching of our English Learners. Jo explains how to use Mind-Brain-Education Science and Differentiated Instruction to teach English Language Development and reading to Emergent Bilingual/MLL/English Learners.

Acknowledgments and Awards

Because of her extensive experience and exceptional work with Superdiverse Multilingual Emergent Bilingual Learners, Jo has received numerous awards from organizations, including the National Hispanic School Board Association; California State University, Sacramento; California Reading Association; Capitol Association of Mexican American Educators; AEI Speakers Bureau; Bureau of Education and Research; University of California, Riverside; Multiple Intelligence Institute; TESOL; Dr. Howard Gardner, Harvard University School of Education Project Zero Multiple Intelligences; Japan Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD); National Professional Resources (NPR); California Association for Bilingual Education; Sacramento Educational Cable Company; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD); Association of California School Administrators; KCRA Sacramento NBC news television affiliate); Congressman John Garamendi; Susan Kovalik and Associates; Elk Grove Unified School District; and the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education. Jo also received recognition for her teaching excellence from President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Department of Education, and the California Department of Education.

Jo was appointed in 2023 to the national Literacy Advisory Board to act as an advisor in gathering, listening to, and learning from diverse perspectives on issues affecting today’s students and teachers in the field of literacy, with an emphasis on the Science of Reading, cultural responsiveness, equity and inclusion.

Jo continues to serve as a policy advisor and consultant to multiple state departments of education, school districts, education associations, and businesses in several states.

Service on Noteworthy Commissions, Advisory Boards, and Committees

  • National Literacy Advisory Board – current
  • Curriculum Development Architect, English Learner Program Policy Advisor, and Program Review consultant for several publishers, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Heinemann; Scholastic; Great Source; and National Professional Resources.
  • Elementary Study Group member – a position to which President Reagan and the Secretary of Education appointed Jo as the only teacher on the 21-member panel. The committee was responsible for identifying challenges in elementary education, offering solutions, and advising the President and Secretary of Education. The committee’s research findings and recommendations are included in the U. S. Department of Education’s book First Lessons: A Report on Elementary Education, published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.
  • California Kids Against Hunger Campaign: Chairperson
  • Instructor Magazine – ESL, Bilingual, English Language Arts curriculum materials reviewer
  • California Department of Education, Office of Curriculum Frameworks and Textbook Development – for which Jo served in a leadership role for the Language Arts Framework Listening and Speaking and Environments Which Promote Language Development committees.

    She also was an Instructional Materials Evaluation Panelist, serving as Evaluator of Bilingual and ESL curriculum programs.
  • California Department of Education
  • Model Curriculum Standards Reading Language Arts K-8 Writing Committee member
  • Middle Grades Task Force – Appointed by State Schools Superintendent to study challenges and identify solutions for middle grade education
  • California State University, Sacramento: Chairperson, Community Advisory Committee
  • University of Southern California and California Teacher Preparation and Licensing Commission: Evaluator, Bilingual Certificate of Competence Assessment
  • Scholastic Publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Read 180 Evidence-Based Blended Learning program. Jo served as an English language development and biliteracy advisor. She is the author of Read 180: Strategies for Teaching Reading to English Language Learners

Service

  • Elk Grove Food Bank: Jo provides support and guidance for the Migrant Families Food Program, which delivers groceries to farm workers and their families who lack transportation and access to the food bank facility.