The executive board of the Washington-based National Association for Bilingual Education has decided not to renew the contract of James Crawford, its executive director, and three board members have resigned in protest.
Pedro J. Ruiz, the president of the board, declined to provide any details about the Feb. 25 decision.
Mr. Crawford, who was a reporter for Education Week in the 1980s and became NABE’s top executive in July 2004, confirmed that the board decided not to renew his contract. He described the decision as “disruptive for NABE at a critical time for our field.”
The board members who resigned are Stephen D. Krashen, a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California; Josefina Tinajero, the dean of the college of education of the University of Texas at El Paso; and Mary Carol Combs, an adjunct associate professor of language at the University of Arizona and the only nonvoting member of the 10-member board.
