Valeria Silva, who arrived in the United States from Chile 24 years ago without speaking English, was chosen to be superintendent of the St. Paul schools because of “her deep knowledge of the district and her expertise in teaching English-language learners,” says a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
She took up leadership of the district last month. I wrote an article about how ELL specialists and classroom teachers were team-teaching in St. Paul schools in 2006, when Silva was still directing programs for such students there and before she was promoted to be chief academic officer for the district.