Deborah Short

DEBORAH J. SHORT, Ph.D. founded and directs Academic Language Research & Training, a consulting company which provides professional development to educators on content-based ESL/EFL, sheltered instruction, and academic literacy worldwide. Formerly Dr. Short was a division director at the Center for Applied Linguistics where she co-developed the research-validated SIOP Model for sheltered instruction. She has directed research and evaluation studies on English learners and their program designs for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among others. As part of her work in educational policy, she chaired an expert panel on adolescent English language learner literacy and co-authored the report: Double the Work. She was TESOL International Association’s President for 2020-21 and is now Past President (2021-22). She also led the first ESL Standards project for TESOL.

Her publications include The SIOP Model book series (Pearson), ESL textbook series like Edge, Inside, Panorama, and Reach Higher (National Geographic Learning/Cengage), The 6 Principles book series (TESOL International Association), and books on newcomer programs. Her research articles have appeared in numerous professional journals such as TESOL Quarterly, Language Teaching Research, Theory Into Practice, TESOL Journal, and EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education.

Deborah received her doctorate from George Mason University (Virginia) where she specialized in bilingual/multicultural education and received the distinguished research award. She served on TESOL’s Board of Directors (2013-16) and taught ESL in New York, California, and Virginia, and EFL in Zaire (DR Congo) as a Peace Corps volunteer. She has presented at conferences around the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, South America, the Middle East, China, and New Zealand.