Biography

Rachel Reeder spent 13 years as an elementary educator, teaching first and third grade Spanish language immersion in Heber City and Logan, UT. In that role, she especially enjoyed coordinating with local universities on classroom-based research projects. She has served in numerous educational leadership roles, including as state coordinator for Utah’s Spanish dual language immersion (DLI) committee, university instructor, teacher mentor, and student teaching supervisor. Rachel has given conference presentations and delivered professional development in both mathematics and language immersion. She has coauthored scholarly articles and written a practitioner article for Teaching for Excellence and Equity in Mathematics. Rachel holds degrees in education from Brigham Young University (elementary, early childhood, and Spanish), an M.Ed. from Southern Utah University, and a Ph.D. from Utah State University. In her recent dissertation, she investigated K-3 Spanish DLI teachers’ conceptions about their integration of mathematics and Spanish language instruction. She aims to use this research to augment the rigor of integrated K-3 DLI mathematics teaching through professional development that empowers teachers and promotes content-driven and language-attentive instruction.