Faculty Directory
C. Patrick Proctor
Professor; Teaching, Curriculum and Society Department Chair; Global Perspectives (M. Ed.) Coordinator
Professor
C. Patrick Proctor
Ed.D.
Contact
Campion Hall Room 121
Telephone: 617-552-6466
Email: charles.proctor.1@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0001-5666-2765
Education
- Ed.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- M.A., Stanford University, Stanford, CA
- B.A., Clark University, Worcester, MA
Courses
Teaching Language Arts
Bilingual Literacy and Literature
Dissertation Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction
Foundations of Bilingual Education
Historical and Political Contexts of Curriculum
Foundations of Language and Literacy Development
Contemporary Issues and Methods in Literacy Research
Research Interests
Bilingualism in school settings; Language and literacy development; Reading comprehension; Bilingual teacher education; Research-Practice calibrations; Instructional interventions
Expertise
- Bilingualism & Immigration
- Curriculum & Instruction
- Language Learning & Literacy
Department
Profile
I am a professor and educational researcher focusing on bilingualism, bilingual education, language, and literacy. Theoretically, my work attempts to merge critical and developmental perspectives on language, literacy, and bilingualism in education. In terms of praxis, I work directly with teachers and administrators on issues of bilingual education and language-based literacy instruction, particularly in schools and districts characterized by student (and ideally teacher) multilingualism.
I started my career as an educator as a Spanish-English dual language teacher in the Detroit Public Schools. Later, I worked as a bilingual resource teacher in Waltham, Massachusetts and as an education specialist at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. After earning my doctorate, I joined Boston College in 2006, where my early work focused on psychological and developmental models of bilingualism and literacy.
Later, I took insights from that body of work to inform the development of multilingual literacy curricula that took multilingualism into account as part of the curriculum design process, and these days, I am invested in implementing those curricula in sites around the US. Finally, I work very closely with practicing bilingual teachers around applying contemporary models of bilingualism and learning to bilingual education contexts here in Massachusetts.
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
Bilingualism and second language acquisition among Haitian-speaking immigrants in Santiago, Chile
Select Publications
BOOKS
- Jones, R.L. & Proctor, C.P. (2025). Pursuing Language and Metalinguistics in K-12 Classrooms: A Framework for Critical Engagement. Routledge.
- Proctor, C. P., Boardman, A., & Hiebert, E. H. (Eds.). (2016). Teaching emergent bilingual students: Flexible approaches in an era of new standards. Guilford Publications.
IN PRESS
- Kieffer, M.J., Proctor, C.P., Weaver, A., et al. (in press). Effects of heterogeneous versus homogeneous grouping on English learners’ language and literacy development: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. American Educational Research Journal.
- Qun, Y., Proctor, C.P., Ryu, E., & Silverman, R.D. (in press). Relationships between linguistic knowledge, linguistic awareness, and argumentative writing among upper elementary bilingual students. Reading and Writing.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Alvarado, J., & Proctor, C. P. (2025). Bilingual teacher candidates as policy appropriators in a previously anti-bilingual state. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 46(3), 637-653.
- Chen, Q., Proctor, C. P., & Silverman, R. D. (2025). Epistemic modality in upper elementary students’ argument writing: a feature of argumentation. Reading and Writing, 38, 1461-1482.
- Leider, C. M., & Proctor, C. P. (2024). Toward a dynamic idiolect: Multilingual perspectives on the “science of reading”. Educational Psychologist, 59(4), 250-262.
- Jones, R. L. & Proctor, C. P. (2024). Pursuing language through critical metalinguistic engagement. Harvard Educational Review, 94(1), 25-54.
- Ossa Parra, M. & Proctor, C.P. (2023). The translanguaging pedagogies continuum. Journal of Education, 203, 917-924
- Proctor, C.P., Silverman, R.D., & Jones, R.L. (2021). Centering language and student voice in multilingual literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 75, 255 – 267.
- Proctor, C.P., Silverman, R.D., Harring, J.R., Jones, R.L., & Hartranft, A.M. (2020). Teaching Bilingual Learners: Effects of a language-based reading intervention on academic language and reading comprehension in grades 4 and 5. Reading Research Quarterly, 55, 95 – 122. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.258
For more, see Google Scholar
FUNDED RESEARCH
2020 – 2025
- Co-Principal Investigator. Evaluating the Efficacy of the CLAVES Intervention: An Intervention Focused on Comprehension, Academic Language, and Vocabulary for English Learner Students. $3,298,217, Institute of Education Sciences Grant #R305A200095
2020 – 2023
- Co-Principal Investigator (M.J. Kieffer, PI & E. Cappella, co-I). Exploring the effects of heterogeneous grouping on English learners’ language, reading comprehension, and social network development. $1,398,609. Institute of Education Sciences, Grant #R305A20006
2014 – 2018
- Principal Investigator (R.D. Silverman & J.R. Harring co –PIs). The CLAVES Intervention Project: Developing a Supplemental Intervention for Comprehension, Linguistic Awareness, and Vocabulary in English for Spanish Speakers. Institute of Education Sciences, $1,470,000, Grant #R305A140114
Editorial Work
- Editorial Board, Journal of Educational Psychology (2022 – present)
- Editorial Board, Reading and Writing: An interdisciplinary journal (2013 – present)
- Editorial Board, Elementary School Journal (2012 – present)
- Editor, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Services in Schools (2017 – 2020).
- Associate Editor, Child Development (July, 2018 – June, 2019)
- Associate Editor, Applied Psycholinguistics (October 2014 – September 2018).
MEMBERSHIPS
- American Educational Research Association
- Literacy Research Association
- Multistate Association for Bilingual Education