Seidner, María M. (1938-)

Maria Medina Seidner, whose career in bilingual education spans more than three decades, was herself the product of bilingual schooling. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she started school on the island, receiving academic instruction in Spanish and studying English as a second language. Seidner was the child of a military officer. By the time she graduated from high school, she had attended schools in four different countries and [Page 736]was fluent in Spanish, English, and Italian. At the University of Texas in Austin, she majored in French and received a BAin romance languages in 1960. This entry describes her career.

From 1960 to 1968, she taught French and Spanish at the secondary and college level. She left teaching to work at the state department of education. As consultant in French for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) from 1968 to 1971, she provided technical and academic support to foreign-language educators throughout the state. While at the state agency, she became involved in bilingual education, assisting the newly created Office of International and Bilingual Education with workshops and conferences, including the First International Bilingual Bicultural Education Conference, which was held in Austin in 1971. That same year, she completed an MA degree in foreign language education at the University of Texas.

In 1972, as the state of Illinois prepared to implement legislation mandating bilingual education, Seidner moved to Chicago to establish and direct a center to provide training and technical assistance to bilingual education programs throughout the state. The first of its kind, it was an instant success. It became the staff development arm of the state department of education, conducting local, regional, and statewide workshops and providing on-site consultant services to school districts. From 1972 to 1979, under her leadership, the Bilingual Education Service Center grew to encompass multiple projects: the Illinois Resource Center, the Title VII Midwest Resource Center, the Illinois Statewide ESL/Adult Education Center, the Midwest Indochinese Refugee Education Program, the Illinois Bilingual Vocational Education Program, the Illinois Bilingual School Psychologist Network, and others.

During this time, Seidner gained national recognition as a bilingual educator, speaking at state, regional, and national conferences, providing testimony on bilingual education before Congress and the Illinois General Assembly, serving on advisory panels for various agencies, participating in special task forces, and publishing in professional journals. A founding member of the National Association for Bilingual Education, she was actively involved in the organization and served as its third president. She also worked closely with the U.S. Department of Education, serving on the National Advisory Council on Bilingual Education from 1978 to 1982.

In 1979, Seidner joined the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) as manager of bilingual education and served in that capacity until 1993. She led the state in developing and implementing new state policies with uniform criteria for identification, assessment, and instruction of English language learners; administrative procedures for evaluating and funding district applications; guidelines and processes for on-site monitoring; and provisions for professional development of bilingual personnel and coordination of federal bilingual programs. She succeeded in establishing collaborative programs with special education, making Illinois one of the first states to provide state certification in bilingual special education.

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