Faculty Profiles

Dr. Jennifer Renn is a Research Assistant Professor and the Managing Director of the Center for Literacy and Language Education and Research (CL2EAR) in the College of Education at Purdue University. Her research uses mixed methods approaches to investigate topics related to sociolinguistics, language assessment, educator training, instructional coaching, dual language bilingual education, and language variation and identity. She is co-Investigator of Parental Inclusion in Language and Research (Project PILAR), funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition, which works with teachers and instructional coaches in school districts with dual language education programs. She is also a co-Investigator on the Science of Reading Implementation Grant funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Prior to joining Purdue, she was the Director of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington D.C., where she directed the English for Heritage Language Speakers Program and worked in K-12 English language assessment research. She was an Institute of Education Sciences postdoctoral scholar in early child education at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) from 2010-2013. Dr. Renn has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in general linguistics, language instruction, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, assessment, and field methods at institutions including Georgetown University, George Washington University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Purdue University.

Dr. Renn studies language and literacy development in diverse populations, teacher language attitudes, English language learner education, language assessment, and language variation and identity.

Selected Publications

Books

• Kohn, M., Wolfram, W., Farrington, C., Renn, J., & Van Hofwegen, J. (2020) The Longitudinal Development of African American English in the Early Lifespan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• Renn, J., Li, H., Choi, W., Wright, W.E., & Morita-Mullaney, T. (2023).  Making “Small Waves of Change”: Dual Language and General Education Teacher Transformation through Instructional Coaching. TESOL Quarterly. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3216
• Morita-Mullaney, T., Renn, J., & Chiu, M. (2022). Spanish language proficiency in Dual Language and English as a Second Language Models: The Impact of model, time, teacher, and student on Spanish language development. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-19, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2022.2089012.
• Morita-Mullaney, T., Renn, J., & Chiu, M. (2021). Contesting math as the universal language: A longitudinal study of dual language bilingual education language allocation. International Multilingual Research Journal, 15(1), 43-60, DOI: 10.1080/19313152.2020.1753930
• Morita-Mullaney, T., Renn, J., & Chiu, M. (2020). Obscuring equity in dual language bilingual education: A longitudinal study of emergent bilingual achievement, middle school course placements, and grades. TESOL Quarterly.
• Renn, J., Morita-Mullaney, T., & Wright, W. (2020). The ELL-Teacher Cohort Model: Communities of Practice in Online Learning. TESOL Connections.
• Morita-Mullaney, T., Renn, J., Garcia, A., & Wright, W. E. (2020). Preparing K–12 teachers for effective instruction of English learners: The transformation of a Purdue University online language teacher education program. In H. S. Kang, D. S. Shin, & T. Cimasko (Eds.), Online Education for Teachers of English as a Global Language (pp. 19-38). New York: Routledge.
• Morita-Mullaney, T., Li, H., & Renn, J. (2019). Multiliteracies in rural communities: The “Revuelto y Mezclado” of home and community literacy practices of Midwestern emergent bilingual families. The Rural Educator, 40(3), 35-48.
• Renn, J., & Duguay A. (2019). Bolstering content by promoting language and literacy in the urban science classroom. In J. Wendt & D. Apugo (Eds.), K-12 STEM Education in Urban Learning Environments. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Li, H., & Renn, J. (2018). Nurturing Spanish-speaking English learners to be bilinguals in the rural Midwest – Challenges and possible solutions. INTESOL Journal, 15(1), 1-23.
• Kelly, J., Renn, J., & Norton, J. (2018). Addressing Consequences and Validity during Test Design and Development. In J. Davis, J. Norris, M. Malone, T. McKay, & Y. Son (Eds.), Useful Assessment and Evaluation in Language Education (pp. 185-200). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
• Farrington, C., Renn, J., & Kohn, M. (2017). The relationship between segregation and participation in ethnolectal variants: A longitudinal study. In G. De Vogelaer & M. Katerbow (Eds.), Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on the Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Variation (pp. 185-212). Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
• Renn, J. (2011). Patterns of style in the language of African American children and adolescents. Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development. (Vol. 2, pp. 513-525).
• Renn, J. & Terry, J.M. (2009). Operationalizing style: Quantifying style shift in the speech of African American adolescents.  American Speech, 84(4),367-390.

• EDCI 52600 – Language Study for Educators
• EDCI 55700– Assessment of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners