The ACCELA Alliance is a school-university partnership between the University of Massachusetts Amherst, three local school districts, and several community-based organizations. The purpose of the Alliance is to help educators support the academic literacy practices of the growing number of linguistically and culturally diverse students attending public schools in Western Massachusetts. The need to support the professional development of all educators is greater now more than ever, not just because of changing demographics in the region, but also because of current federal, state and district policies regarding language and literacy instruction in public schools (e.g., No Child Left Behind legislation, English-only law, mandated curriculum, and instructional practices).