Ten years ago, as a graduate student, Fatima Terrazas-Arellanes was searching for a better way for culturally and linguistically diverse students to learn science.

Her solution: Design a new online science curriculum for classroom use that gives all students the skills they need to succeed.

Today, as a faculty scientist at the University of Oregon College of Education, Dr. Terrazas-Arellanes has shown that the ESCOLAR learning program she helped develop effectively meets the needs of all students—general education students, English learners, and students with learning disabilities—in deepening science knowledge.

ESCOLAR stands for Effective Scholastic Curriculum for Online Learning and Academic Results. It is aligned to national standards and backed by years of research and development funded by the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. Collaboration is key to ESCOLAR’s success. This web-based curriculum is built on a strong foundation of project-based learning, a proven method of helping students develop knowledge by actively exploring real-world problems.

ESCOLAR was born digital. It takes full advantage of the flexible, multimodal online learning environment to support reading comprehension among students of all abilities. Students can choose from a variety of helpful eText supports, such as pop-up vocabulary definitions, comprehension questions, text-to-speech, and digital note-taking.

The ESCOLAR program currently focuses on science but will expand in the future to other subject areas, such as math and language arts, with a more integrated teaching model.