CrossWalk welcomes to the stage Kim Ferrario, Professor, USC School of Education.

Watch the teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.

 Dr. Kimberly Ferrario is a Professor at the Rossier School of Education. Currently, Ferrario teaches in the MAT TESOL Program, the MAT Credential Program, and the Organizational Change and Leadership EdD program. 

Her research interests include sociocultural aspects of language and literacy development, assessment, teacher professional development, classroom discourse, writing pedagogy, and ways English learners can move from novice participant to legitimate positions in discourse communities of the classroom. Dr. Ferrario received the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute Dissertation Research Grant to fund her study that focused on high school English learners’ opportunities to use English in their various school contexts and in their out-of-school lives. Findings from her study build toward a more comprehensive notion of legitimate student participation, and a research agenda that integrates in-school and out-of-school resources to help teachers support their English learners in the classroom.

Ferrario has 20 years combined experience teaching for a school district in the North Bay Area in California at the elementary level, as a reading specialist, and as a literacy coach/coordinator of professional development in language and literacy for K-12 teachers. Prior to joining the USC Rossier School of Education, she taught an academic literacy course for teachers and supervised student teachers in the credential programs for CSU Sacramento and UC Davis. She received her Master’s Degree in Language and Literacy in the School of Education at California State University, Sacramento and completed her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of California, Davis.