Published in ConnectED Newsletter - Volume 8 - Issue 3 - May 2025
Sofia Maria Bosch is a bilingual special education (BSE) teacher at J.H.S 050. She also serves as department head, leading a team of eight staff members and mentoring other BSE teachers. And if that weren’t impressive enough, she also serves as Spanish literacy interventionist and as lead of a 6th-8th grade pilot BSE program about culturally, linguistically, and neurologically responsive instruction centered upon the students’ needs and prioritizing experiential, project-based learning. One of her many goals is to solidify this BSE pilot model and then scale by encouraging other districts throughout the city to open programs that better support this unique intersection of students.
In three years at the school, Ms. Bosch has been instrumental in developing research-backed methodologies, bumping reading levels (+2 grade levels on average in English, +3 in Spanish), expanding the BSE program (1 classroom to 4), training new teachers, and designing and implementing small-group, project-based, and experiential learning curricula. She has been invited to present about the program at conferences such as NYSABE 2025.
Ms. Bosch affirms that the CCNY Special Education program provided her with the resources she needed to succeed in the world of bilingual special education. For example, “Dr. Lorenzetti's class on assessment for students with disabilities and her thesis on empowering struggling readers who are newcomers with learning disabilities helped her build a toolkit for future reference to create more equitable educational experiences for her students,” she notes. Furthermore, Ms. Bosch appreciated the wealth of resources at City College, such as the CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education (CUNY-IIE) and diverse peers that the university attracts from many careers, backgrounds, and educational levels.
Ms. Bosch is Mexican-Spanish-American, went to ten different schools before college, and had an undiagnosed learning disorder until her senior year of high school, making her a fierce advocate for neurodiverse and multilingual students. She is a believer in the brilliance of every student, multilingualism, elevating community voices, innovation and alegría in education, and the power of storytelling.
One of Ms. Bosch’s most recent ideas is MaMu, an AI resource project/education company passionate about building a toolkit and feedback loops for those who support diverse learners (neurodiverse + multilingual). MaMu is about simplification, aiding differentiation, networks of support, and building resources/community around learners. It aims to empower students, families, and educators at the intersection of language learning, neurodiversity, migration, and interrupted education with technology that maximizes time, lowers barriers to information, fosters advocacy, and celebrates each individual to build a future where every multilingual learner, regardless of background or ability, can learn, grow, and thrive. In its initial funding phases, MaMu aims to build AI solutions such as a content personalization platform for BSE teachers with integrated student profiles and feedback, and a WhatsApp ChatBot to answer questions about BSE in families' native languages. Ms. Bosch hopes MaMu could be a puzzle piece in the bridge of equity for neurodiverse students who speak more than 200 different home languages in NYC.
Over the next few years, Ms. Bosch hopes to continue leading the team and pilot program at J.H.S. 050 and to explore ways to support future generations of BSE teachers, students, and families. She would also like to become more involved in the BSE teacher pipeline, supporting new teachers who work with neurodiverse bilingual students, perhaps through the New York City Teaching Fellows program or as a teacher educator at a local university.
Last Updated: 05/27/2025 19:15