No English Learner Left Behind: How Can States and Teacher Preparation Programs Support Content-Area Practitioners?

Abstract

This study investigates the responses that education stakeholders give to regular teacher and teacher candidate professional needs because of the increasing number of English learners. Two major research questions related to the increase of English learners in US schools and to the responses that stakeholders have provided guided the inquiry. Using a case study approach, the results show that not only have the numbers of English learners risen, but also that some school districts have witnessed drastic demographic shifts. In response to these shifts, decision makers have attempted to meet teacher professional needs. In light of these findings, I formulate recommendations to educational stakeholders at national, state, local, and to teacher preparation program developers to engage in systematic reforms to meet regular practitioner needs.

A Study on Teacher Candidates’ Questioning Strategies for English Learners through an Interactive Classroom Simulation

“…This type of questioning has been referred to as scaffolded questions and tiered questions (Hill & Flynn, 2006). The current study assumes leveled questions (LQs) as described by Nutta and colleagues (2014;2018). Leveled questions provide opportunities for teachers to realize whether ELs' responses are limited due to their overall understanding of the content or their EPL (Nutta et al, 2018).…”

“…Teachers need to understand effective strategies for teaching ELs (de Jong & Harper, 2005). Similar to Diarrassouba (2018) and Wissink and Starks (2019), Regalla and colleagues (2016) found that teacher candidates (TCs) have reported their teacher preparation programs still left them feeling unprepared to instruct the ELs in their prospective classrooms. Hence, communication barriers can be reduced when teacher preparation programs focus on meeting the needs of ELs.…”

“…Yet, approximately 83 percent of teachers in U.S. schools identified as White (NCES, 2012) leading to an instructional gap where nearly 80 percent of teachers noted feeling underprepared to teach ELs (Durgunoðlu & Hughes, 2010;McGraner & Saenz, 2009). More recent literature regarding teacher preparedness for instructing ELs has shown that even after completing university teacher preparation programs, the majority of teachers still feel underprepared to address the academic and linguistic needs of their ELs (Diarrassouba, 2018;Wissink & Starks, 2019).…”