A Case for Training All Teachers to Meet Needs of ELLs

From http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2012/04/should_all_teachers_know_how_t.html

A Case for Training All Teachers to Meet Needs of ELLs
By Lesli A. Maxwell
April 30, 2012

The Center for American Progress has put out a new paper which makes the argument that general education teachers need to be steeped in the same instructional strategies as bilingual education and English-as-a-second language teachers are, in order to support their ELL students.

Authors Jennifer F. Samson and Brian A. Collins combed through the research to outline the standards, knowledge, and skills that bilingual and ESL teachers need for teaching ELLs effectively and argue that general education teachers need the same. Things like oral language development, helping students acquire academic language, and understanding the unique cultural attributes of students whose first language is not English. Those areas, say the authors, must be woven into every layer of education policy and practice from top to bottom: the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a revision of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher standards, state regulations, teacher preparation programs, state certification exams, and performance evaluations.

Read the full article at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2012/04/should_all_teachers_know_how_t.html

Read the report at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/04/teachers_ell.html