Massachusetts Moves on ELL Teaching for Regular Teachers

From http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/08/08/37massell.h31.html

Mass. Moves on ELL-Training for Regular Teachers
By Lesli A. Maxwell
August 7, 2012

Under pressure from federal civil rights officials to improve schooling for English-language learners, education leaders in Massachusetts are forging ahead with major changes that will require intensive training for thousands of academic-content teachers with ELLs in their classrooms.

At the heart of the state’s effort to better serve ELL students is a new mandate for teachers at all grade levels in the core areas of mathematics, English/language arts, social studies, and science to earn an “endorsement” in sheltered English immersion, by taking a three-credit course that has been developed by language-acquisition experts. The course is being tested with a small number of teachers in the Springfield district this summer and will be piloted in a handful of other districts in the fall.

The training also will be required for all prospective core-content teachers as a condition for licensing, starting in July 2016.

Read the full article at http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/08/08/37massell.h31.html?tkn=VMCCMTD6Vs6AYywKCALZnUaTmUBudBuVwCkU&cmp=clp-sb-ascd