Developing a Training Program for Secondary Teachers of English Language Learners in Ohio

Abstract

This article addresses a program model developed to address the professional development needs of content teachers who work with English language learners (ELLs) and offers recommendations for teachers, administrators, school districts, state agencies, and institutions of higher education, to address job-embedded professional development needs. The model is based on the authors' daily work with content and ESL teachers and administrators throughout a Midwestern state that has seen recent growth in ELLs, as well as on findings from the literature and a needs assessment survey they conducted with content teachers. Teachers cite inadequacy of current knowledge and services, a need for specialized professional development, and issues of accessibility. Therefore, those who wish to encourage teacher professional development, create resources to improve teachers' ability to deliver academic content to ELLs, or develop training programs, must take into account teachers' needs vis-à-vis their willingness to engage in professional development.

Notes

We particularly thank the U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Minority Affairs, for their funding of our training program and research efforts. In addition, thanks are also due to the members of our professional development program team including Yunyan Zhang, Sun Yung Song, Michelle Ray, and Steven Wisnor, who assisted us with compiling our research data.

1. The most common home languages for Ohio's ELLs include Spanish, Somali, Arabic, Amish German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean, and Cantonese.

2. A copy of this 30-item survey may be obtained by contacting the authors.

3. Because of prohibitive costs of textbooks and its impact on our program budget, we eventually requested that our partnering school districts agree to cover the cost of textbooks for their participating teachers; we covered all other costs. We have since instituted a minimal registration fee for participants, in order to encourage buy-in and sense of personal investment.

4. Our desire to create and implement a distance education program subsequently created a need for our own professional development as researchers and teacher educators, as two of us had no experience whatsoever with distance education. One of our current research projects explores how we grew to become distance education instructors as a by-product of our needs assessment and program development research.