they often lack subject-matter knowledge. The situation is reversed with
subject-matter teachers; they have content knowledge but not a level of knowledge
of language development sufficient to support the ELL students in their classrooms.
The results of this bifurcation are vividly illustrated by the results of thefirst year’s
administration of the new CCRS-aligned assessments. For example, in California,
65% of ELL students did not meet the standards in either mathematics or ELA
(California Department of Education 2015 ).
With the expectations of the new standards, this current bifurcation must change,
particularly with respect to subject-matter teachers. No doubt, it is desirable for
students who are new to the country or enter school speaking little or no English to
receive ELD instruction. However, once students have acquired some English, their
continued language development must become the responsibility of every
subject-matter teacher if ELL students are going to be able to engage successfully
with language in the service of content learning. Clearly, supporting all teachers to
take responsibility for ELL students represents a number of challenges for teacher
education programs, a topic to which we now turn.
47.4 Current Challenges in Preparing Teachers
of ELL Students
With the rising population of ELL students in the U.S. and their stubbornly per-
sistent low educational outcomes, it is imperative that not just ESL teachers are
trained to support ELL students, but also that general education teachers have the
knowledge and skills to work with this population of students. Additionally, as
pre-service teachers cannot learn all they possibly need to know about effectively
teaching ELL students, continuing in-service support will need to be available for
both ESL and general education teachers. In this section, we discuss current
challenges to preparing teachers of ELL students.
To date, little attention has been paid in teacher education to the knowledge and
skills that general education teachers need to have in order to teach ELL students
effectively. Indeed, in many states, the examination teacher candidates are required to
pass for completion of the state-approved teacher-preparation program does not
assess teacher knowledge and skills relevant to teaching ELL students (Samson and
Collins 2012 ). Extrapolating from the current context in the U.S. discussed earlier, as
well as some key emergingfindings from the research cited earlier, it seems rea-
sonable to assume that prime among the knowledge and skills teachers need are (1) a
deep knowledge of content and ELD standards; (2) a strong understanding of oral
language development and an awareness of similarities and differences betweenfirst
and second language development; (3) knowledge and skills to teach subject-matter
and language simultaneously; and (4) the skills to assess students’developing
understanding and language and act on evidence. However, there remain challenges
in the present educational and policy environments to ensuring that both pre-service
and in-service teachers receive the support they need in these core areas.
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