Preparation and Development of Teachers
for Language Minority Students
CRITICAL ISSUES:
Shortage of ESL/Bilingual Teachers - The nation
does not have enough ESL/Bilingual teachers with the skills to serve culturally
and linguistically diverse students:
- Based on a review of teacher supply and demand studies,
Macias (1989, cited in Leighton et al, 1993) estimates a need for approximately
170,000 additional teachers to serve English-language learners by the year
2000.
- The National Center for Education Statistics (1993:125)
Schools and Staffing Survey indicates that during the 1990-91 school year,
37 percent of school administrators who had vacancies in ESL or bilingual
education found them "very difficult or impossible to fill."
- A national survey of teacher placement officers ranked
bilingual education as the field with the highest degree of teacher shortage
and the highest demand (Association for School, College, and University
staffing, 1990, cited in Milk et al; 1992).
Shortage of Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
Backgrounds: The lack of teachers of color when student enrollment is increasingly
diverse is of particular concern.
- Supply and demand studies reveal that as "the student population
becomes more culturally heterogeneous, the teaching force is expected to
become more culturally homogeneous [Caucasian]" (Villegas et al., 1995:6).
- The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
1994 report on the multicultural status of today's teaching workforce, Teacher
Education Pipeline III (AACTE, 1994), states that only about 14 percent
of current public and private school teachers are members of a non-Caucasian
racial/ethnic group. However, K-12 minority enrollment has exceeded 31 percent
and continuous to increase steadily.
- In teacher education, 85 percent of enrolled students are
Caucasian. Pipeline studies indicate that the number of minority teachers
is expected to fall to 6 percent by the year 2000 (Spellman, 1988, cited
in Hill et al., 1993).
Students' limited access to highly qualified bilingual-ESL staff
- Available personnel seldom has the necessarily training and/or qualifications
to teach LEP students.
- Two-thirds of teachers serving LEP students are regular
classroom teachers. Only 10 percent of LEP teachers are certified in bilingual
education and/or ESL (Council of Chief State School Officers, 1991).
- In many elementary schools that offer LEP services, teacher's
aides (89%) are in charge of providing the main instruction (Council of
Chief State School Officers, 1991).
Need to train all teachers on how to effectively teach language
minority students:
- Given the continuing rapid increase of language minority
students there is a need to prepare all individuals entering the teaching
profession. In addition, in-service programs need to focus on all teachers
- regardless of their backgrounds -not just on the ESL/Bilingual staff.
TEACHER COMPETENCIES FOR DIVERSE CLASSROOMS:
The following is a list of competencies that
all teachers need to acquire in order to effectively teach language minority
students:
- Instructional and Assessment Strategies - Teachers should
know how to:
- Use "sheltered English" strategies;
- Support learning of the second language through content;
- Engage students in cooperative learning;
- Use cross-age and peer tutoring;
- Integrate native English speakers with English language
learners for instructional purposes;
- Use interdisciplinary, thematic units;
- Use technology to enhance language learning and concept
understanding;
- Properly assess English language learners.
- Language Development - Teachers should:
- Have knowledge of second-language acquisition;
- Be familiar with whole-language approaches to integrate
oral language development with writing, reading, and listening;
- Affirm and build on student's language as much as possible.
- Developing and Teaching an Inclusive Curriculum - Teachers
should:
- Be familiar with a wide range of materials and literature
from different cultures and periods in history to enrich the curriculum;
- Know techniques to integrate students' culture and
experiences in the curriculum.
- Establishing a Positive School Climate - Teachers should
know how to:
- Promote respect for students of all backgrounds;
- Develop an environment where all students feel equally
accepted, welcomed and challenged;
- Prevent and address issues of intolerance, prejudism
and bias;
- Promote students' interest in learning about different
cultures, languages and lifestyles.
- Parental Involvement - Teachers should know strategies
on how to:
- Promote parental involvement of parents of diverse
backgrounds;
- Effectively communicate with parents from diverse backgrounds;
- Integrate community "funds of knowledge" (Gonzalez
et al, 1993) into the curriculum.
REFERENCES:
American Association of Colleges of Teacher
Education. (1994). Teacher Education Pipeline III: Schools, Colleges,
and Departments of Education Enrollments by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender.
Washington, DC: Author.
Council of Chief of State Officers (1991). Summary
of State Practices Concerning theAssessment of and the Data Collection about
LEP students.Washington, D.C.: Author.
Gonzalez, N., Moll, L., Floyd-Tenery, M., Rivera,
A., Rendon, P., Gonzalez, R., & Amanti, C. (1993). Teacher Research on
Funds of Knowledge: Learning from Households. The National Center for Research
on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning. Santa Cruz, California.
Hill, R., Carjuzaa, J., Aramburu, D., and Baca,
L. (1993). "Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Teachers in Special Education:
Repairing or Redesigning the Leaky Pipeline," Teacher Education and Special
Education 16:258-269.
Leighton, M.S., Russo A.W., and Hightower, A.M.
(1993). Improving Education for Language Minority Students: Promising
Practices in Professional Development. Unpublished manuscript.
Milk, R., Mercado, C., Sapiens, A. (1992). Re-thinking
the Education of Teachers of Language Minority Children: Developing Reflective
Teachers for Changing Schools. Occassional Papers in Bilingual Education.
Number 6. Washington, D.C: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.
National Center for Education Statistics. (1993).
Schools and Staffing in the United States: A Statistical Profile.
NCES 93-146. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office. Villegas, A.M.,
Clewell, B.C., Anderson, B.T., Goertz, M.E., Joy, M.F., Bruschi, B.A., and
Irvine, J.J. (1995). Teaching for Diversity: Models for Expanding the
Supply of Minority Teachers. Princeton, New Jersey: Educational Testing
Service.
MID-ATLANTIC CENTER MATERIALS:
National Coalition of Educational Equity Advocates
(1994) Educate America: A Call for Equity in School
Reform. A Co-Publication of American Youth Policy Forum, Mid-Atlantic
Equity Consortium, and the National Educational Association - Center for Revitalization
of Urban Education.
Lorraine Valdez Pierce (1991). Effective
Schools for Language Minority Students. The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center.
OTHER RELATED PUBLICATIONS:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
(1995). Educating Everybody's Children: Diverse Teaching Strategies for
Diverse Learners Alexandria, VA: Author.
National Coalition of Advocates for Students
(1991). The Good Common School: Making the Vision Work for All Children.
Boston, MA: Author. National Research Council (1997). Improving Schooling
for Language Minority Children: A Research Agenda. Washington, D.C.:
National Academy Press.
Shartrand, A.; Weiss, H., Kreider, H.; & Lopez,
E. (1997). New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement.
Cambridge, Massachussetts: Harvard Family Research Project, Harvard Graduate
School of Education.
INFORMATION LINKS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND
OTHER RESOURCES:
Bilingual/ESL Network
to subscribe to the discussion group, send request to: nieves@vt.edu
website: www.redglobal.com/ben/home.html
National Association for Bilingual Education
(NABE)
1201 16th St., N.W., Suite 406
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 898-1829
e-mail: nabe@nabe.org
website:www.nabe.org/main_nabe.html
National Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education
(NCBE)
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu
National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity
and Second Language Learning
141 Ker Hall
University of California
Santa Cruz, California 95064
(408) 459-3500
e-mail: center@cats.ucc.edu
website:zzyx.ucsc.edu/Cntr/cntr.html