Continuous professional development (PD) fuels teacher growth, fostering engaging classrooms and brighter futures for students. This Spotlight will help readers investigate the ins and outs of effective PD; uncover the types of PD that teachers want; learn how PD can help teachers better support English learners; evaluate the debate around hybrid…

Despite the growing number of English learners in the United States, teachers continue to report that they do not feel well prepared to support English learners. It is critical to offer quality professional development accessible for all teachers and to engage teachers in exploring teaching applications involving English learners. In this study,…

This phenomenological study explored elementary educators' identified needs for effective professional development, focused on the instruction and assessment of English Learners (EL) in schools with low EL incidence. Addressing teacher preparation through effective professional development was guided by Bruner's (1960) constructivist theory and…

This study examined the effectiveness of an eight-week Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) coaching cycle on improving instructional strategies for English Learners (ELs) in seventh-grade classrooms. The goal was to enhance the literacy performance of ELs by 15% on the LAS Links literacy subtest. The coaching cycle aimed to integrate…

The growth in the English language learners (ELLs) population in the classroom has given rise to the need for teachers to employ strategies that are both innovative and culturally responsive. A Florida school district has implemented the Imagine Language and Literacy program to meet the growing academic and linguistic demands of its ELL students.…

Nation-wide, the number of English Language Learners (ELL) in our classrooms continues to increase. Twenty percent of students enrolled in California public schools are ELLs, the highest percentage in the nation. With the continuously growing number of ELLs in our classrooms, our mainstream teachers must be prepared to teach content and meet the…

Teacher preparation for problem-solving instruction is essential to meeting the math needs of English learners (ELs) with math learning disabilities (MLD) in U.S. public schools. In investigating this instruction with Hispanic ELs with MLD, this study focused on how professional development supported one special educator's implementation of…

International schools work to serve students from a variety of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. When a student is developing proficiency in a language, they have difficulty accessing content in that language. In order to support all of their students, including those developing language proficiency, teachers have to implement…

The study presented here utilized a cross case comparison of three different professional development programs to examine the contextual factors associated with uptake related to what teachers learned related to content, pedagogy and the resources used in their professional development (PD) workshops. From a theoretical perspective this study…

Despite some of the greatest gains in history in terms of high school graduation rates, standardized tests, and college entrance exams, the American education system struggles to effectively educate its neediest and most underserved students, including those in poverty, English language learners, and students of color (DuFour, 2015). Current and…

This study reports the effects of a distributed professional development model emphasizing reading comprehension and vocabulary practices in social studies on the content knowledge, vocabulary, and reading comprehension outcomes of upper elementary students identified as English learners (ELs). Schools were randomly assigned to one of three…

This study reports the effects of a distributed professional development model emphasizing reading comprehension and vocabulary practices in social studies on the content knowledge, vocabulary, and reading comprehension outcomes of upper elementary students identified as English learners (ELs). Schools were randomly assigned to one of three…

There is a learning gap between what mainstream teachers ought to know and practice to effectively teach English language learners (ELLs) and what they know and practice in actuality when working with adolescent ELLs. This study employed a qualitative method to assess the effectiveness of teacher professional development (PD) opportunities from…

Teachers' confidence and facility with strategies that position and support students who are English learners (ELs) as active participants in middle grades mathematics classrooms are key to facilitating ELs' mathematics learning. The Visual Access to Mathematics (VAM) project developed and studied teacher professional development (PD) focused on…

Teachers and administrators expressed concerns regarding grading English Learner (EL) students in a school district in a mid Atlantic state. Grade retention rates of ELs were disproportionately high. A professional development pilot was designed and implemented based upon the district's recently developed EL Grading Guidelines. The purpose of this…