How many teachers in your school can say that they are comfortably prepared to teach in linguistically diverse classrooms? Although teacher preparation institutions may do a commendable job of preparing teachers to teach students with similar cultures and home languages as their own, too many teachers are flustered and unaware of what to do when they are thrown a curveball—namely, any student who does not fit the typical majority culture and home language. English language learners (ELLs) are a historically underperforming population that many mainstream classroom teachers seem least comfortably prepared to teach.

In fact, several assumptions are often made when it comes to teaching ELLs. The first is that with a well-developed English as a second language (ESL) program, the needs of the ELL will be taken care of. The unfortunate truth is that ELLs too often spend the majority of their time in mainstream classes with few accommodations made for learning. This is especially true for low-incidence schools and schools that use the ESL pullout model of instruction. If ELLs are to be successful, this mind-set will need to change. Educating ELLs well must be a schoolwide effort, with everyone—administrators and faculty alike—understanding the importance of their role in the content learning and language acquisition process.