In the News:

Overlooked: How Teacher Training Falls Short for English-Learners and Students With IEPs

By: Kaitlyn Sumner

Complete APA citation of the resource:

Mitchell, C. (2019, May 15). Overlooked: How Teacher Training Falls Short for English-
Learners and Students With IEPs. Retrieved from
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/05/15/overlooked-how-teacher-training-falls-
short-for.html.

Two – three sentence summary of the article:

Posted in May14th, this year, the author stated concerning the topic of the lack of training
for teachers who are working with ELL students and students with disabilities.
Over the years it has been great that ELL students and students with disabilities are more
assimilated into general classrooms and not just taught in isolated classrooms with specially
trained educators. Though this has been majority of great success, general classroom teachers
lack the necessary training to meet their students needs. For example, teachers who work with
students with disabilities need to know how to do three things well: Read and understand
individualized education plans, teach reading, and keep families informed about their students'
progress.
For ELL students, teachers must understand the backgrounds of the students they work
with: cultures, families, socioemotional needs, language proficiency, prior knowledge, “must be
aware of the similarities and differences between first- and second-language development, and
the importance of nonverbal communication and visual aids in language acquisition; recognize
the difference between conversational language and academic language—the vocabulary that
helps students understand story problems or science concepts, which can be difficult for native-
English speakers to grasp and is often even tougher for ELLs; and, perhaps most importantly,
teachers must recognize that the cultural norms of their classrooms may be vastly different than
what students experience at home.”
Overall, there is existing evidence that training and preparation has improved since these
students have been more assimilated into general classrooms. But professional development of
oral language development, academic language, and cultural diversity still remains relevant and
needed in some areas.

What I found cool was that there was also shown results from a twitter poll:
 In the News:
Overlooked: How Teacher Training Falls Short for English-Learners and Students With IEPs

Also in the comments, most teachers stated that they believe even though new teachers
aren’t fully prepared to tackle such challenges noted in the article many of the teachers currently
in the field are also not fully versed on those issues either. Others stated that there are more areas
that teachers need to train on, for example behavior support plans, another stated that she had
offered to train multiple times in her district and has been turned down on all of them because the
district “never has time.”

My Questions:

We are currently in a classroom for this exact purpose that others are lacking. To develop the
necessary skills that enables us to ensure the success of our minority students from diverse
linguistic and cultural backgrounds. As a new teacher in a new school, what would you do once
you found that your fellow teachers are not trained?

Would you or how would you enforce the school to give the staff training if the district also said
they “didn’t have time?”

As preservice teachers, do you believe you are trained or being trained well enough to support
your ELL students and students with disabilities? (Either/or) OR Do you think our WSU’s
Education program does well to fix this implication with their preservice teachers (aka, us)?
Maybe more, maybe less courses?
 In the News:
Overlooked: How Teacher Training Falls Short for English-Learners and Students With IEPs

Possible Implication:
… and a common implication I fear is happening with the teachers who lack training may be
confusing some ELL students for (or teaching them) as students with disabilities and may
accidentally put them into an IEP (Individualized Education Program). Meaning they are eligible
for special services specifically for students with disabilities and once it has been decided, it is
hard for the child to be taken off the program.