A Survey of California Teachers’ Challenges, Experiences, and Professional Development Needs

This study explored the challenges facing teachers with regard to educating English learners. It is analyzed how these challenges vary according to such factors as teacher experience, training, and student need. Almost 5,300 educators responded to the online or paper survey. The challenges that California’s teachers most frequently noted include: teacher–parent communication and understanding of home–community issues, the need for more time to teach English learners both English and academic subjects, and the variable academic and English language needs of their students. Another challenge was teacher’s inability to communicate with their students about the academic content of the class, as well as the social and personal issues that can impede student learning. The following recommendations are offered to the California Department of Education: (1) convene a statewide summit to address the issues raised by teachers; (2) develop a clearinghouse of existing materials and resources to aid teachers of English learners; (3) develop a package of evaluation tools and instruments to evaluate the quality of local programs for English learners and identify areas in need of improvement; (4) give professional development for working with English learner students a higher priority; (5) develop, seek resources for, and begin to implement a well-planned and rigorous research agenda.