Getting a national snapshot of the quality of English-learner education is complex, given the differences in instructional models, student demographics, funding models, and policy priorities across states and individual districts.
Still, a new EdWeek Research Center survey of more than 1,100 educators across the country working with English learners in their schools and districts from March 5-19 offers insight into both progress and persistent gaps in offering a quality education to more than 5 million English learners.
The findings come at a time when the Trump administration has taken steps experts say may deprioritize these students’ needs, including formally moving to dissolve a standalone federal office for English learners.
A central takeaway: general education teachers need significantly more support and training to effectively develop English learners’ language skills, despite spending the most time with these students.
“We’re chipping away at these issues, and we’ve learned a lot that can help us, but there’s still a lot of work to do to make sure that what we know is best and it’s implemented,” said Rebecca Bergey, a principal researcher focusing on English learners at the American Institutes for Research, about the survey results.
English learners spend most of their time in mainstream classrooms
Survey respondents said that across grade levels, English learners spend most of their time in school with in mainstream classrooms, rather than separated classrooms or dual-language classrooms.
This pattern is largely driven by staffing shortages, particularly among bilingual education or English-as-a-second-language teachers, Bergey said. Challenges in staffing can at times relate to a lack of bilingual educator pipelines and a lack of funding to recruit and retrain such educators.
In fact, 55% of educators surveyed said the number of staff in their district or school who have been appropriately trained to serve English learners is insufficient.
On one hand, greater inclusion in mainstream classrooms can reduce isolation and increase access to rigorous, grade-level content, Bergey said.
On the other hand, that access depends heavily on whether gen ed teachers recognize these students as their responsibility and have the preparation needed to meet their language development needs through academic content.
“You’re not going to have the access to that grade-level, rigorous content unless [the teacher is] supporting and scaffolding the language alongside it,” Bergey said.
Gen ed teachers remain underprepared
For more than a decade, researchers have called for better teacher preparation for gen ed teachers on how to integrate language development in mainstream classrooms.
This aligns with the principle of shared responsibility, where all educators—not just specialists—are accountable for both language development and academic learning.
However, survey findings suggest this ideal is far from reality.
When asked who is viewed as being most responsible for the instruction of English learners, survey respondents overwhelmingly pointed to EL teachers. Yet when asked to what extent the input of EL teachers was meaningfully incorporated in schoolwide instructional decisions affecting English learners, 51% said to a minor extent or not at all.
At the same time, most survey respondents said gen ed teachers, who spend the most time with English learners, are not integrating English-language development regularly in their mainstream classrooms.
This lack of regular language development in mainstream classrooms concerns Bergey. But she cautions not to translate this to mean English learners need to spend more time with EL teachers.
“The message here is mainstream teachers continue to need more support to make sure that they understand how to address language within content classes,” Bergey said.
Training can shift both practice and mindset
Lack of relevant training and professional development for gen ed teachers doesn’t just inhibit their ability to support English learners’ education. It affects teachers’ perceptions of their own capabilities as well as the capabilities of English learners.
Of gen ed teachers whose students include some English learners, only 56% said English learners are ahead because they speak more than one language, when asked about their views of students, while 44% said they are behind because they are not proficient in English.
This asset-based mindset is notably lower than among district or school network leaders overseeing learning and instruction, leaders whose main responsibility is English learner services, and teachers who focus specifically on instructing English learners.
Mindsets are hard to shift, but training can help teachers feel better prepared and thus help them develop better perceptions, Bergey said.
In prior educator trainings she led, Bergey witnessed that deficit mindset among teachers towards English learners’ lack of English proficiency.
Effective training should emphasize the belief that all students can be successful and that there are things gen ed teachers can do to support English learners’ success, Bergey said.
She added that teachers’ perceptions are also influenced by the day-to-day challenges in front of them in the classroom, and so it may sometimes be hard to zoom out of those experiences and think of the systemic solutions for helping English learners in mainstream classrooms.
Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.
