There is a sea change occurring in education across the country in the systematic way that everyone considers "what" students should be learning and "how" teachers should be evaluated. Amidst the sweeping changes in the enterprise of teaching and learning, English language learners, or ELLs, are one subgroup of students that require special attention, particularly because of their growing numbers and low-performance relative to their non-ELL peers. To date, there has been relatively little attention paid to the essential standards, knowledge, and skills that general education teachers ought to possess in order to provide effective instruction to ELLs placed in their classroom. Drawing from the literature on what English as a second language and bilingual teachers should know, the authors extrapolated foundational knowledge about ELLs that might serve general education teachers that have these students in their classrooms. These include the importance of attending to oral language development, supporting academic language, and encouraging teachers' cultural sensitivity to the backgrounds of their students. They argue that these areas of knowledge be purposefully and explicitly integrated into the preparation, certification, evaluation, and development of all teachers in the interest of improving outcomes for English language learners. In this report the authors summarize key findings drawn from the literature on promising practices that all teachers can employ when working with ELLs. The authors also consider the degree to which that research is integrated into the preparation, certification, and evaluation of teachers as a means for improving educational outcomes for ELLs. Through a review of professional and state level standards for teacher-education programs, state teacher-certification examinations, and teacher-observation evaluation rubrics, the authors examine gaps in policy and practice pertaining to general education teachers of ELLs. They argue that system-level changes must be made to establish evidence-based practices among general education teachers of ELLs. (Contains 2 figures, 3 tables and 41 endnotes.)