Reviews the institutionalization of high-stakes testing for prospective teachers and implications of high-stakes tests for minority and bilingual teachers. Discusses shortages of minority and bilingual teachers, demographic disparities between teachers and students, Hispanic pass rates on Texas exit tests for teacher certification, and the lack of…

Describes a bilingual prekindergarten teacher's approach to oral language development with children who are Spanish-language dominant, considering the links between her approach and constructivist learning theory. Describes how children in the classroom interact socially with adults and peers to develop oral language skills. (JPB)

Describes one university's graduate teacher education programs, which reflect continuous teacher development to stimulate teacher expertise, explaining how student achievement depends upon teacher quality. The paper describes the graduate licensure program, alternative licensure for bilingual teachers, the Master's degree for inservice teachers,…

A Chicana bilingual teacher from Arizona lived with a middle-class Mexican family during a 5-week Mexican immersion program. Her complaints about "harsh reactions" toward her and her Spanish showed how her use of a few stigmatized characteristics of nonstandard Spanish were judged by standard Spanish speakers to indicate an uneducated…

Describes the experiences of 20 Hispanic bilingual teachers in California following passage of Proposition 227. Teachers reported that Proposition 227 had created chaos, confusion, and academic setbacks for students and had intensified animosity between bilingual and nonbilingual advocates. Teachers exhibited resistance to the new measures. They…

The multicultural and bilingual population of California will continue to increase over the next decades, and as a result, the role of multicultural and bilingual education will increase in importance. Since the 1970s improvements have occurred in instructional materials, in program evaluation, and in teacher certification to meet the needs of…

Difficulties involved in staffing bilingual education programs in Australia are discussed. Bilingual teachers are defined as speakers of English and a community language that is the mother tongue of a sizeable non-English speaking group. Viewpoints are based on an attempt to implement a small-scale teacher training program at La Trobe University.…

The article identifies constraining forces (such as resistance to special education content in general teacher preparation) and facilitating forces (such as commonality between special and bilingual education). A detailed list of competencies for teachers of bilingual exceptional children is presented, and the Concerns-Based Adoption Model is…

The University of Florida's model for training in bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) with special education infuses the graduate-level special education core curriculum with content for meeting the needs of limited-English-proficient students. Four additional bilingual/ESL special education courses focus on specific areas outside the…

A study of 186 mostly Latino and African-American students, aged 9 to 17, in six inner-city California schools assessed student attitudes toward the ethnicity, bilinguality, and gender of 12 hypothetical teachers. Students rated African-American bilingual, and female teachers highest. Evidence was found of same-ethnicity preferences. Contains 70…

Surveyed urban educators in England to study educational practices related to teaching community languages and training teachers in those languages for bilingual education. Responses of 17 educators show few opportunities at the primary level for children to learn their home languages in school. (SLD)

Texas's Teacher Early Entry Paraprofessional training program is a collaborative effort between several Texas school districts and a teacher preparation program to help remedy severe teacher shortages in programs serving limited-English-speaking students. The paper describes the program's essential programs, its benefits, and the challenges faced…

In two Texas elementary schools with similar student demographics but different school and district environments, teacher expectations about bilingual education students were influenced by differing bilingual education goals, beliefs about the value of student native language, teacher beliefs and district expectations about curriculum, and the use…

The shortage of teachers in pre-K-12 schools includes a serious shortage of bilingual teachers. Based on the findings of several research studies, the authors suggest that Hispanic bilingual adults in communities with populations of pre-K-12 students who are English-language learners are an untapped resource. The authors offer suggestions for…

Despite the importance of the integration of English language learners with native English speakers for social, academic, and linguistic purposes, few models of integrated bilingual education, other than two-way immersion programs, exist. This article describes one district's effort to design a K-5 late-exit bilingual program with an integration…