The purpose of this research study was to explore secondary education teachers' perceptions of why they may be underprepared to support English language learners (ELLs) in the mainstream classroom. With the increasing number of ELLs in public schools across the United States, teachers with the background, training, and/or knowledge of how to successfully teach ELLs have increased more than ever. However, an alarming number of teachers have found themselves unprepared to teach the ELLs placed in their classrooms. Three reasons teachers found themselves ill-prepared to teach ELLs were the inadequacy of proper training programs for preservice teachers, insufficient professional development (PD) opportunities for teachers, and a misunderstanding of cultural needs/diversity within the classroom. Solutions to this problem are for colleges to have training programs for preservice teachers, hold mandatory PD meetings for teachers, and get to know ELLs. To address these problems, a PD meeting was designed to be held at George Washington Carver Freshman Campus (GWCFC) to inform and train teachers on how to teach ELLs successfully. The aim of this PD was to provide general education teachers with information, strategies, and additional resources on how to teach ELLs successfully. Recommendations for future research included training preservice teachers before getting into the classroom on how to omit preconceived ideas about ELLs, be more compassionate towards ELLs, and learn how to co-teach effectively with other ELL teachers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]