Within the last 10 years, some changes happen to the U.S. student population. English language student number has increased by 1 million students. English language learners now comprise 6% of the total school-age population, with a disproportionate number of such students in California, Florida, New York, and Illinois. This tendency promises that the numbers of English language students will continue to grow. These students come to school representing a diversity of languages, cultures, experiences with school, economic and social power.
The school reform requires that schools become convenient place for all students. This school reform puts an enormous responsibility on teachers. Special attention has to be paid to English language learners. It demands some professional skills from people who guide the learning process. Educators faced enormous challenges in these reforms. One of the main of them is the education of teachers.
At the time, over 46 million children are enrolled in over 90,000 public schools, and 90 percent of them are likely to graduate from high school. School expenditures have reached $340 billion. The past 50 years have experienced a struggle to overcome racial, ethnic and gender barriers to equal educational opportunity. This struggle ended with the splendid results. While democrats may be encouraged by this development, they need to be wary of what historian Larry Cuban terms the “trend toward vocationalizing all academic subjects.” If we measure every school by the single standard of whether or not it teaches our children “what they need to know to compete and win in the global economy,” then the common school ideal of education for a common citizenship may continue to suffer. (Fullan, 1999).
There is a conceptual agreement in the literature as to the elements of effective professional development for teachers. It consists of principles for adult learners. It requires self-direction, readiness to learn when the need is perceived. Adult learners also desire immediate application of new skills and knowledge (Knowles, 1980).
Effective professional development is inputted into the schools and teachers’ work. It requires critical reflection.
Promising professional development is aligned with effective teaching and learning: “Principles that describe effective teaching for students in classrooms should not differ for adults in general and teachers in particular” (Rueda, 1998)..