A crucial crossover: Efficacy of strategies for teaching English language learners and other struggling students

This study emanated from four major issues in education, including the challenges that have arisen from recent rapid increases in English language learners (ELLs) in public schools and the accountability mandates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in regards to those students, the burden placed on content-area teachers in the classroom and in their professional development, the relationship between NCLB's requirements of scientifically proven strategies and research-based best practices for all learners, and strategies promoted in an ESOL Endorsement. The purpose of this study was to examine strategies being used to train teachers in the methodology component in the Georgia ESOL Endorsement and to explore teachers' perceptions of the use and efficacy of strategies for ELLs, and crossover value for other struggling learners, with the goal of fostering studies that can enhance teachers' effectiveness with all students and to relieve teachers of the burden of attempting to teach beyond their abilities. A sampling was taken from 12 content-area teachers who had completed training in methodology for teaching ELLs. The analysis of the data consisted of quantitative comparison of teachers' oral responses and of their implementation of strategies during the classroom observation, and qualitative examination of individual participant summaries. Due to the small sample size, the results are not generalizable to all people, and it is difficult to make an overall statement that covers all teachers and teaching situations. Nevertheless, the findings of this study indicated that a small sampling of teachers who have had state-specified training expressed perceptions of instructional strategies that align only sparingly with professional training descriptions of the efficacy of the strategies for ELLs or other struggling students. Those teachers exhibited less than substantial implementation of those strategies. With a consideration that teachers may not have had opportunities to become rooted in best practices and to gain a full grasp of the optimum implementation of that bundle of instructional strategies for teaching ELLs, recommendations are offered for professional practice and for future research.