Building Capacity for Quality Leadership with English Language Learners

Abstract

Waxman, Téllez, and Walberg (2004) advocated that school leaders must assist staff developers in providing English language learner (ELLs)-related professional development that includes “demonstration of theories of language, sustained coaching, and evaluation programs measuring teacher implementation and impact” (p 2-3). These professional development goals are central to the leader’s purposeful expansion of teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions concerning the unique needs of ELLs and communicating the importance of the effective curricular integration of well-planned and embedded strategies designed to meet the needs of the often marginalized ELL population. School leaders must be willing to provide a systematic program of professional development that concentrates on teachers’ attitudes toward change; an understanding of the campus’s vision for the success of all students and its focus on student learning; the nurturing of an environment of trust, collaboration, and the critical importance of the campus as a learning as a professional community.