Preparing Teachers For Educating Linguistically Diverse Students

The nations resident population on Census Day, April 1, 2000, was 281,421,906- a 13.2 percent increase over the 248, 709,873 counted in the 1990 census. Since the ethnic profile of the United States is steadily increasing, the current drive for educational reform must strive to rethink and restructure schools to serve all students well. The intended modification of curriculum and instructional practices necessary to achieve this goal must focus on challenging and engaging all students while articulating programs across grade levels in a coherent, sequential manner. The teaching contexts are changing direction, and so, too, must teacher training and staff development programs in order to facilitate adaptation of instructional practices to meet the needs of our growing linguistically diverse school population