Introduction

Mainstream teachers throughout the region face new challenges as rapidly changing demographics have collided with new federal and state policies, politically charged debates on bilingual education, and limited school resources, to create classrooms that are more diverse than ever.

Approximately 4.6 million students identified as English language learners attended school in the U.S. pre-kindergarten through grade 12 education system in 2000–2001, representing 9.3 percent of the total public school enrollment (Kindler, 2003). Since the 1989–1990 school year, the ELL population has increased approximately 101 percent, in a trend that researchers predict will continue for at least the next two decades (Thomas & Collier, 2003).

Regional trends in the Northwest closely mirror these national statistics. In Idaho the ELL population increased by 18.2 percent between the 1999–2000 and 2000–2001 school years, while nearly every state in our region had an increase of at least 4 percent during that same period.

In this issue of By Request, we attempt to avoid current debates about program models and legislative policies by focusing instead on practical, research-based principles and instructional strategies that mainstream teachers can use to meet the needs of these diverse learners.

We have provided a brief overview of the major legislative changes in the No Child Left Behind Act, an outline of instructional methods and program models, and a description of important theories of second language acquisition that have direct implications for mainstream classroom instruction.

We have also provided a list of resources and references at the back of the book that will guide you to organizations, Web sites, research studies, and instructional materials that can further your understanding of this complex and important topic.

In the Northwest Sampler section, we profile four schools in the region that are answering the challenge of serving culturally and linguistically diverse students in the mainstream classroom.