Understanding the Baseline: Mainstream Educators' Preparation to Teach Multilingual Learners

ABSTRACT Our project intends to transform the experiences of teachers of multilingual learners (MLL) through professional development and professional learning communities. Concurrent with our programmatic efforts, we are evaluating changes in confidence and self‐efficacy in working with MLLs, teacher knowledge of MLLs' needs, and the implementation of supportive classroom practices for MLLs. Seventy‐nine educators were recruited to participate in a randomized wait‐list controlled design. In this paper we unpack teacher confidence, support needed, and self‐efficacy at the baseline. Our analysis demonstrated that the status quo of MLL professional development for teachers needs significant bolstering. We found that elementary and secondary teachers reported similarly low levels of confidence and self‐efficacy, and high levels of support needed, while working with large numbers of MLLs daily. Our project is working towards measuring the multifaceted nature of teacher knowledge and self‐efficacy when teaching MLLs and the dynamic nature of using effective classroom practices to support MLLs. Our work echoes the community of researchers and practitioners who are calling for statewide approaches to scaffolding MLLs for success in every lesson of every day.