ESL / ESOL - Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS)
The pedagogy of language acquisition is of extreme importance in today's classrooms and businesses. This18 credit hour CAGS provides the knowledge base to build successful programs to enhance the learning of the English language, to assess skills of diverse students and to design instruction with bilingual materials. A practicum is possible for this level of study in English as a Second Language. (Note: Learners seeking ESL/ESOL certification should verify with appropriate state officials that this CAGS meets applicable certification requirements.) >> Request Info

Courses in the English as a Second Language/English for Speakers of Other Languages CAGS program include:

• Foundations of Instruction
• Evaluation of Diverse Learners
• Bilingual Instructional Methods
• Developing Curriculum for ESOL Learners
• Curriculum Development for ESL/Bilingual

ESL / ESOL - MEd
As the diversity of student populations change globally, teaching English as a second language is a skill in high demand. This program enhances skills in communicating with speakers of other languages and integrating techniques to successfully instruct students in English proficiency. (Note: Learners seeking ESL/ESOL certification should verify with appropriate state officials that this specialization meets applicable certification requirements.) >> Request Info

ESL / ESOL - EdD
The pedagogy of language acquisition is of extreme importance in today's classrooms and businesses. This specialization provides the knowledge base to build successful programs to enhance the learning of the English language, to assess skills of diverse students and to design instruction with bilingual materials. A practicum is possible for this level of study in English as a Second Language. (Note: Learners seeking ESL/ESOL certification should verify with appropriate state officials that this specialization meets applicable certification requirements.) >> Request Info

According to the NEA, "America's public schools enroll about 5 million English language learners (ELLs) - twice the number from just 15 years ago, and that number is expected to double again by 2015. English language learners are the fastest growing group of students in the United States today."

More than 60 percent of English language learners are in six states: Arizona, California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. Between 1995 and 2005, seven states had a 300 percent increase in English language learners: Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Educators are Unprepared

Nationwide, approximately 2.5 percent of teachers who instruct English language learners possess a degree in ESL or bilingual education (National Center for Education Statistics, 1997). In California, only one-third of ELLs have a teacher who has received a credential of any kind (G·ndara & Maxwell-Jolly, 1999).

In Texas, recent data from the Institute for School-University Partnerships indicates that elementary bilingual/ESL teachers are least likely to be fully certified (40 percent "less-than-fully certified" teachers), followed closely by secondary bilingual/ESL (35 percent) ( Texas A&M University, 2002). Only 84 percent of the states offer ESL certification or endorsement; only 50 percent offer bilingual/dual language certification or endorsement.

Of the 41 percent of teachers nationwide with ELLs in their classrooms, only 12.5 percent participated in eight or more hours of professional development related to ELLs in the past three years. Fewer than 8 percent of teachers reported eight or more hours of ELL-specific professional development in seven states where more than one third (41 percent) of teachers were teaching ELLs (NCES, 2002).

In fact, according to a report from the US Department of Education, "addressing the needs of limited English proficient students" is the professional development area in which teachers are least likely to participate (NCES, 2001). The same survey found that only 27 percent of teachers of ELLs felt "very well prepared" to teach students with limited English proficiency, while the majority (60 percent) felt only "somewhat" or "moderately" well-prepared and 12 percent reported feeling "not prepared at all" (NCES, 2001).