Chapter 3: Supporting English Learners in Your School: Essential Practices for Ensuring Linguistic Equity

The number of students identified as English learners (ELs) in the United States has risen in the last two decades and continues to grow. Approximately 10% of K–12 students are identified as ELs (Office of English Language Acquisition, 2019, slide 5). Students who are identified as ELs come from diverse ethnic groups with diverse home languages, socioeconomic statuses, backgrounds, and experiences. Improving outcomes for ELs will require embedding linguistic equity practices into school leadership preparation programs because school leaders, both current and future, must be aware of and responsive to the diverse EL populations within their schools. Callahan et al. (2019) affirm, “To effectively address the linguistic civil rights of EL students and other bilinguals, we argue that school leadership programs must cultivate linguistic as well as ethnic awareness, if not capacity” (p. 282).