Bridging literacy and ESOL for teachers of early learners: modifications needed in professional development

Authors

Emily Howell, Clemson UniversityFollow
Hazel Vega, Clemson University
Lindsey W. Rowe, Clemson University
C. C. Bates, Clemson University
Katie M. Crook, Clemson University
Kavita Mittapalli, MN Associates, Inc
Amlan Banerjee, MN Associates, Inc

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2025

Publication Title

Early Childhood Teacher Education

Publisher

Routledge

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2025.2513910

Abstract

Although early education teachers may be highly trained in literacy practices, they need additional support reaching multilingual learners (MLs), for example, by supporting oral language or understanding connections between services identified for students, especially in states such as SC where growth for this student group has been recent and rapid. This study answers the question of professional development (PD) needed for highly trained literacy teachers, focusing on two areas. First, a needs assessment describes the demands of literacy specialists to address the literacy of MLs and connects these need areas to best practice recommendations. Secondly, we address modifications designed based on those needs and the resulting progress toward the goal for participants after the first year of implementation. Participants included a cohort of 25 Early Literacy Center trained teachers from six school districts. The authors discuss results from the needs assessment, modifications made to address enhancing and inhibiting factors of the intervention, and progress toward the goal. Notably, participants after 1 year of intervention have made statistically significant improvement in their literacy knowledge, confidence in thinking about and working with ML caregivers, and their student outcomes.

Comments

This work was supported by a Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition, National Professional Development grant [#T365Z220099].

Recommended Citation

Howell, E., Vega, H., Rowe, L.W., Bates, C. C., Crook, K., Mittapalli, K, & Banerjee, A. (2025). Bridging literacy and ESOL for teachers of early learners: Modifications needed in professional development. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education.