Teachers and administrators working with English-language
learners in some of the nation's largest school systems believe
that much of the instructional material published for ELLs is of
poor quality and needs a major upgrade if these students are to
succeed in the common standards era. In a new survey published
by the Council of the Great City Schools, the majority of
respondents reported that the materials they use to teach
English-learners fall short of what's needed to raise the
performance of ELLs. When asked if the current materials
available for ELLs reflect the rigor in the Common Core State
Standards, 82 percent of respondents answered either "somewhat"
or "not at all." (The report was released at the Council's
annual legislative conference in Washington.) The types of
instructional materials respondents were asked about include
basal readers, supplemental materials for ELLs that are bundled
with basals, literacy intervention programs targeting ELLs,
basal ESL programs, novels, dictionaries, and mate