Govoni: ESOL Infusion in Florida 4
The Tapestry Journal 3(2)
program to support preservice teachers in understanding and demonstrating mastery of the
standards. A direct field experience teaching ELs in a public or private school setting is required.
However, in the ESOL overview/survey course a field experience may or may not occur as an
ESOL endorsement is not granted to these candidates and therefore, mastery of the standards is
not required (Requirement 4, Florida Technical Assistance, Florida Department of Education,
2011b).
In looking at the workload for institutions, the ESOL coordinator plays a pivotal role in
collaborating with faculty teaching the infused courses, in re-designing the current ESOL stand-
alone courses, as well as in collaborating with local districts. First, the 2010 ESOL Standards for
Teacher Endorsement should not be aligned to the 25 ESOL Performance Standards but rather a
new ESOL infusion model should be developed for each respective program. This should be a
positive aspect, as universities/colleges begin to develop their programs based on experiences
and lessons learned from their former infusion models; however, it may also prove to be a
burden as the work and commitment to re-align is hefty to say the least. Overall, each program
should identify the ESOL Standards that truly meet the objectives of courses regardless of the
number of standards or assessments that were used in the previous infusion model. In addition,
courses should succinctly allow candidates an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the ESOL
Standards. Therefore, it is essential for the ESOL coordinator to work collaboratively with local
districts to design a consistent and balanced ESOL training so that assignments and assessments
from institutions are meaningful and realistic in practicum and/or student teaching experiences.
This collaboration was lacking previously and now the opportunity to foster better
communication with districts across the State is open-ended. In addition, course assignments that
were weak should be tossed out and the ESOL coordinator should work with faculty to build
stronger connections between course objectives, ESOL Standards, and district needs. The ESOL
infusion process has been frustrating for many institutions; for example, districts with few ELs
are responsible for the same training in ESOL as districts in southern Florida where there is a
high population of ELs. This causes major anxiety for preservice teachers who are responsible
for completing class projects with ELs in their classroom when in fact, there are little to no ELs
available. The Standards for ESOL Endorsement should prove to be practical and useful across
Florida. The State has taken great steps to train faculty at institutions and teachers at local
districts on the role of the ESOL Standards. There is better communication, more training of
trainers, and a clearer and more concise process in place for all institutions to be informed on
how to best infuse ESOL. It is no longer a puzzle in which institutions attempt to reach some sort
of alignment in ESOL, but rather there is a clear and direct process to infuse ESOL in higher
education based on the needs of local districts.
Needless to say, the ESOL infusion process is robust; yet, questions still remain as far as
what have we learned and what do we do next? The impact of Pelaez’ dissertation is prevalent
across the State and is meaningful and positive in so many ways. Districts are not alone in
training teachers based on the Consent Decree mandates and collaborative efforts between
districts and teacher preparation programs are part of the norm. Florida is one of six states with
specific ESOL training requirements in teacher preparation programs (Alaska, Arizona,
California, Pennsylvania, and New York). The diversity of the student population in Florida
remains consistent, and ESOL training of teachers appears to be a permanent component of
teacher education. Districts continue training teachers and both entities, districts and institutions,
TAPESTRY, Vol. 3 [2011], Iss. 2, Art. 2