Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 31

Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership 29 Teacher Hours of ELL Professional Development The second finding of the current study was that teachers’ hours of ELL professional development were not significant in predicting ELLs’ STAAR scores. The teachers who report - ed the most hours of ELL professional development had the lowest ELL STAAR scores. Simply sending teachers to ELL professional development trainings or providing on–cam- pus ELL professional development trainings for teachers does not necessarily mean growth in ELL student achieve - ment. Hammond (2008) and Newman, Samimy, and Romstedt (2010) provide some insight into the possible reason of the insignificance of teacher hours of professional development on ELLs’ STAAR scores. Hammond (2008) stated that for teachers to gain the knowledge and confidence, they need to teach SLA techniques in core content areas, they must have access to high quality professional development that recog- nizes the complex nature of language. In 2010, Newman, et al. (2010) added that high quality professional development must be “continuous…and promote learning communities and collaboration” (p. 154). The two years prior to the com - pletion of the current study, teachers had participated in an average of 14.7 hours of ELL professional development, yet the training was not continuous or consistent. Campus administrators must ensure that teachers receive consistent and on-going ELL professional development so the teach- ers’ knowledge of ELLs and SLA grows and becomes second nature to the teachers and the campus as a whole. Teacher Knowledge The statistical significance of teacher knowledge is consis - tent with Hammond (2008) and Newman, et al. (2010). Both studies concluded that a lack of teacher knowledge affected the teacher’s ability to teach students who had difficulties in learning. At the district level, special care should be given to the vertical alignment of professional development K–12. A vision of what ELL education will look like and a common