Acknowledgments The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provided funding for this study, which
was part of a larger project on the education of English learners in California’s middle schools, conducted
by the Teacher Professional Development Program at WestEd. The contents, findings, and conclusions
are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Hewlett Foundation or of
WestEd. I thank the participating teachers and principals for their thoughtful and candid responses. I also
thank Claude Goldenberg and Patrick M. Shields for careful and critical reading of an earlier draft of this
article.