Building Capacity to Serve English Learner‐Designated Multilingual Students: An Ecological Case Study of One District's Co‐Teaching Program

ABSTRACT With the growing population of multilingual learners designated as English learners in the United States, many districts have been grappling with how to build capacity to serve these students effectively. One model that an increasing number of schools and districts are turning towards is co‐teaching in content and language integrated classes. Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological levels and Wenger's (1998) communities of practice, researchers examined how and to what extent capacity was built to serve secondary multilingual learners designated as English learners in a U.S. school district with a well‐established co‐teaching program. Findings illuminate both opportunities and challenges in three major ways: shared but unequal responsibility, common practices but divergent programs, and coordinated but constrained collaborative work. Implications for future research and practitioners are included.