Using national teacher and principal survey data from spring 2024, the authors examine U.S. teachers' perceptions about how prepared they feel to teach multilingual learners (MLLs), the adequacy of their curriculum materials for addressing the needs of MLLs, and the extent to which educators prioritize supports for MLLs when selecting professional learning, instructional materials, and activities.

Lost in Translation — Teachers Report Feeling Unprepared to Support Multilingual Learners

Findings from the 2024 American Instructional Resources Survey

Sabrina Lee, Ashley Woo, Julia H. Kaufman, Sy Doan

ResearchPublished Jun 3, 2025

In today's increasingly diverse classrooms, multilingual learners (MLLs) are a rapidly growing subpopulation of K–12 public school students. MLLs bring linguistic and cultural assets to the classroom, but they also face academic challenges compared with their English-only peers. Teachers play an important role in helping all students, but especially MLLs, acquire such skills as reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the English language. However, research shows that teachers may feel underprepared and ill-equipped to address these needs without the proper resources and professional learning to teach MLLs.

Drawing on national teacher and principal survey data from spring 2024, the authors examine teachers' perceptions about how prepared they feel to teach MLLs and the reasons underlying their perceptions. They investigate the extent to which educators prioritize supports for MLLs when selecting professional learning, instructional materials, and activities, as well as the teachers' perceptions of the adequacy of their curriculum materials for helping MLLs. This report illuminates ways that state and local leaders, as well as those who develop and review curricula, can support teachers serving MLLs.

Key Findings

  • About one-half of teachers serving MLLs reported feeling not at all or only somewhat prepared to teach MLLs.
  • Addressing the needs of MLLs ranked low among principals' priorities for selecting teachers' professional learning and instructional materials, even in schools with a moderate to large proportion of MLLs.
  • Slightly less than one-third of teachers serving MLLs reported that their curriculum materials were adequate for helping MLLs master their state standards and language in English language arts, mathematics, and science.
  • About 60 percent of teachers reported a moderate or major need for more or better curriculum materials that provide options for MLLs.

Recommendations

  • Curriculum developers should partner with researchers and subject-matter experts to embed best practices and strategies for teaching MLLs into curricula.
  • State and local leaders should consider using curriculum review tools to identify and select standards-aligned instructional materials that integrate supports for MLLs.
  • When developing, assessing, or selecting curriculum materials, curriculum developers and state and local leaders should ensure that they are addressing the needs of secondary teachers and science teachers.
  • State and local leaders should prioritize supports for MLLs, including professional learning opportunities that help teachers coherently address the needs of MLLs.
  • State and local leaders should help schools hire additional qualified and credentialed educators to serve MLLs.

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Lee, Sabrina, Ashley Woo, Julia H. Kaufman, and Sy Doan, Lost in Translation — Teachers Report Feeling Unprepared to Support Multilingual Learners: Findings from the 2024 American Instructional Resources Survey. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA134-29.html.
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This research was funded by the Gates Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and the Walton Family Foundation and conducted by RAND Education and Labor.

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