ESL Teacher

ESL teachers (also called ELL or bilingual-education teachers) work with students who are still developing English proficiency, delivering language instruction alongside — or embedded within — general academic content.

Depending on the school's program model, an ESL teacher might pull small groups of newcomer students out of their regular classroom for targeted language instruction, co-teach inside a mainstream classroom alongside the general-education teacher, or run a self-contained bilingual classroom that delivers core subjects in both English and a student's home language.

A recurring, specialized task is administering and scoring oral-language proficiency assessments — most states use the WIDA ACCESS test, which requires the test administrator to complete annual training and pass a scoring-calibration check before they're authorized to rate a student's Speaking domain.

Beyond direct instruction, ESL teachers track each student's progress toward English-proficiency exit criteria, coordinate with general-education teachers on how to scaffold grade-level content, and often serve as a cultural liaison between immigrant or refugee families and the rest of the school.

Because English-learner enrollment is concentrated in early grades nationally, this role is most often folded into elementary staffing, though middle and high schools run their own ESL programs too — high schools currently report the highest ESL-specific vacancy rates of any grade band. Entry requires a bachelor's degree, a state teaching license, and a specific ESL or bilingual-education endorsement layered on top of that base license.

Note: O*NET/BLS classify teachers by grade level rather than subject, so this page shares its underlying occupational code with Elementary School Teacher — the numeric structural-exposure score below is therefore identical between the two pages, while the licensing, task, and demand evidence below is specific to the ESL/bilingual specialty.