Almost every day, I find myself wondering why teacher preparation programs do not include more training on differentiated instruction for diverse learners and less emphasis on the "spray and pray" for the average student approach.

While it is unrealistic to expect regular education teachers to "do it all" without additional support, they could make substantial differences in the lives of children with learning disabilities and other types of disabilities. There are far more children with learning disabilities in special education programs than any other disability category. Most of these children have average or higher intelligence scores than their peers. Some are gifted. Despite this, graduation rates for children with learning disabilities are abysmally low. Training regular and special education teachers in how to differentiate instruction for these students has the potential to make an enormous difference for these students.

Pennsylvania's State Department of Education is attempting to address this problem by requiring universities to include special education training and coursework for teaching English Language Learners in all teacher preparation programs. Interestingly, some universities are bucking. They say such requirements will infringe on their right to determine curriculum content. They claim that the requirements will discourage people from entering teacher education programs. The veracity of those claims remains to be seen, but it is difficult for me to believe that someone who passionately wants to teach would be deterred by a class that actually teaches them how to teach the students they will be serving. Multicultural English Language Learners and inclusive classrooms with wide ranges of diverse learners are the reality in education, and we need teachers prepared to handle it.