Making it happen: An ESL professional organization's advocacy for teachers and learners

CATESOL (California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), with more than 3,000 members the second largest affiliate of the international organization TESOL, has played a pivotal role in the education of second language learners in the state of California. The demographics of California have made it imperative that we develop our own professionalism and also work for the improvement of the education of our liguistic minority students. With more than ninety languages spoken in the state and three-quarters of a million students in elementary and secondary schools with limited English, we have not been able to ignore our responsibility as a professional organization of ESL and bilingual teachers. In sharing some of our activities, successes, and failures, I hope that readers will see how we and other teachers' organizations can become more pro-active, rather than reactive.