Teachers not prepared for immigrants' school needs

By Nate Jenkins/The Associated Press
LINCOLN - Hispanic and other immigrant students who increasingly fill Nebraska classrooms often are instructed by teachers unequipped to effectively teach them, the state's top education official said Wednesday.

The comments from State Education Commissioner Doug Christensen came a day after a widely read national assessment showed that while Nebraska's white students scored around the national average on math and reading exams, their black and Hispanic counterparts fared worse.

Almost all teachers in the state want to do a good job of teaching students from different cultures, but man “don't know how to competently do that,â€