ESL Teacher, K-5 Amara Osei
Student Teacher, K-5 ESL, Push-In and Pull-Out
[email protected] | (503) 555-0192 | Portland, United States
Profile
Recently licensed elementary teacher with an Oregon ESOL endorsement and 480 supervised hours across K-5 pull-out and push-in ESL settings. Ran a newcomer small group of six students whose WIDA ACCESS listening scores rose an average of 0.9 levels in one year. Fluent in Spanish and Twi, and trained in SIOP sheltered instruction.
Work Experience
08/2025 - 06/2026, Student Teacher, K-5 ESL, Push-In and Pull-Out, Rosewood Elementary, Portland Public Schools, Portland, United States
- 480 supervised hours across pull-out newcomer groups in K to 2 and push-in co-teaching in Grades 3 to 5.
- Ran a newcomer group of six students across four home languages; WIDA ACCESS listening scores rose an average of 0.9 levels over the year.
- Co-planned with three mainstream teachers using SIOP lesson templates.
- Interpreted for seven family conferences in Spanish.
09/2023 - 06/2025, Adult ESL Volunteer Instructor, Portland Community Literacy Center, Portland, United States
- Taught a weekly beginner conversation class of 12 adults across 6 home languages, 180 hours total.
Education
09/2024 - 06/2026, Master of Education, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Portland State University, Portland, United States
Oregon Teaching License #ORE-448201, issued June 2026, valid through 2032. ESOL endorsement, 2026.
09/2019 - 06/2023, Bachelor of Arts, Linguistics, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States
Skills
SIOP sheltered instruction, 70
Newcomer small-group instruction, 75
WIDA ACCESS administration, 65
Push-in co-teaching, 65
Family interpretation (Spanish), 85
Google Classroom, 80
Languages
English, native
Twi, native
Spanish, proficient
Summary
ESL teaching is three different jobs wearing one name: K-12 English learner instruction, adult education, and teaching English abroad. This guide gives you an ESL teacher resume example for the first, what to change for the other two, three adaptable summaries by level, and the federal data that explains why the three markets are moving in opposite directions.
ESL Teacher resume examples by experience level
An ESL teacher resume is a one-to-two page document that names the endorsement letting you teach English learners, the population you have taught, and how far their language proficiency moved while you did.
Before the format, one thing that decides everything else: ESL teaching is three separate jobs sharing a name, and a resume written for one of them reads as unqualified to the other two.
Three jobs, one title
| Path | Who you teach | What the resume must lead with |
|---|---|---|
| K-12 ESL, ELL or ELD | Children in a public or private school | State teaching license plus an ESL or bilingual endorsement, WIDA or ELPAC data |
| Adult education | Adults in community colleges, libraries, nonprofits | Curriculum experience, evening and multi-level classroom management, CASAS gains |
| Teaching English abroad | Learners overseas, often privately | TEFL, TESOL or CELTA certification, country experience, class sizes |
The federal data treats these as different occupations, and so does every hiring manager. Pick the one you are applying to before writing a line.
Resume guide for an ESL teacher resume
This guide and the corresponding ESL teacher resume example will cover:
- How to write a K-12 ESL teacher resume, section by section, and what changes for the other two paths
- Where the endorsement goes and why it decides your file
- Three adaptable summaries: new, specialist, and district lead
- Turning language growth into numbers without breaking FERPA
- What the three ESL markets are actually doing, in federal data
How to write an ESL teacher resume
Six sections: contact header with endorsement, professional summary, teaching experience, education and licensure, skills and assessment systems, and languages.
The last one is not a footnote here. In almost no other teaching resume does a languages section change the outcome; in this one it routinely does, because a district serving a large Spanish-speaking or Somali-speaking population is looking for someone who can talk to families as well as children. List every language with an honest proficiency level.
Write the endorsement the way your state writes it
Every state names this differently and districts search for their own term: ESL, ESOL, ELL, ELD, TESOL, Bilingual, Structured English Immersion, Sheltered English. A Texas posting says ESL Supplemental. A California one says CLAD or BCLAD. An Arizona one says SEI.
Write the one your state issues, then add the common alternatives in parentheses once: "ESL endorsement (ESOL, ELL)". It costs a line and it is the difference between matching a district's search and being invisible to it.
Do the same for the assessment: WIDA ACCESS, ELPAC, TELPAS, ELPA21. Naming the one your target state administers tells a reader you have run the testing cycle, not only taught the children.
Check the file with the free Rezoom ATS resume checker before you apply.
Choosing the best resume format
Reverse chronological, one page under five years, two beyond.
Two adjustments are common in ESL:
- Push-in and pull-out are different jobs. Push-in means co-teaching inside a mainstream classroom; pull-out means small-group instruction outside it. Say which you have done and at what ratio, because a school's model is usually fixed and they are hiring for it.
- Teaching abroad needs context. A year in Seoul or Bogotá is real experience, but a US district reader may not know the institution. Give the class size, the hours per week, the age range and the curriculum, the way you would for any other job.
Include your contact information
| ✅ Right | ❌ Wrong |
|---|---|
| Amara Osei, M.Ed. | Amara Osei |
| ESL Teacher, K-5. ESL endorsement (ESOL, ELL) | Passionate language educator |
| (503) 555-0192, [email protected] | (503) 555-0192, teacher\_amara\[email protected] |
| Portland, OR. Oregon Teaching License #ORE-448201, ESOL endorsement | 1187 SE Harrison St, Portland, OR 97214 |
| English (native), Spanish (professional), Twi (native) | (no languages listed) |
Putting the languages in the header rather than the last section is a deliberate choice for this role, and it is the one change to the standard header that consistently pays.
Make use of a summary
Three to four lines: endorsement, setting, the population you serve, and one proficiency outcome.
Recently licensed elementary teacher with an Oregon ESOL endorsement and 480 supervised hours across K-5 pull-out and push-in ESL settings. Ran a newcomer small group of six students whose WIDA ACCESS listening scores rose an average of 0.9 levels in one year. Fluent in Spanish and Twi, and trained in SIOP sheltered instruction.
K-5 ESL specialist with seven years serving a caseload of 68 English learners across 14 home languages. Lifted the school's WIDA ACCESS composite growth from 0.4 to 0.8 levels a year by moving newcomers from pull-out to co-taught push-in with a structured oral language block. Run family engagement in Spanish and coordinate interpretation for 40 conferences a year.
District English Learner coordinator with 14 years in ESL, 5 of them leading programme design across 9 schools and 1,400 identified English learners. Cut the district's long-term English learner rate from 31% to 19% over four years by rebuilding the reclassification review and the newcomer intake. Write the state compliance reporting and train 60 staff a year on sheltered instruction.
Right vs wrong: the same summary, twice
| ✅ Right | ❌ Wrong |
|---|---|
| K-5 ESL specialist with seven years serving 68 English learners across 14 home languages. | Experienced ESL educator passionate about supporting diverse learners. |
| Lifted WIDA ACCESS composite growth from 0.4 to 0.8 levels a year. | Helped students improve their English language skills. |
| Run family engagement in Spanish and coordinate interpretation for 40 conferences a year. | Excellent communication skills and cultural sensitivity. |
Outline your ESL teaching experience
School, district, the model (push-in, pull-out, sheltered, newcomer, dual language), caseload size, number of home languages, and dates.
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| Taught English to English language learners | Served a K-5 caseload of 68 identified English learners across 14 home languages, push-in and pull-out |
| Helped students improve their English | Raised WIDA ACCESS composite growth from 0.4 to 0.8 levels a year across the caseload |
| Worked with classroom teachers | Co-taught with 9 mainstream teachers and ran monthly SIOP planning, adopted school-wide in year two |
| Communicated with families | Ran conferences in Spanish and coordinated interpretation in 5 other languages across 40 meetings a year |
ESL Specialist, K-5, Rosewood Elementary, Portland Public Schools, Portland, OR, August 2019 to Present
Serve a caseload of 68 identified English learners across 14 home languages, using a push-in co-teaching model in Grades 3 to 5 and pull-out newcomer groups in K to 2.
Moved the school's WIDA ACCESS composite growth from 0.4 to 0.8 levels a year by replacing blanket pull-out with a structured oral language block and co-taught content periods.
Co-teach with nine mainstream teachers and run monthly SIOP planning sessions, adopted school-wide in the second year.
Run the annual ELPA screening and reclassification cycle for the building, and coordinate interpretation across six languages for roughly 40 family conferences a year.
Every figure is caseload-level. Never name a child, never give an individual proficiency score, and never reference a family's immigration circumstances; none of it belongs on a resume, and the last is both a privacy and a safety matter.
What the three ESL markets are actually doing
The occupation named ESL is not the one that is growing
The federal occupation that carries the name, Adult Basic and Secondary Education and ESL Teachers, held 41,100 jobs in 2025 and is projected to decline 14% through 2035, with about 3,800 openings a year (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025-35 projections).
That number describes adult education, not schools. K-12 ESL teachers are counted inside the elementary and secondary teaching occupations, and that is where the demand sits: 5.3 million public school students were English learners in fall 2021, 10.6% of enrollment, up from 9.4% in fall 2011 (National Center for Education Statistics).
So the honest reading is that adult ESL is contracting while K-12 English learner instruction is not. If you are open to both, lead with the K-12 endorsement.
Instructional: SIOP sheltered instruction, Structured oral language development, Newcomer programme design, Push-in co-teaching, Translanguaging strategies, Content-based language instruction
Assessment and compliance: WIDA ACCESS, ELPA screening and reclassification, Title III reporting, Individual Learning Plans
Platforms: Ellevation, PowerSchool, Google Classroom, Seesaw
Languages: English (native), Spanish (professional working), Twi (native)
List the education that elevates your candidacy
Teaching license first with the state and number, then the ESL endorsement with its exact state name, then degrees, then certification.
Master of Education, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Portland State University, Portland, OR, 2019
Oregon Teaching License #ORE-448201, valid through 2029. ESOL endorsement, 2019. Reading endorsement, 2023.
Bachelor of Arts, Linguistics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 2016
Certification: SIOP Model training (2021), WIDA ACCESS Test Administrator (renewed 2026)
If you are on the adult education or teaching abroad path, this section leads with TESOL, TEFL or CELTA instead, with the hours: "CELTA, Cambridge, 120 hours, Pass B".
Choose the right resume layout and design
One page under five years, two beyond, single column, plain type.
Put the endorsement in the header under your state's own name for it, with the common alternatives in parentheses once. Name the assessment your target state administers. Give caseload size and the number of home languages for every role. List your own languages with honest proficiency levels. Say push-in, pull-out, sheltered, newcomer or dual language for each position.
Do not write "ESL teacher" alone and leave the reader to guess whether you mean a school, an adult programme or a year abroad. Do not list a language as fluent that you could not hold a parent conference in. Do not name a child or give an individual proficiency score. Never reference a student's or family's immigration status, which has no place on a resume and can put a family at risk.
ESL teacher job market and outlook
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Adult basic, secondary education and ESL teaching jobs, 2025 | 41,100 |
| Projected change, 2025-35 | -14% (decline) |
| Projected annual openings | ~3,800 |
| Public school students who are English learners (fall 2021) | 5.3 million, 10.6% of enrollment |
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025-35 projections; National Center for Education Statistics.
Top employers in the adult-education occupation are local elementary and secondary schools at 31%, private educational services at 17%, and local and state junior colleges at 13% and 12%. If you want stability in this half of the field, the community college route is where the remaining full-time posts concentrate.
What salary you can expect
The median annual wage for adult basic, secondary education and ESL teachers was $61,540 as of 2025 (BLS). K-12 ESL teachers are paid on the district salary schedule for teachers rather than as a separate category, which for elementary teachers had a median of $63,970 in May 2025.
That schedule is the practical point. In a school district, your ESL endorsement rarely changes your base pay; it changes which vacancies you are eligible for, and in hard-to-staff districts it can attract a stipend. Ask about the stipend explicitly, because it is often not in the posting.
Key takeaways for an ESL teacher resume
- Decide which of the three ESL jobs you are applying for before writing, because a resume for one reads as unqualified to the others.
- Write the endorsement under your state's own name, with the common alternatives in parentheses once.
- Name the proficiency assessment your target state administers.
- Give caseload size and number of home languages for every role.
- Say push-in, pull-out, sheltered, newcomer or dual language for each position.
- Put your own languages high on the page with honest proficiency levels.
- Never name a child, give an individual score, or reference anyone's immigration circumstances.
Build your ESL teacher resume in 15 minutes.
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Pair it with a matching ESL teacher cover letter.
ESL teacher resume questions, answered
What is the difference between ESL, ELL, ESOL and ELD on a resume?
They mostly name the same work in different states: ESL and ESOL describe the subject, ELL and EL describe the students, ELD describes the instructional block. Write the term your state uses for the endorsement, then add the alternatives in parentheses once so a district search finds you either way.
Do I need a teaching license to be an ESL teacher?
For K-12 in a US public school, yes: a state teaching license plus an ESL or bilingual endorsement. For adult education a bachelor's degree is the typical entry, with requirements varying by programme. For teaching abroad, a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA certificate is usually what is asked for, and a degree in anything is often enough.
How do I quantify ESL teaching on a resume?
Use caseload size, number of home languages, proficiency level growth on WIDA ACCESS or your state's equivalent, reclassification rates, newcomer intake numbers, and how many mainstream teachers you co-teach or coach. All of it is caseload-level and none of it identifies a child.
Should I list teaching English abroad on a US school resume?
Yes, with the context a US reader will not have: class size, hours per week, age range, curriculum and institution type. A year teaching in Seoul is real classroom experience, but it needs the same units as any other job or a district reader cannot weigh it.
Which languages should I list, and how?
Every language you can actually use, with an honest level. Native, professional working, conversational. This is the one teaching resume where the languages section changes outcomes, because districts need someone who can hold a parent conference as well as teach a child. Do not inflate it; the interview often happens partly in that language.