This position paper observes the impact of Proposition 227, California's “English for the Children” initiative, on the professional development of teachers of English Learners. It draws on information I obtained while working as an evaluator of the California Teacher Institutes (CTIs), a network of institutes aimed to enhance teacher effectiveness in working with linguistically-diverse students. I use the lens of educational anthropology, specifically the idea of cultural dialogue, to frame my interest in the ideological construction of literacy and the production of teacher knowledge in these institutes. I leverage the attention given to academic language in the CTIs as an example of the ideology attendant to literacy discourse in post-227 California, arguing that the seemingly non-controversial themes of needs, access, and language served to normalize the state's assimilationist approach to language policy, planning, and teacher preparation. My hope is that making visible the hidden curriculum of this professional development effort in California will encourage teachers and teacher educators to examine institutionalized literacy beliefs and practices at their own sites and to become teacher thinkers and challengers who actively encounter, question, and reconstruct the cultural dialogue of English Learner literacy.