ELL News Headlines

It's that time of year again, as students and parents celebrate with back to school festivals and prepare for the year ahead. On the warm Saturday last weekend in Washington, D.C., parents stood in line for free backpacks, live music filled the air, and people indulged in shaved ice. But Penelope Marlett, 5, had a different idea on how to celebrate. "I'm just drawing a duck," she said as she filled in the outline of her picture with a fresh piece of bright pink chalk. Penelope was taking part in Chalk Walk, an event organized by Positive Chalk and Chalk Riot.

Dual-language immersion programs, which teach all students in English and another language, are so much in demand that some school districts have been able to stop declining enrollment or even grow enrollment in a school by beginning a dual-language program. Research has shown that these programs are beneficial for both English learners and native English speakers.

Since their arrival, more than 41,000 working-age Afghans have been placed into various industries including accommodation and food services, retail trade, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing. This new community of Afghans arriving in the US with a multitude of skills and degrees has the potential to contribute significantly to the American economy, especially as the country grapples with inflation and supply chain issues.

The US Indian Affairs Office of Indian Economic Development has awarded $7 million in grants under the Living Languages Grant Program to 45 American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Tribal organizations.

Matt de la Peña — who grew up in National City and Cardiff-by-the-Sea and is a Newbery Medal-winning author of seven young adult novels — has a new children’s book, ‘Patchwork.’

In a small shelter made of cinder block walls and a tin roof, Armando Hurtado Medina writes on a whiteboard the size of the TVs in many American homes. It's 6pm and lessons have just begun in this makeshift classroom found at the end of a bumpy dirt road that winds its way through a canyon in Tijuana, Mexico. Hurtado Medina is teaching basic English and about 10 students of various ages slowly recite the alphabet back to him.

In their first year at U.S. universities, women who escaped the Taliban are struggling to adjust — and to reckon with what they left behind.

School librarian IdaMae Craddock and school counselor Ouida Powe discuss the power of their partnership and the bibliotherapy initiative they launched at Community Lab, a 6–12 public school in Charlottesville, VA. Craddock says, "There is much we librarians can do to partner with school counselors and promote student well-being through bibliotherapy. The counselor-librarian connection can and should be commonplace in schools."

Dual-enrollment programs help nearly 1.4 million high school students take college courses each year. But as dual enrollment grows across the country, access to the option is not distributed equally, according to a new report produced by nearly two dozen higher ed researchers and experts, with funding from the Joyce Foundation.

When Illinois high schoolers go back to school this month, they'll have new coursework that lawmakers and Stanford researchers hope will prepare students to better detect misinformation and search for ulterior motives before trusting online news, social media and information sources.