ELL News Headlines

The number of Latino kids in Tennessee grew more than 250% over the span of 17 years, helping lead the growing diversity among the state's children.

Four months after taking over management of the Adams 14 school district north of Denver, MGT leaders have submitted a plan to the federal government on how they will educate English learners.

Pine Forest Elementary School fourth grader Julietta Ramirez won Florida's Hispanic Heritage Month Essay contest for a piece she wrote on Circuit Court Judge Tatiana Radi Salvador. Both Julietta and Judge Salvador are Colombian. "Not many fourth-graders would choose to spend their free time researching for an essay and setting up appointments to interview judges," fourth-grade teacher Michelle Lovelace said. "But Julietta is very passionate about public service and Hispanic representation in her community. She is proud of her roots and wants to share that with the world around her."

The Chicago teachers' strike is now in its fifth day, with no clear indication of when it might end. Teachers are calling for changes that include increased compensation, but also go beyond it -- and they charge that the city's new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has shifted her position since coming into office in May. John Yang reports and talks to reporter Brandis Friedman of Chicago's WTTW.

Just 15 years ago, bilingual education was banned in three states — Arizona, California, and Massachusetts — which altogether educated 40 percent of the nation's English-language learners. Now, amid the national embrace of biliteracy and dual-language education, those statewide English-only laws are on the brink of extinction.

How do you say "subsidized loan" in Spanish? Or in Tagalog? Or in German?  Every year, students across the United States open their financial-aid letters from the colleges to which they have worked hard to be admitted. The letters are there to tell students, and their parents or guardians, how much money they are being offered to help pay for their college journey — and how much they have to pay themselves. It seems like a pretty straightforward concept to understand. It’s not.

The 12-year-old identical twins entered Texas from Mexico days apart in the foothills of Mt. Cristo Rey. One came with their father. The other arrived with their mother. The parents had hoped that crossing the border separately, each with one son, would improve the chance that they all would be allowed into the country. But that’s not what U.S. immigration officials decided. They released Nostier Leiva Sabillon and his father in Texas, and sent Anthony Leiva Sabillon and his mother back to Mexico. The difference in treatment shows how arbitrary the U.S. immigration system has become as the Trump administration tries to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.

All across social media, friends and colleagues are saying "Happy Book Birthday!" to Kevin Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal. That's because their book, Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story is officially available, today, October 22, 2019.

Dignitaries from across West Virginia — and union leaders from across the country — recently came together to celebrate the construction of Renaissance Village, a mixed-use complex that officials hope will spark a revitalization in McDowell County. And more than that, they’re pinning their hopes on it attracting more teachers to their local school system, whose ills are exacerbated by a revolving door of novice instructors and substitutes. The building represents the latest in the county’s ambitious efforts to boost academic achievement by first tackling the effects of rural poverty — including a lack of suitable housing, as well as the far-reaching impacts of the decline of the coal industry, two floods, and a catastrophic wave of opioid overdoses and deaths.

Caring for students across six schools last year pushed one certified school nurse on the picket line to the brink. Barbara Raphoon, a registered nurse in the Chicago Public Schools system who also holds an educator license, splits her time between four campuses. Last year, she was assigned to six schools. She was ready to quit. But on Thursday, Raphoon was one of dozens of nurses, social workers, counselors, psychologists and other staff who provide specialized services to children who flooded sidewalks at the morning rush, standing in picket lines and holding signs blasting thousand-to-one ratios.