ELL News Headlines

As the nation shifts to online learning during the novel coronavirus outbreak, language and access barriers may shut many of the nation's nearly English-learner students out of the learning process. A December 2019 report from the U.S. Department of Education found that few teachers reported assigning English-learners to use digital learning resources outside of class, in part because of concerns about students' lack of access to technology at home.

The last month has been especially brutal in Idlib province, with a Syrian government offensive producing a humanitarian crisis almost unparalleled during nearly a decade of war in Syria. As the government seeks to recapture rebel-held Idlib, where children make up a majority of the population, the fighting has chased about 1 million people from their homes.

Schools need to prepare for a nationwide surge in cases of the coronavirus that's currently wreaking global havoc and could disrupt daily life in some communities, federal officials warned Tuesday. "You should ask your children's schools about their plans for school dismissals or school closures," Nancy Messonnier, a director at the Centers for Disease Control, said during a press briefing on Tuesday. "Ask about plans for teleschool."

Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) has introduced the Biliteracy Education Seal and Teaching (BEST) Act(S. 3328) into the U.S. senate. The act broadens the definition of "second language" to include Native American languages, and Classical Languages.

If Bryan Johnson wanted to illustrate quickly why he built a new system of career pathways in his school district, he could just point to Waltkia Clay. Waltkia is a 10th grade student in the health sciences "Future Ready Institute" at The Howard School in Chattanooga, Tenn., one of 28 career-oriented "school-within-a-school" programs that the Hamilton County district launched in high schools nearly two years ago. She studies core subjects through a healthcare lens, and gets real-world opportunities to practice what she's learning.

Babies from bilingual families are better at switching their attention from one task to another compared with infants from homes where only one language is spoken, according to new research.

During budget cuts, a chief financial officer's matter-of-fact, jargon-laced presentations to school boards often strike anxious teachers and parents as dismissive and emotionally detached from the lives their decisions will upend. Enter Nolberto Delgadillo, the CFO of the Tulsa school district. Knowing early this school year that he’d have to cut more than $20 million from next year’s $325 million budget, Delgadillo went on the road, explaining in layman’s terms why the district expected a budget shortfall despite an increase in state aid. And then, he did something school administrators rarely, if ever, do: He invited thousands of community members to dig into the budget with him and figure out what to keep and what to cut.

The percentage of Iowan children from immigrant families grew from 2.4 percent in 1990 to 11.3 percent in 2017, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Woodbury County, home to Sioux City, had a higher percentage of students from immigrant households (17 percent) than any other county in Iowa as of 2017, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, another think tank.

A record-high 1.5 million students were homeless during the 2017-18 school year, 11 percent more than the previous year and nearly double the number a decade ago, according to new federal data.

On February 5th, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva introduced the Supporting Young Language Learners’ Access to Bilingual Education (SYLLABLE) Act in the House of Representatives. The bill helps establish high-quality dual-language immersion programs in communities with high numbers of low-income families and supports those programs from pre-K to 5th grade. “Today, bilingualism is an asset in our multicultural society and provides our students with more job opportunities in the economy of the future,” said Rep. Grijalva. “The SYLLABLE Act recognizes that importance, supports dual language programs in low-income communities, and ensures that every child has access to new educational opportunities that prepare them for a successful future.” Studies show both native English speakers and English Learners in dual-language immersion programs benefit from bilingual education and experience substantial gains in language, literacy, and math. While these programs remain in high-demand across the country, they tend to cluster in affluent communities that provide limited access to low-income students.