ELL News Headlines

Driven by rapidly increasing linguistic diversity in public schools, districts throughout the country are scrambling for ways to meet the needs of ELLs, who now total nearly 5 million U.S. students—an increase of over 1 million since 2000. But instead of seeing ELLs as a costly challenge — requiring remedial support or additional staffing, for example — many districts are acknowledging the assets these students bring to school, and in response have created dual-language immersion programs where English learners and native English speakers learn together.

It's a Monday night at Fairview Elementary, and a small group of Hispanic parents sit around a table joined by teachers from Carthage's dual language and English Language Learners programs. It's the first of many meetings to come in an effort to increase engagement with immigrant families, one component of a larger grant project that seeks to bolster English Language Learners programs in four Missouri school districts, including Carthage. The $2.6 million five-year grant, dubbed Strengthening Equity and Effectiveness for Teachers of English Learners, will provide ELL training to teachers in the Carthage, Kansas City Public, Bayless and Columbia public school districts.

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has named a veteran New York City educator as the new head of its department that oversees students learning English as a new language. Mirza G. Sánchez-Medina, the founding principal of Manhattan Bridges High School, will be the new deputy chief academic officer of what will now be the Division of Multilingual Learners, the city education department announced in a news release. It was previously called the Division of English Language Learners and Student Support.

Nuam San, 20, recalled last month how much her life had changed since she moved to the United States five years ago. At the time, she spoke no English and came from a country where women are expected to stay at home. Now she is a freshman at Agnes Scott, a small, private women’s liberal arts college outside Atlanta.

Celebrated musician Susan Aglukark is a Juno-award winning singer-songwriter, officer of the Order of Canada and a 2016 recipient of the Governor General's Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award. She's now published the first picture book in a planned six-part series called, Una Huna? What is This?, which follows a young Inuk girl named Ukpik.

The United States has a grim history when it comes to our indigenous people. For the most part, this history isn't taught in our public schools; neither is indigenous culture. But that's changing, and the Mountain West is on board. At a Colorado library recently, its Department of Education unveiled a brand new set of lessons for 4th graders. The optional curriculum was written and approved by the the state's two federally recognized tribes – the Southern Ute and the Ute Mountain Ute. It covers the gamut from the history of Indian Boarding Schools to arts, language and tribal governance.

The Smithsonian announced Thursday that it will open its first gallery focused on the U.S. Latino experience, in the National Museum of American History. Opening in 2021 on the museum’s first floor, the Molina Family Latino Gallery will feature bilingual exhibits exploring the history and contributions of American Latinos.

When applying to many of the nation's top universities, if you aren't accepted in that first, extremely competitive, round of admissions, you're not likely to get in. But some institutions are trying to change that. This fall semester, Princeton University offered admission to 13 transfer students, the first transfer admissions in nearly three decades. In reinstating the school's transfer program, they wanted to encourage applicants from low-income families, the military and from community colleges.

When Derrick Young and his wife Ramunda opened MahoganyBooks on Good Hope Road Southeast last year, it was the first bookstore to open in the neighborhood in decades. The bookstore, which focuses on African American literature, is one of several attempts to increase reading and literacy east of the Anacostia River.

In North Carolina, migrant workers pick blueberries, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and tobacco, work on Christmas-tree farms, or have other jobs that require them to move from county to county and state to state. North Carolina is a stop on a typical migrant-worker route. Workers might start on the East Coast in Florida, picking tomatoes, oranges, or any number of other crops; pass through to North Carolina, where they may work with tobacco or blueberries; and end up in Michigan, harvesting everything from arugula to zucchini before starting over again. Inevitably, some of these workers bring their families, which means migrant students are going in and out of school districts around the country as their parents move for work.