ELL News Headlines

The first time Majd AlGhatrif saw this historic mill town of colonial buildings at the confluence of the Patapsco and Tiber rivers, he thought of Syria. The structures, built of gray stone, and the history they evoked, reminded him of the timelessness and architecture of his hometown, Sweida, in southern Syria. He soon bought a house here, in 2013, then opened Syriana Cafe & Gallery, in 2016, and came to view everything about Ellicott City's people — their kindness and decency — as an antidote to the fear others were expressing over Syrian immigrants like him. So when floods again ripped through here in May, killing a Maryland National Guardsman, closing businesses up and down its historic district and producing images of destruction recalling the floods of 2016, he vowed to do anything he could to help a community that had become his own.

A language workshop for parents in northeast Calgary is highlighting the many benefits of keeping home languages alive and encouraging parents to pass on their spoken language to their kids.

New evidence has emerged that cooperation between local law-enforcement officials and federal immigration authorities can drive immigrant students and their families from schools. Such voluntary partnerships between the federal government and 55 jurisdictions may have uprooted 300,000 Hispanic children from their schools between 2000 and 2011, according to a Stanford University study released last month.

In the wake of the shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, teachers at a nearby Jewish immersion school are navigating how to talk to students about the attack and anti-Semitism.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released a report highlighting the educational landscape for English learners (ELs) and how Title III funds are being used to support their learning. The Biennial Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Title III State Formula Grant Program is mandated by law and provides data from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico on a variety of indicators including funding, demographics of the EL subgroup, language programs for ELs, accountability metrics for current and monitored former ELs and teaching staff to work with ELs.

President Trump says he can end birthright citizenship with an executive order. But most legal scholars — and even leaders of the president's own party — are skeptical.

Resettled to this city's southern suburbs after 20 years in Nepalese refu­gee camps, Bhanu Phuyel has acclimated and prospered. In the nine years since two Jewish refu­gee agencies helped him join this community, Phuyel has worked at McDonald's and the post office, as a long-haul trucker and as a caretaker for older people, he said. In 2013, he opened his own jewelry store, and he has since purchased rental apartments. But this week, Bhutanese refugees such as Phuyel and the aid agencies that brought him here were disturbingly reminded that there are those who do not welcome them in Pittsburgh.

Fred Rogers, the public television star, was one of Squirrel Hill's most famous residents. He also, in times of crisis, had advice for the media and those watching.

President Trump is vowing to sign an executive order that would seek to end the right to U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to noncitizens, a move most legal experts say runs afoul of the Constitution.

At New York City's Harvest Collegiate High School on Monday, social studies teacher Andy del Calvo did what educators often do: He adapted his lesson for the times. He shared news stories about the massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue and about last week's shooting of two African-Americans at a Kentucky supermarket, and urged his students to think.  This weekend's mass shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, carried out by a shooter authorities have said targeted the Jewish community and expressed anti-immigrant sentiments online, strikes at the heart of rising concerns about how bias shapes people’s thinking and where the school system should fit in pushing back on those mentalities.