ELL News Headlines

More than 1,600 migrant children have been sent with little notice on late-night voyages to their new home: a barren tent city in West Texas, where they do not receive schooling and have limited access to legal representation. The Trump administration opened the facility because shelters that house migrant children have been overflowing. Here’s a look at what’s happening.

As educators encourage all students to get involved in upcoming elections, it’s important that we also recognize that not all students will participate in the same way. Teaching Tolerance reached out to Deyanira Aldana, education justice coordinator at United We Dream, who offered suggestions for educators who want to ensure they’re respecting the experiences and meeting the needs of undocumented students during voter education and registration events. Here are her recommendations.

A Trump administration proposal that would deny green cards or visas to many immigrants who legally use public benefits would not penalize families who use several programs — such as Head Start, the federal school lunch program, and services provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — that support children's education. While the proposal would not strip student eligibility tied to elementary and secondary public education and Head Start, an early-childhood program, the plan could still affect the children and their families.

Ron Ferguson, an economist at Harvard, has made a career out of studying the achievement gap — the well-documented learning gap that exists between kids of different races and socio-economic statuses. After seeing the disconnect between research and practice more clearly, he set out to translate the research into five simple and free ways adults can help their little ones. He calls his list the Boston Basics — and he's on a mission to introduce it to caretakers first in Boston and then across the country.

Story time is a classic part of the school day for the nation's youngest learners. Before they can read, preschoolers and early elementary school students sit with teachers and watch and listen as stories are narrated to them. Besides learning new vocabulary words and starting to connect written and spoken language, they learn to love stories and build a foundation for reading that can serve them for the rest of their lives. Melissa Malzkuhn has developed a new way for deaf children to get the same benefits of story time through an app.

While seeking Betsy DeVos' approval for its federal Every Student Succeeds Act plan, Florida ventured that the state's English-only laws would provide it cover from a new federal push on English-language-learner education. The gamble paid off. Florida, home to an estimated 300,000 English-learners, will not translate its state tests into Spanish or any other language. For some states, developing tests in languages other than English could prove costly.

In the seventh, and final, Education Week installment on the growth in dual-language learning, a pair of state-level administrators advises schools stress the importance of training and supporting educators who are training students to read, write, and speak in two languages.

In this sixth Education Week installment on the growth in dual-language learning, a former principal touts the benefits of learning two languages—and two cultures.

In this fourth Education Week installment on the growth in dual-language learning, one expert explores how his district recruits and retains teachers who are fluent in two or more languages. 

In this third Education Week installment on the growth in dual-language learning, one expert advises schools to provide immersion education for as many students as possible.