ELL News Headlines

Alvin Irby wears many hats. He is a stand-up comedian, a children's book author, a former kindergarten teacher, the founder of Barbershop Books and, above all, a dynamo. He speaks loudly, even when answering questions in a quiet office that's been emptied by the snow. His nonprofit has put a curated list of 15 books — all picked by kids — in dozens of barbershops, in predominantly black neighborhoods, across the country. And that's not counting the many barbers who have heard his story and done something similar on their own.

Even as President Trump and his administration promise to reunite families separated by Customs and Border Protection at the U.S. border, a similar crisis continues unabated within the country's interior, where children are separated from their undocumented parents with little scrutiny and increasing frequency. In the past few months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has carried out the three biggest workplace immigration raids of the past decade, including one on June 5 at a nursery in rural Ohio, where 114 gardeners, florists and other workers were detained and put into court proceedings for deportation. Many of them had lived for several years in a Norwalk trailer park of 74 homes known as Little Mexico, where now aid workers estimate that more than 90 children are missing one parent and at least 20 are left with no parent at all. One of them is Alex, an American citizen like most children in the trailer park, with a wardrobe of Cleveland Cavaliers T-shirts and frosted tips dyed orange at the barbershop inside Walmart.

Days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against public-employee unions in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31, there are many questions about what this will mean for the future of teachers' unions.  Bradley Marianno, an assistant professor of educational policy and leadership at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, was the co-author of a recent analysis that studied teachers' unions in Michigan and Wisconsin after those states passed right-to-work laws prohibiting agency fees. Education Week spoke to Marianno about the consequences of the Janus decision, and what we can expect to see with teachers' unions in the months and years ahead.

As temperatures crept toward 90 degrees, tens of thousands of protesters shuffled across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon to denounce the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. Crowds gathered in lower Manhattan before marching over the East River to Cadman Plaza, not far from the federal courthouse for the End Family Separation NYC Rally and March. It was one of more than 600 demonstrations taking place this weekend, from the nation's capital to Appalachia. Thousands took to the streets to demand the end of the separation of immigrant children from their families, as well as implore voters to turn out for this year’s midterm elections.

"The Gorilla Foundation is sad to announce the passing of our beloved Koko," the research center says, informing the world about the death of a gorilla who fascinated and elated millions of people with her facility for language, including Fred Rogers when they met in this TV episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

Many state-funded preschools have done little to ensure that staff have the training and skills to support children from families in which languages other than English are spoken, a report from the National Institute on Early Education Research has found.

The numbers are stark and staggering. Nearly a quarter of third graders who aren’t reading at grade level will not graduate from high school by the time they are 19. Once they get beyond the literacy skill-building support of elementary school, those who fail sixth grade English run an 82 percent chance of never graduating. With the negative predictors so clear, we have to talk about teens who are struggling readers: Who are they, what do they need, and how can libraries help them?

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a heavy blow to teachers' unions with their ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31.  The decision set off a firestorm of reaction, including among educators. Some teachers are excited about the prospect of no longer having to pay dues to their union, while others have reiterated their commitment to their union. Here's a sampling of some responses from teachers.

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a major blow to teachers' unions, ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31 that teachers in about half of states do not have to pay "agency" or "shop" fees if they're not union members. Get caught up on the case by reading some of our coverage below.

Ten large tech companies did not employ a single black woman in 2016, according to a new report from The Center for Investigative Reporting. What are the barriers for entry for women in Silicon Valley and the tech world? What are people doing about it?