ELL News Headlines

Playing chess is a big deal at Killip Elementary in Flagstaff, AZ. The whole program started as a safe place for kids to come after school — a diversion — but this week dozens of those students are getting ready to head out to Nashville, Tenn., to compete with about 5,000 other young people at the SuperNationals of chess. The competition only happens every four years and the last time the team went, they placed a team at third in the nation.

School districts around the nation have passed resolutions vowing to do everything they can to protect undocumented students. Now, a University of Missouri researcher examines how individual schools can meet the needs of students and families when the threat of deportation or detainment hit close to home.

Schools of Opportunity is the brainchild of Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a professor specializing in educational policy and law, and Carol Burris, a former award-winning principal in New York who is now executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education. It was launched a few years ago to highlight public high schools that actively seek to close opportunity gaps through research-proven practices and not standardized test scores. As described below, three of Silver Schools of Opportunity this past year demonstrate how curriculum and instruction can meet the needs of diverse student populations. Oakland International High School, Ossining High School and Washington Technology Magnet School all have closed opportunity gaps by thoughtfully embracing their students and their communities.

The Los Angeles Unified School Board — which runs the second largest school system in the country — just toughened its commitment to protect undocumented immigrant students and their families from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. As cities and towns around the country move to protect immigrant families from federal agents, Los Angeles school board members unanimously passed a new resolution Tuesday that reaffirms that ICE agents will not be allowed to come onto school campuses until the superintendent and district attorneys agree in advance. It also bars district employees from cooperating with ICE on immigration cases.

While enrollment in higher education for Latinos continues to grow, the cost of higher education can still prevent some from attending college – or it may push others into taking on onerous loans. By now, many scholarship deadlines have come and gone, but Remezcla.com found eight specifically meant for Latino students that may provide a little bit of relief in the upcoming school year. Some scholarships on the list are available for students regardless of immigration status.

Inside a high school theater in Northwest, English as a Second Language students reveal things they don't typically share. The Life Stories program offered by the Theatre Lab provides training in acting, storytelling, writing and directing. At Columbia Heights more than 100 students have benefited from the program. The theatre classes culminate with a stage performance that leaves students changed.

A new Washington state law would provide grants of up to $200,000 for school districts to create or expand dual-language programs. But funding remains uncertain because lawmakers have yet to reach agreement on a 2017-19 state budget.

The day after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a controversial immigration bill into law during an unprecedented Facebook live event Sunday evening, both supporters and opponents of Senate Bill 4 (SB4) have already begun to take the battle to the courts. The new SB4 law is scheduled to take effect on September 1. It allows local police officers to enforce federal immigration laws and comply with detainer requests. SB4 also prohibits cities and counties in Texas from enacting so-called "sanctuary laws" that prevent local law enforcement officers from asking detainees about their immigration status.

In Susannah Young's 2nd grade classroom, the first step in a student’s writing process isn’t a rough draft; it’s a conversation with a peer. Students explain their ideas to a partner, respond to questions, and push each other to more fully explore their thoughts before they put them down on paper. Young, who teaches at Oakland’s Lincoln Elementary School, developed the approach through a unusual professional development experience designed to help a cohort of Oakland teachers integrate social-emotional learning strategies into their teaching of traditional academic subjects, like reading and math. In sessions led by faculty from Mills College, a liberal arts school in Oakland, the Mills teacher scholars each select one instructional practice as a focus area, spending at least a year improving it through guided inquiry work.

With all the sweeping changes the Republican bill would impose, little attention has been paid to its potential impact on education. School districts rely on Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, to provide costly services to millions of students with disabilities across the country. For nearly 30 years, Medicaid has helped school systems cover costs for special education services and equipment, from physical therapists to feeding tubes. The money is also used to provide preventive care, such as vision and hearing screenings, for other Medicaid-eligible children.