ELL News Headlines

Researchers and language experts have long criticized the subjectivity and variations in criteria that California districts have used to determine when English learners are proficient in English. But proposed legislation to create uniform, statewide standards for doing so has hit a snag, with some of the nation’s leading academic experts expressing strong opposition to the bill.

The Poetry Foundation has named Margarita Engle the Young People’s Poet Laureate. The title is awarded every other year and comes with a $25,000 prize, in recognition of an exceptional career in writing poetry for youth.

When word came to New York's City Hall on Thursday, it appeared to confirm the administration’s worst fears: federal immigration agents had been to an elementary school in Queens to inquire about a fourth-grade student. However, the immigration agents who visited Public School 58 in Maspeth on May 11 were not enforcement officers, but fraud investigators for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Katherine Tichacek, a spokeswoman for the agency. The agents were trying to determine if a student was enrolled in order for a parent to qualify for an immigrant benefit, which could be permanent residency or a work authorization.

Two charter-school-backers defeated union-backed candidates on Tuesday to take two seats on the Los Angeles school board in an expensive and heated battle that drew large sums of money from outside the district. It was the most expensive school board race in the country—more than $13 million was spent through May12, according to the Los Angeles Times.

With growing diversity in Mankato, Minnesota comes a growing number of students who don't speak English. That's a challenge the city's school district and community organizations are taking on with expanded English language education programs. Their approach is to start early and focus on the whole family.

Rusul Alrubail agreed to answer a few questions about her new book Digital Writing For English Language Learners. Rusul Alrubail is the Executive Director of the Writing Project. She is also an author, speaker, educator, and social justice activist who has written for organizations including the PBS NewsHour, Edutopia, and Teaching Tolerance. You can connect with her on Twitter @RusulAlrubail and read her work on her Heart of a Teacher blog.

On a Wednesday afternoon at Lorah Park Elementary School in Brownsville, a half dozen 4-year-olds are clustered on the carpet trying to keep up with a song on Spanish greetings. In another room, second graders try their hand at a series of dizzying Spanish tongue twisters—“Como poco coco como, poco coco compro.” (Since I don’t eat much coconut, I don’t buy much either.”) This is Lorah Park Elementary's after-school “Spanish Club,” held for an hour in each grade two afternoons a week.

Etoria Cheeks teaches math at a public high school in San Francisco, explaining algebra and statistics to teenagers. But it's the math behind her housing predicament that simply doesn't add up. In a shocking indication of just how bad San Francisco's teacher housing situation is, Cheeks is homeless. She's a professional with a teaching credential and master's degree in one of the richest cities in the world who cannot find housing.

Backstage at the Poetry Out Loud finals held here this month, nerves were on edge. After two days of competition, 53 state-winners had been whittled down to just three finalists.  As the judges tallied up the scores, the three high school students paced and hugged each other. This was the culmination of hours and sometimes years of work. The students had each memorized three poems and recited them on stage. They were judged on everything from overall performance to accuracy to their interpretation of the poet's words. The competition, now in its 12th year, begins in classrooms around the country. Students memorize and recite poems, choosing from a list of over 900 options. Classroom winners compete at their schools, then regionally, and eventually at their state finals. This year, over 300,000 students from 2,300 high schools took part. 

In a church hall in Northern Virginia, a father of two named Jose sat at a long table and stared at the legal document before him. It was a road map for life without him.  With his index finger tracing each line, he read how the guardian would bring the girls to school and day care, decide who will pick them up, and have the power to book airline tickets on their behalf so the children could reunite with their parents in Central America. The next line highlighted the power to make decisions if either girl was hospitalized. At this, Jose froze. "That's when they need me," he said to himself. "What if I'm not there?" It is a question thousands of undocumented immigrants are asking across the United States, in the apple orchards outside Spokane, Wash., the blueberry fields near Grand Rapids, Mich., and at churches and community centers in Maryland and Virginia.