ELL News Headlines

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.

What does it take to empower young patrons, remove barriers, and help them succeed? Determination. Imagination. A solution-oriented outlook. The individuals who spearheaded these bold library initiatives were driven by a goal to improve service for all users. They tackled big projects head-on to further equity in their schools and communities: a GED program at a tribal library; resources for children who are neurodivergent; free food and programs for kids during the summer; eliminating discriminatory policies; and more. Here’s how they did it.

With the national conversation on immigration at the forefront of the news, teachers are working to incorporate this discussion into their classrooms. Here is how one teacher, Jennifer Ciok, Social Emotional Learning Specialist at Umoja Student Development Corporation, a non-profit organization in Chicago, Illinois, helps students understand their own personal stories of immigration.

On April 30, a group of DREAMers and law enforcement leaders stood on a stage in front of a sold-out crowd in Boulder, Colorado, for a performance centering around the immigrant experience in the United States. The show, titled “Do You Know Who I Am?,” featured monologues written by young undocumented immigrants and, for the first and only time, was read by eight criminal justice system authority figures—including the Boulder County district attorney, the county’s sheriff and five community police chiefs. “It became very clear throughout the presidential primaries, as well as the election that we needed to disrupt the association between criminality and documentation status,” Kirsten Wilson, artistic director and founder of Motus Theater, told Latino USA.

Bana Alabed, the 7-year-old girl whose tweets from besieged Aleppo drew the world's attention to the human toll of the Syria conflict, will publish her memoir this fall. In "Dear World," to be published by Simon & Schuster, Bana will describe her experiences in Syria and how she and her family are adapting to their new life in Turkey.