ELL News Headlines

Despite spending only $7,605 a year in state and local funds per student, which is about one third less than the national average, and paying its veteran teachers with advanced degrees less than $50,000, the Union Public Schools District in Tulsa, OK had a high school graduation rate of 89 percent.  That compares with the national average of 82 percent.  Its attendance has risen while its suspensions have plummeted. It's important to note that 70 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches and more than one third are Hispanic, many of whom English language learners. What explains these remarkable results?  In a nutshell: community schools that offer wraparound services.

Fatuma Abdullahi and her sister Maryan Osman are originally from Somalia, but when they were little girls, their parents died during the civil war happening in the country and both girls became refugees. Since then the girls, who are now teenagers, have found a stable home with Annie and Randall Johnson, a young couple from the Salt Lake City, Utah, area. Last summer they welcomed their little brother, Roscoe, into the world. All in all, the five have become a family in their own way.

With springtime showers and warmer weather comes the fun-filled day known as El día de los ninos/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), or Dia for short, which underscores the importance of literacy for kids of every background. Officially celebrated on April 30, this nationally recognized program strives to honor children by connecting them with a range of diverse books at their local libraries.

As President Trump moves to fulfill his campaign promise to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally, they'll most likely include Mexicans whose children were born in the U.S.. Over half a million of these kids are already in Mexico. Researchers call them "los invisibles", the invisible ones, because they often end up in an educational limbo of sorts. Most don't read or write in Spanish, so they're held back. Many get discouraged and stop going to school. In some cases schools even refuse to enroll them. In the border city of Tijuana, however, there's a model program designed to help these children.

A coalition of groups that represent tens of thousands principals, teachers, and school administrators are calling on members of Congress to preserve funding for Title II, which President Trump wants to eliminate as part of sweeping education budget cuts the White House has proposed.

Alicia Blowers is the middle school librarian and library department chair at St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, VA.  She describes an all-school read she planned around the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: "Wanting to tap into the energy around STEM, sustainability, and globalization, I had planned to use the newly released young reader’s edition of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind as the middle school summer reading title. The book tells the story of William Kamkwamba, a teenager who, faced with famine and unable to afford schooling, used his local library to learn about electricity and built a windmill to bring power and running water to his village in Malawi. When I realized that, in addition to the YR edition and the standard version, a picture book existed, a lightbulb went on. Our entire school community, from junior kindergartners to 12th graders, faculty and staff, alumni, and parents, could participate. It would be an all-school read!"

State courts have sparred with politicians for decades over how much money lawmakers are constitutionally obligated to provide public schools. But in Kansas this year, lawmakers and school officials are asking deeper questions about not only how much money is spent but also where to invest that money to assure that black, Latino, and low-income students, in particular, are seeing academic results.

House Democrats are asking the Trump administration to send a clear message reminding the nation's public schools that, despite recent changes in federal immigration enforcement policy, they are still legally obligated to educate undocumented children. The representatives expressed concern that the educational rights of undocumented students may be overlooked as the new administration cracks down on those in the country illegally. The Supreme Court ruled 25 years ago that U.S. public schools must serve all children, regardless of their immigration status.

Here’s a fun trivia question for you. Putting aside the fact that these are written works for children, what do Pippi Longstocking, the Moomins, many of the books by Cornelia Funke, Press Here by Hervé Tullet, and the works of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm all have in common? If you said every one of these was a work of translation, you have earned yourself a cookie. It should come as no surprise to many of us that quite a few classic books for kids that we treasure and love originated in other countries.

In a school cafeteria adorned with whimsical children’s artwork, the men and women hunched over thick packets of paper one recent night, fiddling with pen caps and rubbing their foreheads as they confronted a challenge: preparing for what happens if immigration agents show up at the door. Some at this clinic in Northern Virginia were undocumented, and others had relatives in that situation. Some had legal status but were not permanent residents, and they wondered what shifts in federal immigration policy would mean for them and their relatives. The PTA at Ramsay Elementary in Alexandria, VA sponsored the March 22 clinic, supplying pizza and providing volunteers to care for children of those who came to hear from immigration lawyers and other experts.