ELL News Headlines

Sekani Malcolm was serving coffee and pastries at Dunkin' Donuts last month, a 20-year-old high school graduate with no plans to go to college and few aspirations for a solid career. He had struggled in school, where he sometimes found trouble, and he was working the part-time job to help support his 3-month-old daughter. Like many D.C. Public Schools alumni who don't consider college an option, he didn't have clear ideas for his future. Then, in January, he went back to preschool. Malcolm and nine other recent minority graduates have returned to classrooms this school year as literary coaches, teaching preschoolers to read and learn alliteration and rhyming, part of a program that aims to give recent black and Latino male graduates teaching experience.

"In this companion novel to When the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky, the Black Tortoise of Winter’s chilly grip hasn’t stopped villagers from trekking up the mountain to hear tales from Amah the Storyteller...In Lin's skilled hands, enchanted readers find themselves 'standing among the villagers as if pulled by a thread' in this companion novel woven tightly with elements from previous tales, creating a rich tapestry of fiction and Chinese folklore. Includes a PDF of Lin's colorful illustrations. VERDICT This charming audiobook is a must-have for middle grade listeners and fans of Lin’s first two novels in the series."

The American Library Association Youth Media Awards, announced on Monday at the A.L.A.'s midwinter conference in Atlanta, were given to books published in 2016, a year in which sales of children's books were strong, continuing to outpace books for adults. The winning titles reflected a vibrant and increasingly expansive children's books landscape, and many had both direct and indirect political themes at the heart of their stories.

School District 47 parent Candido Rodriguez wanted to get more involved in his son's education. Then he heard about District 47's Bilingual Parent Leadership Academy, a program designed to encourage Latino families to become leaders in the school community and become more involved in the student learning process.

As President Donald Trump weighs the fate of undocumented youth brought to the United States as children, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of K-12 children and the educators who serve them are bracing for upheaval. Denver schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg issued a joint statement on Thursday with officials from the Denver teachers' union, Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, a children's advocacy group, and the Colorado Education Association to denounce the moves. "Immigrant and refugee students, families, educators, and staff are precious members of our Denver school communities and we greatly value them for the contributions they make to our schools and communities. We will do everything in our individual and collective power to protect them from deportation, criminalization, intimidation and harassment," the statement read in part.

TESOL International Association, the nation's largest organization for teachers who specialize in working with English-learners, has asked President Donald Trump and his top education advisers to honor the rights of students regardless of national origin or native language.

President Donald Trump's new immigration orders are harmful and will worsen the plight of children fleeing for their lives, pediatricians said Wednesday. And they will scare the children of immigrants already living in the country, causing toxic stress, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a strongly worded statement.

Multilingual paraprofessionals—an untapped talent pool that could help address the nation's shortage of bilingual K-12 educators—face bureaucratic, financial, and linguistic barriers that make it tough to earn teaching credentials, a new report concludes. New America released the report, "Teacher Talent Untapped: Multilingual Paraprofessionals Speak About the Barriers to Entering the Profession," roughly six months after unveiling a study that outlined how the paraprofessionals could help address the shortage.

Unlike in many parts of New York City, in Community School District 3 — which runs from 59th Street to 122nd Street along Manhattan's western flank, then takes a dogleg into Harlem — people from different races and socioeconomic levels often live near one another. The district's schools, however, are sharply divided by race and income, and diverge just as sharply in their levels of academic achievement. Nowhere is that tale of two districts clearer than in Harlem.

Following the precedent set by Evanston Township High School District 202 last week, the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board voted unanimously on Monday to declare D65 a "safe haven school district." The D65 resolution was drafted in conjunction with the ETHS resolution and uses a lot of the same wording, emphasizing a commitment to the inclusion of all students regardless of any potential barriers to educational access, district superintendent Paul Goren said.