ELL News Headlines

A new initiative designed to boost literacy and improve educational outcomes for public housing residents has been launched. The announcement was made by Julián Castro, secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); John B. King, Jr., secretary, U.S. Department of Education; and Broderick Johnson, chair of My Brother's Keeper Task Force and assistant to the President, on January 5 at the Washington, DC Southwest Public Library. The primary goal of the Book-Rich Environment Initiative is to bring free, diverse, high-quality books and other literacy tools to families living in HUD-assisted housing, home to nearly four million children.

Many Latino children across the U.S. are waking up on January 6th to presents and more importantly to a cherished tradition: El Día de los Reyes — or Three Kings Day, also known in the Christian religion as the Feast of the Epiphany. Susana Torres, a Mexican American mother who lives in Denver, Colorado tells NBC that her children do not wait for Santa Claus to receive gifts — instead they anxiously wait for Los Reyes Magos (The Magi).

The 21st edition of Quality Counts examines what states and districts are doing to make ready for the Every Student Succeeds Act's implementation, and offers state-by-state grades for how the nation's schools are faring on a range of educational measures.

Two new studies demonstrate that multilingual exposure improves not only children’s cognitive skills but also their social abilities.

As Janie Carnock details in her recent report, From Blueprint to Building: Lifting the Torch for Multilingual Students in New York State, New York has recently led a bullish redesign of policies and practices to better support the education of its growing, diversifying ELL population. Passed in 2014 under the umbrella of the state’s Blueprint for ELL Success strategy, new rules comprehensively revamp ELL policies across the board. With 2015–16 as the first school year of full implementation, promising changes are already unfolding in districts like Newburgh, which sits on the bank of the Hudson River sixty miles north of New York City and has seen an influx of new immigration from Central America in recent years.

Everyone's favorite red-headed science teacher—and her pet lizard—will soon be back. Netflix's appeal to nostalgia continues with its upcoming reboot of the beloved '90s Saturday morning cartoon "The Magic School Bus," starring eccentric science teacher Ms. Frizzle and her eager students as they embark on out-of-this world field trips. 

Long-term English-language Learners (LTELs) are students who have been classified as English-language learners (ELLs) for more than six years, are verbally bilingual, are below grade-level in reading and writing, and are at high-risk for dropping out. Although there is no national data on LTELs, a high percentage of our secondary schools' ELLs is considered long-term, with a myriad of literacy needs, including mitigating their fossilized language habits.

Grades 4-6: This anthology, published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, presents 10 short stories from a stellar list of authors: Kwame Alexander, Matt de la Peña, Jacqueline Woodson, Soman Chainani, Grace Lin, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Federle, Meg Medina, Tim Tingle, and Kelly Baptist…Inclusive, authentic, and eminently readable, this collection of short stories is an excellent addition for libraries and classrooms.

I was standing by the airport exit, debating whether to get a snack, when a young man with a round face approached me. I focused hard to decipher his words. In a thick accent, he asked me to help him find his suitcase. As we walked to baggage claim, I learned his name: Edward Murinzi. This was his very first plane trip. A refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, he'd just arrived to begin his American life. From finding his bag to finding his apartment and finding a job, there was a lot for Edward to learn.

There was a time when the sub pool was made up of trained and certified teachers—novices hoping to get a full-time job, retired teachers, and the occasional mom looking to return to part-time work in a classroom. Not any more. Substitute teachers are now almost exclusively hired by third-party educational service companies (whose recruitment strategies include advertisements on highway billboards), which take a cut out of limited monies to rid schools of the headache of finding daily replacements, once the worst possible early-morning task of school secretaries.