ELL News Headlines

Since the COVID pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of young children who are slow to develop language skills, with pediatric speech delays more than doubling for children aged 12 and younger. PBS Wisconsin's Zac Schultz reports on what’s behind the delays and whether schools have the resources to help teachers, students and caregivers.

A team of researchers and teachers from Nevada and Pennsylvania are developing a new science literacy curriculum for English language learners. The goal is to better teach EL students science vocabulary in middle school.

According to a study recently published in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, people who speak two languages may be better at shifting their attention from one thing to another, compared to monolingual speakers.

Cursive is making a comeback amid concerns that learning to use a keyboard had superseded handwriting skills that are important for intellectual development — and also that a new generation of students could not write or read the flowing words of historical documents, old letters and family recipes.

On a sunny but brisk November afternoon inside Robert Abbott Middle School, six eighth grade girls quickly filed into a small but colorful classroom and seated themselves in a circle. At the 50-minute WOW circle, girls have a chance to set aside the pressures of the school day, laugh with and listen to one another, and work through personal problems. The weekly meeting is the centerpiece of individual and group therapy that WOW offers throughout the school year to Black and Hispanic girls, and to students of all races who identify as female or nonbinary, in grades 6 to 12.

A community — as well as those outside it — experiences a collective trauma following a major crisis like a mass shooting, Iowa City psychologist Holly Sanger said. Following the shooting at a high school in Perry, Iowa, many students, educators and parents outside of Perry have joined the town in their grief and lost sense of safety.

An Iowa principal critically injured in a school shooting put himself at extra risk by trying to protect students from the teenage shooter, state authorities said Friday.

Ahmir Jolliff dashed out of his home in Perry Thursday morning, eager to see his friends on the first day back to school after winter break. It was vintage Ahmir — known as “Smiley” around his house — an 11-year-old whirlwind of cheerful activity. He kept a trunk of toys unlocked in the front yard so anyone could play with them, his mother said. He loved soccer, played the tuba and sang in choir. He had a habit of touching people on their shoulder and asking them how their day was.

When Osvaldo Garcia Barron started high school, he was often the only student of color in his advanced classes. He struggled to speak up and wondered if he had anything to contribute. The start of the pandemic interrupted his freshman year of high school. But instead of coming out of it feeling isolated, Garcia Barron came back to school determined. He followed his older sister Paola’s lead in participating in some leadership programs and continued taking advanced classes. When he still struggled to feel a sense of belonging, he realized he probably wasn’t the only one. Garcia Barron restarted the Boulder High School Latino Student Organization where he eventually became president. And he started getting involved in lots of other programs in his school, district, and city, including serving as a board member for the Boulder Valley School District Youth Equity Council and being a mentor in the school’s AVID program, which helps prepare students who are historically underrepresented in higher education for college.

Over 50 community college students in California currently serve as resource guides for peers in need of stable housing, food access and other basic needs.