ELL News Headlines

Porterville is a predominantly Hispanic working-class town in the Central Valley of California, where environmental hazards include some of the worst air quality in the state; the past year’s torrential rains that inundated hundreds of acres of farmland; and a heat wave that pushed temperatures past 110 degrees Fahrenheit this July. But Porterville has this going for it: Its school district pioneered a partnership with Climate Action Pathways for Schools, or CAPS, a nonprofit that aims to help high school students become more environmentally aware while simultaneously lowering their school’s carbon footprint and earning wages.

A few years ago, on a visit to our shared campus library, a wonderful high school teacher we know was there with one of his classes. Asked what his students were doing in the library, he replied “Just reading.” Giving kids the time and space to read books of their choosing during the school day shouldn’t be a radical act. But it can feel like one. Teachers wonder: What if students aren’t reading? How do I grade reading? Would this time be better spent preparing them for an upcoming assessment?

As high school students navigate more rigorous academic tasks and denser curricular material, the occasional 3-to-5-minute break delivers a wide range of benefits.

Public schools must accept school-aged children as students regardless of their nationality or immigration status, state Attorney General Letitia James asserted in new guidance released Monday reaffirming New Yorkers' right to receive free public school education.

At the height of the pandemic, school closures disrupted many students’ lives. In 2022, nearly 16 million students across the U.S. were chronically absent, double the pre-pandemic truancy rate, according to a new Stanford University analysis. To learn more, Ali Rogin speaks with Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, an organization helping schools face this challenge.

A 3-year-old child riding one of Texas’ migrant buses died while on the way to Chicago, officials said Friday, the first time the state has announced a death since it began shuttling thousands of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border last year.

Gloria migrated to the U.S. from Ecuador last fall, shortly before giving birth to Yuleidys. By November, she had made it to New York along with her parents, her twin sister, and the father of her child. In Ecuador, the Vega family lived in the province of Cotopaxi, in the country’s central highlands, where they sold legumes and vegetables. Now, they shared a single room in an apartment in Corona, Queens. More aunts, uncles, and cousins have followed them in the months since Gloria arrived. Each day, the men in the family look for work as day laborers and the women and children go to the subway, selling candy on the trains and platforms from ten in the morning until 6:30 in the evening. They arrange their items neatly in variety-pack boxes — yellow M&M’s, blue Orbit gum, Snickers, Oreos, Welch’s Fruit Snacks — priced at $2 apiece.

When children reach the stage of independent readers, their interests, personalities, and social environments influence their reading choices. Librarians guide and assist them in paving their individual paths through their reading journeys, and we should respect and provide choices tailored to their interests. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all or leveled reading journey that kids should feel pressured to take. The titles featured here, by Latinx and Latin American creators, range in vocabulary and length, genre, format, and language. They reflect the ongoing conversations regarding identities, and how Latinx or Latin American communities in and outside the United States are influenced by social events and natural disasters, circular migrations, and colonial and political interlocking oppressions.

This week, sweltering heat has forced districts around the country – up and down the East coast and across the Midwest – to close schools early or switch to virtual learning. Even more schools canceled outdoor activities and after-school sports. The term "heat recess" has entered teachers' vocabularies recently, overtaking the long-held "rainy day recess" as a sign of a tough day ahead. Both call for the same thing: indoor activities, more supervision and antsy kids.

The first few weeks in a classroom can help set the tone for the rest of the school year. Building a sense of safety and belonging for young students early on is critical, said Berol Dewdney, a pre-K teacher and Maryland’s 2023 teacher of the year.