ELL News Headlines

Two years ago, Stephanie Wright and Tyler Sumpter were part of the next generation of Native teachers. Graduates of the University of Oregon’s Sapsik’ʷałá master’s program, they respectively began their careers as educators at schools in Washington and Oregon.

Researchers have found kindergarten through third grade classes spend, on average, 89 minutes a day on English language arts, 57 minutes a day on math — and just 18 minutes a day on science. One way advocates are trying to encourage more science time? Adding outdoor classrooms to elementary schools.

Beth Barkley thought she was attending a ceremony for International Day of the Girl on Wednesday. The high school English teacher stood in the library at Cardozo Education Campus as the city’s mayor explained the importance of attaining “educational equity across genders.” But, in a ceremony focused mostly on her, Barkley learned that she had been named D.C’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.

Middle school students have a wide range of vocabulary knowledge. Many have developed a depth of knowledge from reading, verbal communication, and previous educational experiences, but some students lack the vocabulary skills needed to understand grade-level content.

Spring 2024 Scholastic Book Fairs will integrate books that were controversially separated out this fall in a now-discontinued elementary school collection of titles related to diversity and LGBTQ+ issues, the company has announced. The company has also enhanced its online title previews, saying they’ve become necessary to help educators navigate around state and local curriculum restrictions.

As part of a new program, every third grader in Albuquerque Public Schools spends a day at the Los Padillas Wildlife Sanctuary just outside the city. There, a wide variety of local landscapes are packed into five acres: a meadow, piñon, juniper and cottonwood trees, an arroyo and even a pond — a rarity in the desert. The sanctuary borders the black mesas to the west and to the east and the Rio Grande bosque — a term for a forest near a river bank. To the south is the Pueblo of Isleta, one of New Mexico’s many Native American communities: There are 19 different sovereign Pueblos, plus Apache and Navajo communities, across the state.

Mastering algebra in middle school can give kids an advantage for the rest of their educational trajectory. But in Chicago, access to the course before high school has long been inequitable. Schools without algebra in the middle grades have been largely located in predominantly Black and lower income neighborhoods on the south and west sides. For students who do take algebra in eighth grade, state data shows white and Asian American students in Chicago Public Schools are more than twice as likely to pass than Black and Latino students. But the district says it is trying to address the inequity and has found some success.

María Emilia Martin, the pioneering radio journalist and founder of Latino USA, media educator and tireless advocate for Latinos, Latinas, and Indigenous voices in journalism, passed away due to health complications in Texas over the weekend. Born in Mexico City and raised in California, Martin dedicated half a century to her work on public radio. Her 2020 book, "Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist's Heart in Latin America," chronicles her journey overcoming racism and sexism in U.S. media. She paved the way for new generations of Latino journalists, particularly women.

This obituary remembers Dr. Jean Pierre-Louis, a pioneer in the field of Bilingual Education. His family writes that he believed "in equal opportunities for immigrant students and in making learning accessible to all students, regardless of their language proficiency. In this regard, Jean was one of the first Haitian resource specialists hired by the New York City Board of Education, Office of Bilingual Education. Moreover, he worked with other advocates to establish and support Haitian Creole Bilingual programs in New York City schools."