ELL News Headlines

A number of Manitoba schools offering English-Ukrainian bilingual education are preparing to welcome Ukrainian students fleeing the war. Paulette Monita, president of Manitoba Parents for Ukrainian Education, told Global News the bilingual program is being offered at 11 schools in six divisions across the province — and that due to Manitoba’s significant Ukrainian population, it’s expected a number of families will settle in the province.

Horse country has room for everyone—that’s the animating belief that drives the new Horse Country middle grade series by Yamile Saied Méndez. The central protagonists are two sixth-grade girls who each have a Latinx father and white mother, but come from very different economic backgrounds: Carolina Aguasvivas has grown up on the Idaho ranch that her father manages, and Chelsie Sanchez, whose mother, the ranch’s new owner, has ambitious plans for its future.

Dean Bridget Long has announced that Carola Suárez-Orozco will join the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a professor in residence. She is currently a distinguished professor of counseling and school psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and co-founder and chair of the board of directors of ReImagining Migration, an independent nonprofit focused on advancing the education and wellbeing of immigrant-origin youth. She will begin her position at HGSE on July 1, 2022.

When the leaders of University Prep Charter High School learned that a freshman was shot and killed Friday afternoon a few blocks away from campus, they didn’t wait until school resumed to give students and staff a space to grieve. On Saturday morning, they opened the South Bronx school’s doors to students, staff, or parents who wanted to talk to a counselor or share memories of 16-year-old Angellyh Yambo.

Illinois school districts are reporting a shortage of bilingual education teachers with as many as 100 vacancies, as of October. To help fill the void, the Illinois State Board of Education announced the launch of a $4 million grant to cover tuition costs for teachers interested in becoming licensed to teach English-language learners.

Kim Hanley has over three decades of teaching and coaching experience. She is currently a Title III instructional coach for Capistrano Unified, a public school district in California; an English/language arts reviewer for EdReports; and a consultant for the English Learners Success Forum. In this column, she reflects on her experience of working with ELLs through many changes in the education landscape.

It's Tuesday morning and Hanna Kudrinova's 5th grade English class is signed on to Google Meet. Kudrinova starts like a lot of teachers everywhere, with a check-in. She asks the students to turn on their cameras and show a thumbs up if they're happy, thumbs down if they are sad, and sideways if they are feeling so-so. Today, Maksym Radzievsky, a boy with a round face and a striped shirt who seemingly always has his hand raised, says he is so-so because he's tired. He is in Munich, Germany, in an earlier time zone than Ukraine, so he had to start class at 7:30.

Ramadan, which begins April 2 and ends May 2 this year, also falls during the last stretch of the school year for many school districts in the state. As a result, some Muslim parents are seeking accommodations from their schools for practicing students. Parent advocates say a lack of guidance from the Louisiana Department of Education makes it tough to navigate their religious beliefs. 

As with other problems that long dogged the education system, the pandemic exposed the lack of resources along with barriers that English-learning students face in receiving an equitable education, says Leslie Villegas, a senior policy analyst at New America’s Education Policy Program.

Aria Young didn't become Aria Young until she was 16 years old. She was moving to Lancaster, Pa., from her home in Shanghai for high school. Her Chinese name, 杨沁悦, or Yáng Qìn Yuè, was "too hard for the English tongue to pronounce," Young explains in "What's in a Name," her entry for NPR's College Podcast Challenge. Judges selected Young's audio story as the grand-prize winner from 10 finalists.