ELL News Headlines

At MacArthur High School in San Antonio, TX, school librarian Janelle Schnacker has firsthand experience supporting students through the “senioritis” that afflicts many college-bound students this time of year.

New York City is piloting a curriculum on Asian American history this fall, with a wider rollout planned for 2024, officials announced Thursday. The lessons are part of the city’s roughly $200 million investment in Universal Mosaic, a curriculum under development that aims to provide more culturally representative lessons for the nearly 1 million students in the nation’s largest school system. 

For every spelling or pronunciation rule in the English language, there seems to be an exception. A linguist talks with us about her new book exploring the oddities of English and where they come from.

It's midday at Poland's Warsaw Ukrainian School and the teachers are doing their best to shepherd students to their next lesson. The adults are outnumbered, and no match for loud, energetic 7- and 8-year-olds who have flooded the hallways during the afternoon passing period. The Ukrainian school looks like any grade school: student artwork lines the walls, the youngest students sing nursery rhymes to memorize "heads, shoulders, knees, and toes," and the teacher's lounge is a solace for diligent instructors. But there is nothing typical about this school. When the war broke out and people began rushing into Poland, a group of Ukrainian educators used money from nonprofit organizations to open the school in just 24 days.

The mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store that police say was committed by an 18-year-old man radicalized by white supremacist ideology has left the western New York city torn and searching for answers. For many parents, confronting the ideology espoused by the murder suspect means having difficult conversations with their children about the realities of violence and racism in the United States.

Note: See more related resources in 15 Tips for Talking with Children About Violence and Talking About Racism and Violence: Resources for Educators and Families.

Please take out your crystal ball and make some predictions about English-language learners and U.S. schools 10 years from now. How many ELL students might there be? Will there be any particular changes in how they are taught or assessed, etc.?

The month of May is dedicated to both Asian American Pacific Islander heritage and mental health awareness. The youth mental health podcast "On Our Minds," which is part of Student Reporting Labs network, takes a look at the toll Asian American stereotypes take on teen mental health and well being. Podcast host Faiza Ashar delves into the topic with student filmmaker Mabelen Bonifacio.

For students who reach middle school without strong reading skills, these misread words turn into roadblocks that impede understanding and make it harder to learn. A new program at Alameda International Junior/Senior High School in Lakewood seeks to help. 

At a House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties meeting today to “examine the ongoing efforts to prohibit discussion in K-12 classrooms about American history, race, and LGBTQ+ issues, and to punish teachers who violate vague and discriminatory state laws by discussing these topics,” a letter signed by 1,300 children’s literature authors was read into the record. It was signed by authors of different generations and genres, award winners, and bestsellers, including Christina Soontornvat — who drafted the letter — Jason Reynolds, Judy Blume, Rick Riordan, Jacqueline Woodson, Dav Pilkey, Alex Gino, Jenny Han, Jeff Kinney, Angie Thomas, and Yuyi Morales.

Tagwa Mohmed remembers harvesting ripe, red tomatoes as a child growing up in her native country of Sudan. Gardening there was just part of life, and her family planted everything under the sun.