ELL News Headlines

Following the precedent set by Evanston Township High School District 202 last week, the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board voted unanimously on Monday to declare D65 a "safe haven school district." The D65 resolution was drafted in conjunction with the ETHS resolution and uses a lot of the same wording, emphasizing a commitment to the inclusion of all students regardless of any potential barriers to educational access, district superintendent Paul Goren said.

Spanish-speaking English-language learners in Washington state enroll in half as many advanced courses per year as other ELLs, and earn lower grades in those classes, a new Regional Education Laboratory Northwest study found.

The White House says President Donald Trump will not take immediate action on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama administration policy that grants deportation reprieves for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday said Trump will focus on immigrants who have overstayed their visas and those with criminal records, not DACA participants. Spicer did not directly address a question on whether President Trump will sign an executive order to shut down DACA. Spicer also declined to offer details on several questions related to DACA, including whether DACA-eligible students should apply or re-apply for the status.

Congressman John Lewis made history at the 2017 American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards (YMA) on Monday, January 23, when March: Book Three (Top Shelf), the third installment of his graphic autobiography, written with Andrew Aydin, took four YMA wins, including the Michael L. Printz Award. Previously, March earned the 2016 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature as well as the 2017 Walter Award.

The American Library Association has announced the winners of its 2017 Youth Media Awards. Here's the full list, with links to SLJ reviews and interviews. The Caldecott went to Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Lowriders to the Center of the Earth, illustrated by Raúl Gonzalez, is the Pura Belpré Illustrator winner, and Juana & Lucas, written by Juana Medina, is the Pura Belpré Author Award winner.

The Trump administration hit the pause button late Friday on a host of Obama administration regulations, including one detailing how accountability and state plans will work under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

When Yunior De La Rosa first arrived in Peekskill, NY two years ago at age 14, he was shy, scared and didn't speak English. Two years later, with the help of a new language acquisition program, De La Rosa is translating Spanish to English for his peers, he's on the honor roll for his sophomore classes, and is set to graduate in two years. His success is in large part because of the Newcomer Program developed in Peekskill at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year for a growing population of students who are high school aged and have just come to the United States, don't know English, and have fewer years to get on track to graduate.

Integrating innovative science courses and English-language instruction can dramatically boost student achievement and test scores in the sciences, along with reading, and writing, according to a new study from the Oakland, Calif.-based Education Trust West. The report, "Unlocking Learning: Science as a Lever for English Learner Equity," explored how six districts, ranging from rural to urban and all with sizable English-learner populations, taught science to the students.

"Engle highlights 18 Latinxs from a range of ethnic backgrounds and countries of origin, all of whom lived in what is now the United States or its territories. Each person made a positive impact on U.S. history, and although some are not well-known, their contributions warrant an important place in the U.S. collective cultural knowledge… The pairing of these biographical poems with Rafael López’s distinctive artwork leaves a lasting visual impression, as the subjects, surrounded by images representing their vocations, look readers straight in the eye or are totally absorbed in their work."