Minority Babies' New Majority an 'Echo' of Immigration Waves

NewsHour (PBS)

May 22, 2012

White babies account for fewer than half of newborns in the United States — just 49.6 percent of last year's births, according to new Census data released Thursday. Margaret Warner discusses the tipping point and its implications with the Brookings Institution's William Frey and New York University's Marcelo Suarez-Orozco.

NYC Plans to Close Dozens of After-School Programs Across Brooklyn

New York Daily News

May 22, 2012

The city is set to close dozens of Brooklyn after-school programs, angering working parents who say there's nowhere else for their kids to go. Brooklyn is slated to lose 77 of its 154 Out of School Time programs in the fall, the most programs axed in any borough.

New Jersey Elementary School Honored for Its Bilingual Program

NewJersey.com

May 22, 2012

Harrison Elementary School in Roselle has been honored by the New Jersey Department of Education of its outstanding bilingual program, school officials announced. Harrison Elementary, one of ten schools across the state to receive the recognition, will serve as a model to scale best practices in world languages programs and bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for English Language learners.

Researchers Call Attention to the Educational 'State of Crisis' Facing Latino Males

Latino Ed Beat

May 21, 2012

Increasing the number of Latinos earning bachelor's degrees is a pressing national issue. But within the group, it is Hispanic men who are the least likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, and graduate from college. A group based at the University of Texas at Austin called Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success) is trying to bring attention to the plight of these young men.

Oregon Bans Native American Mascots in Schools

Education Week

May 21, 2012

Eight Oregon high schools will have to retire their Native American mascots after the Board of Education voted Thursday to prohibit them, giving the state some of the nation's toughest restrictions on Native American mascots, nicknames, and logos. The 5-1 vote followed months of passionate and emotional debate about tolerance and tradition.

A Totally Californian Poet Laureate

Los Angeles Times

May 21, 2012

Wearing jeans, green sneakers, a hipster straw bowler and a Buddhist symbol around his neck, the new poet laureate of California opened his weekly poetry workshop at UC Riverside with stretching and breathing exercises. "Let's detox our cluttered academic brain. That's what the poet does," said Juan Felipe Herrera, 63. "People call it daydreaming, detoxing our minds and taking care of that clutter. It's being able to let in call letters from the poetry universe."

ESL Instructor Named Durham's Teacher of the Year

News Observer (NC)

May 17, 2012

Alaina Burr, a teacher at Riverside High, was named Durham Public Schools 2012 Teacher of the Year. Burr, who teaches English as a Second Language, received the honor Thursday evening at a banquet recognizing Teachers of the Year from schools throughout Durham Public Schools. "What I am most proud of is the learning environment I have created for my students and the success it fosters for them," Burr said in a news release.

Immigrant's Granddaughter Guides a New Generation of Arrivals

The Philadelphia Inquirer

May 17, 2012

Every year, scores of students whose families are new immigrants to the United States enroll in the Upper Darby School District and Margie Tavakalian helps them adjust. "They inspire me," Tavakalian said. "I find them to be so courageous." They also resurrect memories of Tavakalian's own family, which perhaps give her a special insight into her students' situations.

ELL Teachers Discuss Influences on Their Career Choices

The Missourian

May 17, 2012

In this special feature piece, ELL teachers from Columbia, MO explain the reasons they wanted to become ELL educators and talk about the people who shaped their interest in other languages and cultures.

Groups Offer Ways for Feds to Improve Student Well-Being

Education Week

May 17, 2012

Noting the strong link between students' health and their ability to learn, health advocates want the federal departments of Education and Health and Human Services to make a few small changes they believe could improve students' academic and physical well-being and work to close achievement gaps.

Educators, Legislators Meet to Discuss Latino Student Success

Las Vegas Sun

May 17, 2012

This much we know: Latinos are quickly becoming the majority in Nevada's public schools, and already are in Clark County elementary schools, but they also do not graduate from high school or obtain advanced degrees at the same rate as other ethnicities. In the coming years, Latinos will continue to make up a large portion of the state's workforce. So a growing question before Nevada's educators, from kindergarten to graduate school, is: How do they prepare for and improve the outcomes of the growing population of Latino students?

District Hears About Cuts' Effects on Philadelphia's ELL Programs

The Notebook (PA)

May 17, 2012

At a School Reform Commission meeting Monday night, officials said they would do their best to avoid further cuts in programs for the District's 13,000 English language learners. By devoting an entire two-hour meeting to the topic, the SRC signaled its commitment to prioritize this large but often-neglected segment of the District's population, yet officials also acknowledged that teacher layoffs and other budget-related decisions have taken a toll on these programs over the years.

Census: Foreign-Born Population Reaches Record High

Education Week

May 16, 2012

The U.S. Census Bureau reports today that the population of foreign-born people living in the United States has reached 40 million, an all-time high. That figure — from the 2010 American Community Survey — comprises about 13 percent of the total population in the U.S., which is roughly 312 million people. That represents the largest share of the population since 1910, when foreign-born residents comprised 14.7 percent of the overall population.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: 'It's something you do — every day'

MinnPost (MN)

May 16, 2012

A year ago, Sarah Skahan became one of the first Minnesota teachers to receive a graduate certificate in culturally responsive teaching from St. Mary's University of Minnesota. Her experience as a member of the program's inaugural cohort, she said, has revolutionized her work with special-ed students. "It's transformed my practice," she said. "My kids are meeting their IEP objectives. They are staying in class longer. I have some kids with explosive behavior and they're so engaged they are staying on task."

Remembering Carlos Fuentes, Mexican Man of Letters

The New York Times

May 16, 2012

Carlos Fuentes, Mexico's elegant public intellectual and grand man of letters, whose panoramic novels captured the complicated essence of his country's history for readers around the world, died on Tuesday in Mexico City. He was 83. Mr. Fuentes was one of the most admired writers in the Spanish-speaking world, a catalyst of the explosion of Latin American literature in the 1960s and '70s, known as El Boom. He wrote plays, short stories, political nonfiction and novels, many of them chronicles of tangled love.

Study: Most ELLs Are in Districts That Fall Short of Federal Goals

Education Week

May 15, 2012

Most of the nation's English-language learners were enrolled in school districts that failed to reach all of their accountability goals for that group of students in the 2008-09 school year, according to a national evaluation of the federal program that supports English-language-acquisition services.

Boosting Reading Skills: Will 'Common Core' Experiment Pay Off?

NewsHour (PBS)

May 15, 2012

Called the "Common Core," a new set of state guidelines spell out what young students are expected to learn and what books they're expected to read. Forty five states and the District of Colombia have already adopted the standards. Learning Matters' John Merrow reports on the design and the aim of the new guidelines.

USC to Award Degrees to Japanese Interned During WWII

Los Angeles Times

May 15, 2012

Friday morning, the University of Southern California campus will be filled with smiling students posing for pictures. For Nisei alumni like Hitoshi Sameshima, however, commencement will be bittersweet. At 91, he is one of many students whose educations were interrupted by internment during World War II and who will finally receive degrees from their alma mater — but his wife and daughter didn't live long enough to see it.

Hispanic Students Narrow Gap on Science Exam

Latino Ed Beat

May 14, 2012

The achievement gap between Latino and white eighth-graders in science is narrowing, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data released on Thursday. While the improvement is a bright spot, however, American students still struggle with science. Only about 32 percent of students scored "proficient" or higher on exams, and English language learners continue to lag behind their peers.

Public Gets Glimpse of Science Standards

Education Week

May 14, 2012

An ambitious effort to refocus K-12 science education across the nation enters a new phase today with the release of the first public draft of voluntary, "next generation" science standards. Organizers say the standards emphasize not simply providing a foundation of essential knowledge, but also ensuring that students apply that learning through scientific inquiry and the engineering-design process to deepen their understanding.