Policy News

Language Demands to Grow for ELLs Under New Standards

Education Week

April 26, 2012

Putting the common-core standards into practice in classrooms is a monumental change for teachers in the nation's public schools, but for educators who work with English-language learners, the shifts in instruction are expected to be even more groundbreaking. Putting the common-core standards into practice in classrooms is a monumental change for teachers in the nation's public schools, but for educators who work with English-language learners, the shifts in instruction are expected to be even more groundbreaking.

Some Issues for Educators in Ariz. Immigration Case

Education Week

April 25, 2012

The U.S. Supreme Court takes up the legal challenge to Arizona's tough immigration law today. While the Arizona measure does not have requirements for schools to check the immigration status of students, as Alabama's law does, the debate over the law has been watched closely by educators in the state and nationally.

Federal Officials Reach Final Agreement on Services for ELLs in Boston

Education Week

April 24, 2012

The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education today announced a new, long-term agreement with Boston's public school system that is meant to provide a permanent fix to violations of the civil rights of the city's English-language learners. The agreement replaces an interim pact from 2010 that focused on short-term remedies to the school district's services for English-learners, including accurate identification and placement of ELLs.

Study Links Zoning to Education Disparities

Education Week

April 23, 2012

Location, location, location. This mantra of real estate agents and their clients alike is now the target of a new report from the Brookings Institution linking housing prices and zoning practices to effectively depriving low-income students of high-quality schools.

New Study Identifies 'Opportunity Gap' for Students

The New York Times

April 23, 2012

Educators have long studied the achievement gap, in which black and Hispanic pupils and low-income students of all races perform at much lower levels than their white, Asian and better-off peers. A new study released by the Schott Foundation for Public Education found that poor and minority students have fewer opportunities to attend the city's best public schools largely because of where they live.

Stanford Project on Common Standards and English-Learners Goes Live

Education Week

April 12, 2012

The team of English-language learner experts assembled by Stanford University education professor Kenji Hakuta to create resources for teaching the common-core standards to ELLs launched its Understanding Language website yesterday. Professor Hakuta and his colleagues launched the site with the publication of 13 papers that examine a variety of issues related to language and literacy in the content areas of the common-core standards, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards.

Districts Gear Up for Shift to Informational Texts

Education Week

March 21, 2012

In an English/language arts classroom in Iowa, 10th graders are analyzing the rhetoric in books about computer geeks, fast food, teenage marketing, the working poor, chocolate-making, and diamond-mining. The units mark a heftier emphasis on nonfiction for teacher Sarah Brown Wessling. What she is doing reflects an intensifying focus for teachers across the country: how to develop students' skills at reading and understanding informational texts.

Common Core Standards and ELLs: What's Happening in Calif.?

Education Week

March 13, 2012

Education Week's Lesli Maxwell writes, "I have been in schools in San Jose, San Francisco, and, for the last two days, in Sacramento, where teachers from across the state who work with English-learners have gathered for the annual conference of the California Association of Bilingual Education. Everywhere I have been, I've been asking the teachers and administrators I meet what is going on with the common core in California — at the state level, in the districts, and in their schools. Are they ready, I ask?"

Cuomo and G.O.P. Quiet So Far on Tuition Aid for Undocumented Immigrants

The New York Times

March 08, 2012

With immigration still a contentious issue around the country, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Republican lawmakers have maintained a noticeable distance from New York State proposals that would make financial aid available to undocumented immigrants at colleges and universities.

Affirmative Action: Is It Still Necessary?

NPR

March 01, 2012

In a 2003 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to uphold affirmative action and said it expected that in 25 years, "the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." The court will hear a case involving race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas in the fall.

California Legislature Creates Special Committee for ELL Issues

Education Week

February 27, 2012

The California State Senate has added a new "select committee" to its roster of legislative panels and this one will focus exclusively on matters related to the state's 1.5 million English learners. This panel's creation comes soon after Tom Torlakson, the state schools chief, re-constituted a unit dedicated to ELL issues within the state department of education.

Secretary Arne Duncan Talks Hispanic Education

Education Week

February 09, 2012

Arne Duncan sat down today with José A. Rico, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, to discuss education issues important to the Latino community. The education secretary answered queries from people who submitted them via Twitter and Facebook.

Advocates Call for NY Waiver Plan to Offer More Support for ELLs

Education Week

February 08, 2012

New York has drafted its application to get out from under provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act and has been getting lots of feedback on how to improve its plan before submitting it to the U.S. Department of Education later this month. New York will be the third among the "Big Seven" states — home to most of the nation's English learners — to formally seek a waiver.

Ed. Dept. Releases Guide for States on English-Language Proficiency

Education Week

February 07, 2012

The U.S. Department of Education today released a guidebook to help states set new proficiency standards and academic achievement targets for English-language learners. The report, commissioned by the education department and written by ELL experts at the American Institutes of Research, the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, and WestEd, describes empirical methods state policymakers may use to determine exactly what English proficiency means for students, how long it should take students to reach it, and how to factor in those proficiency levels when measuring progress in the academic content areas.

Obama Wants Lower College Costs, Higher Dropout Age, and DREAM Act

Education Week

January 25, 2012

President Obama gave college affordability a prominent place in his domestic agenda during his annual State of the Union address, calling directly on universities to hold down costs in order to make higher education more accessible to the middle class. He also reiterated his call for Congress to approve some version of the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who came to the country as children, if they go on to college or the military.

Florida's NCLB Waiver Plan Needs More for ELLs, Ed. Dept. Says

Education Week

January 17, 2012

To boost its shot at earning a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act, Florida has to make major revisions to its proposal, especially when it comes to the state's English-language learners. That feedback—from a panel of judges selected by the U.S. Department of Education—came to Florida late last month. All 11 states seeking waivers from NCLB requirements received detailed feedback from the judges as part of the peer-review process which has mostly happened out of the public eye despite pledges to the contrary.

NCLB Waivers Could Undermine Graduation Rates, Group Contends

Education Week

January 12, 2012

You've probably heard a lot already about the applications that 11 states have made to waive the major requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act…Now a Washington group that focuses on secondary schools is warning that some of those applications — and legislation under consideration in Congress — could weaken high schools' accountability for improving graduation rates.

CA Educators Look to Better English Learning

Boston Globe

January 11, 2012

California has the largest Hispanic student population in the nation but ranks at the bottom for Hispanic reading and math achievement. Only 11 percent of the state's 1.6 million English learners — the vast majority of them Spanish speakers — reached proficiency levels in English in the last school year. About a third drop out of school. Experts say the numbers point to the need for a statewide overhaul of how schools teach kids English.

House GOP ESEA Bill Would Give Districts Leeway on Spending for ELLs

Education Week

January 10, 2012

Education Week's Capitol Hill reporter Alyson Klein is gathering all the details on what is now the third major version of a proposal to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education — this time from the House Republicans. The House GOP measure could have major implications for English-language learners, because it proposes to give school districts far more leeway in deciding how to spend federal dollars that have been targeted for ELLs, as well as other groups of disadvantaged children, such as American Indian children and migrant children.

Opinion: How to Rescue Education Reform

The New York Times

December 07, 2011

In this column, Linda Darling-Hammond and Rick Hess share the following, "When it comes to education policy, the two of us represent different schools of thought…We disagree on much, including big issues like merit pay for teachers and the best strategies for school choice. We agree, though, on what the federal government can do well. It should not micromanage schools, but should focus on the four functions it alone can perform."

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