ELL News Headlines

Back in her early days of teaching, Rebecca Bergey thought it was her job as a teacher of English learners to prepare her students with enough language to survive in content area classes. But as Bergey — now a principal researcher at the nonprofit American Institutes for Research — grew in her teaching, she realized that language learning operates at a systems level.

Mayra Calderon Diaz’s kids are all enrolled in Savannah public schools, between grades 2 and 7. The Mexican mother of three says she has tried to be as involved as possible in her children’s education, but a persistent language barrier has made that difficult. Over the years, communicating with front desk staff posed challenge after challenge, and meetings with teachers came with a $50 price tag – to cover the cost of bringing a translator with her. Once, a communication issue kept her daughter off the school bus route for weeks. During the pandemic, there was difficulty keeping up with the schools’ announcements about the shift to remote learning.

New York City schools have started preparing for a massive reshuffling of students as early as next month, as thousands of migrant families face a new limit on shelter stays, education officials said during a Wednesday city council hearing.

This collection of graphic novels published in 2023 includes a diverse range of stories and topics for upper elementary, middle grade, and young adult readers.

PBS Kids is developing its first-ever series featuring a lead character on the autism spectrum and his neurodiverse friends. The animated show called “Carl the Collector” follows Carl, a raccoon with autism who loves to collect things, and his friends in Fuzzytown, a place where everyone is learning about themselves and those around them.

Schools across the U.S. will soon be able to order free rapid COVID-19 tests from the federal government. The administration's initiative will make available millions of tests for school districts as they enter the winter months — a time when COVID activity is expected to peak. Already, emergency department visits and wastewater data indicate that cases are climbing in the U.S.

As part of a new program, every third grader in Albuquerque Public Schools spends a day at the Los Padillas Wildlife Sanctuary just outside the city. There, a wide variety of local landscapes are packed into five acres: a meadow, piñon, juniper and cottonwood trees, an arroyo and even a pond — a rarity in the desert.

Chicago educators and advocates are concerned about how Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new 60-day limit for shelter stays for migrant families will impact attendance and stability for migrant students. The new rule comes as the city has struggled to house migrants.

On average, child care employees and early educators earn less than half as much as K-12 teachers. They are more likely than other educators to live in poverty and less likely to have health insurance. Billions in federal aid propped up the industry during the pandemic, but those funds ran out this fall. As a result, child care centers have already started reporting decreased wages and benefits.

California enrolls a far lower percentage of English learners in bilingual education programs than other states, according to a report released in October from The Century Foundation. Prioritizing enrollment for English learners in bilingual and dual-language immersion programs is important, the authors stated, because research has shown these programs help English learners.