ELL News Headlines

A new tutoring model, which gives very short one-to-one tutoring sessions to young children who are just learning to read, is showing some promising results. The nonprofit organization, Chapter One (formerly Innovations for Learning), calls it “short-burst” tutoring. It involves far fewer tutors, less disruption to school schedules and no extra space beyond a desk in the back of a classroom. The price tag, paid by school districts, is less than $500 per student.

Kenny Lake School in Copper Center, Alaska, is small, with about 60 students from kindergarten to high school seniors. It's even smaller in winter when some parents homeschool their children because of the long drives and slick roads. Jennifer Hodges is a third, fourth and fifth grade teacher. She says her three-grade class sits only at desks for 20 minutes a day. They do a lot of practical learning, such as raising Coho salmon from egg to Alevin to fry then releasing them into a lake. Every day, about a third of Hodges' students ride the bus 45 minutes from the Native Village of Chitina. Many students already have experience fishing salmon, which is a staple in Native Alaskan communities.

Teen Mental Health First Aid is adapted from Youth Mental Health First Aid, a training designed for adults who work with or care for teens. The latter program was developed about two decades ago in Australia, and has been taught in the United States since 2008. The benefits of both programs are supported by peer-reviewed scientific studies. In teens, the training has been shown to increase mental health literacy and reduce reported psychological distress. In one randomized controlled trial, teens reported a significantly higher level of confidence in helping a friend who was anxious or suicidal, lower stigma around mental illness, and were more likely to choose the correct, helpful course of action.

As a young girl living in Guyana, Nubia Lumumba used to recruit kids in her neighborhood for her makeshift school in her backyard. For the past eight years, she has had a classroom of her own, and the Newark educator brings to it a deep level of empathy and compassion for her students.

The annual Iditarod sled dog race came to a historic finish in Nome, Alaska, on Tuesday. For the first time all top-three finishers claim Alaska Native heritage.

Narrowing Down to Find Common Ground: Shared Agreements for Effective Literacy Instruction in California is a new working paper released by Pivot Learning that reflects collective consensus on key topics concerning (1) literacy and multilingual and English learner students; (2) early screening and assessment; and (3) foundational skills among a group of literacy experts.

Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian artist to win best actress at the 95th Academy Awards, leading a spate of milestone victories for Asians and Asian Americans at this year’s ceremonies.

People that have been perceived as being in opposite corners over how to teach reading in California released a joint paper Thursday agreeing that foundational reading skills like phonics, vocabulary and comprehension should be taught explicitly and systematically to all students. And children who are learning English as a second language, who make up 1 in 4 first graders in California, also need lessons to practice speaking and listening in English, and to make connections with other languages they know. In addition, they agreed that all children should be screened early to identify both needs and strengths in reading, taking into  account students’ level of English language proficiency and the language in which they have been taught. They agreed that such screeners, while identifying children who may face difficulty learning how to read, should not be used to diagnose dyslexia or other reading disabilities or to segregate students into separate classrooms as special education students.

A teacher at Chevy Chase Elementary School for three years, Amanda Hammersla has been named this year’s Rising Star Teacher of the Year. This award honors a teacher in their first, second or third year of teaching. The winner shows a passion for the success of all students, creatively engages students in learning and contributes to a strong, positive partnership among students, staff, parents and the community.

If school districts want a broader, more diverse group of parents to attend meetings, ask questions, and participate in school-based activities, they can’t just invite families to show up—they need to set up systems that make them feel welcome and heard. That was one of the takeaways from a panel on Latino parent engagement March 8 at SXSW EDU, the annual education conference hosted in Austin.