ELL News Headlines

Throughout the week, Colorín Colorado gathers news headlines related to English language learners from around the country. The ELL Headlines are posted Monday through Friday and are available for free!

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Amid controversy over teaching English learners, Boston Public Schools hires new chief of multilingual and multicultural education

Boston Public Schools has hired a new chief of its troubled Office of Multilingual and Multicultural Education, about one and a half years after the department’s last administrator was forced to resign amid another controversy over the way students learning English are taught. Starting in January, Joelle Gamere, assistant principal and director of the Toussaint L’Ouverture Academy at Mattahunt Elementary School in Mattapan, will lead the department, formerly known as the Office of English Learners, making her the seventh person to helm the office since 2019. Gamere assumes her new role at a time of political and strategic upheaval for the district’s English learners programming.

To Effectively Support English Learners, Build Teachers’ Skills, Experts Say

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.

Savannah school district moves to help non-English-speaking families

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.

Best Graphic Novels 2023 | SLJ Best Books

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 Creating New Series About Characters With Autism

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.

Free COVID tests headed to nation's schools

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.

COLUMN: A creation story for Indigenous and nature-based learning

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.

Early education coalition searches for answers to raise teacher pay, even as budgets are cratering

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.

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