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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What’s Ahead for the 5.3 Million English Learners in Our Schools?

Montserrat Garibay arrived in the United States three decades ago with her mother and sister as an undocumented immigrant, and learned English at a public middle school in Austin, TX. For the past four years, she's been at the U.S. Department of Education, first as the senior adviser for labor relations to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and, for the past two years, as deputy assistant secretary and director of the department's office of English-language acquisition.

How to Help Those Impacted by California Wildfires

As wildfires in Los Angeles County continue to rage, one public library branch and two LA Unified School District schools are among the thousands of structures already destroyed. The California Department of Education has partnered with SupplyBank.org Disaster Relief Fund to help students, teachers, and school staff.

Best of 2024: Kindergartners are missing a lot of school. This district has a fix

In many K-12 schools across the country, an alarming number of children have been chronically absent – an old problem that COVID-19 made much, much worse.  In California, more than 1 in 3 kindergartners was chronically absent. But the tiny town of Livingston, in California’s sprawling Central Valley, is an outlier – and a powerful lesson in the ways a district can proactively prevent wide-scale absenteeism.

Best of 2024: For many immigrant students, school is their one safe place

Dr. Sophia Rodriguez writes, "For the past 15 years, I have worked as a teacher, coach, and then ethnographer and education policy researcher to try to understand how newcomer immigrant students experience their schools and communities. In my research roles, I have interviewed hundreds of immigrant youth, and I have learned of their everyday realities, their enduring hope, and their struggle for belonging in the U.S."

Best of 2024: 2 Districts Overhauled How They Teach English Learners. Here’s How

Years ago, the Beaverton school district in Oregon participated in a study to determine the right models for improving English learners’ academic achievement. The results, which came out in 2019, pointed to two promising models, especially for the elementary grades: dual-language immersion, in which students learn in both English and another language, and an integrated, collaborative model, such as when a content-area and English-language-development teacher work side by side in the same classroom, ensuring English learners are exposed to grade-level academic content and vocabulary.

Best of 2024: ‘Happier families, happier students’: How Denver’s community hubs are helping migrants and others

The trailer at Colfax Elementary is one of Denver Public Schools’ six “community hubs,” and the English language classes are among the most popular offerings. Launched in 2022 by Superintendent Alex Marrero, the community hubs were meant to take a two-generation approach to improving students’ lives by helping both children and parents with everything from food and clothing to financial counseling and mobile medical appointments. Now, as more than 3,500 migrant students have enrolled in DPS since the beginning of the school year, the hubs are increasingly serving their families as they build new lives in Denver.

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