ELL News Headlines

Much attention in the post-pandemic era has been on what students have lost — days of school, psychological health, knowledge and skills. But now we have evidence that they may also have gained something: schools that address more of their needs. A majority of public schools have begun providing services that are far afield from traditional academics, including health care, housing assistance, childcare and food aid.

Blue Ridge Literacy is has received $70,000 through the Roanoke Women’s Foundation’s 2023 Grant Cycle. The Roanoke Women’s Foundation’s grant will help establish “Pathways to Success: A Mentor-Supported ESOL Bridge Program” to Blue Ridge Literacy’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) curriculum. Pathways to Success will provide adult learners with the English proficiency, academic readiness, and mentorship support they need to transition and succeed in Community Colleges. As a collaborative project, the Bridge ESOL classes will include informational field trips to Virginia Western Community College and help familiarize adult learners with career pathways and certificate courses with a direct tie to the labor market.

In a recent statement, The Reading League, an organization that advocates for the science of reading, and the National Committee for Effective Literacy, a group that promotes research and policies to support literacy development for English learners, agreed on best practices for evidence-based reading instruction for EL and emergent bilingual students.

These picture books feature characters who find ways to communicate with older relatives or with each other, even when they don't share a common language.

Farina King, a Navajo Nation citizen, is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and associate professor of Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma. She writes, "Every November, someone contacts me to present about Native Americans for Native American Heritage Month. In such presentations, I provide background about the month and why it matters. But I also emphasize how important it is to learn about Native Americans not just in a single month or at a single event. I stress turning to and listening foremost to Native American and Indigenous voices throughout the year."

We Need Diverse Books has launched Indigenous Reads Rising (IRR), a new website dedicated to "celebrating Indigenous children's literature of Native Nations." The site features booklists and articles on Native American literature, land acknowledgment, and tropes and stereotypes, as well as extensive resources for teachers, librarians, and readers. The goal of the resources is to help educators use Native books in the classroom and offer guidance and best practices on how to teach those books.  

Service programs are just one of many solutions needed to address the challenges to our education system, and they have been proven to be effective. These programs improve conditions in schools by providing trained, near-peer coaches (often just a few years older than the students) to California’s school communities to mentor some of our hardest-to-reach students.

Being "trauma-informed" has become a bit of a buzzword in education these days. A previous series in this blog attempted to provide an introduction to what it might mean for teachers. Today's post tries to provide further clarity.

Federal officials are urging school leaders to protect Jewish and Muslim students from discrimination following an "alarming rise" in reports of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other incidents of bias at colleges and K-12 schools over the last month.

Bonnie Pérez took child development classes at night while working as a nanny during the day. But she didn't see a lot of other nannies in her classes, largely because the classes were all in English. Bonnie saw an untapped group of people with lots of hands-on experience working with kids and who could help fill a shortage of preschool teachers in the state. A new California law removes barriers to allow more students to enroll in courses taught in Mandarin, Spanish, Russian, Korean and other languages.