ELL News Headlines

Just 15 years ago, bilingual education was banned in three states — Arizona, California, and Massachusetts — which altogether educated 40 percent of the nation's English-language learners. Now, amid the national embrace of biliteracy and dual-language education, those statewide English-only laws are on the brink of extinction.

How do you say "subsidized loan" in Spanish? Or in Tagalog? Or in German?  Every year, students across the United States open their financial-aid letters from the colleges to which they have worked hard to be admitted. The letters are there to tell students, and their parents or guardians, how much money they are being offered to help pay for their college journey — and how much they have to pay themselves. It seems like a pretty straightforward concept to understand. It’s not.

The 12-year-old identical twins entered Texas from Mexico days apart in the foothills of Mt. Cristo Rey. One came with their father. The other arrived with their mother. The parents had hoped that crossing the border separately, each with one son, would improve the chance that they all would be allowed into the country. But that’s not what U.S. immigration officials decided. They released Nostier Leiva Sabillon and his father in Texas, and sent Anthony Leiva Sabillon and his mother back to Mexico. The difference in treatment shows how arbitrary the U.S. immigration system has become as the Trump administration tries to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.

All across social media, friends and colleagues are saying "Happy Book Birthday!" to Kevin Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal. That's because their book, Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story is officially available, today, October 22, 2019.

Dignitaries from across West Virginia — and union leaders from across the country — recently came together to celebrate the construction of Renaissance Village, a mixed-use complex that officials hope will spark a revitalization in McDowell County. And more than that, they’re pinning their hopes on it attracting more teachers to their local school system, whose ills are exacerbated by a revolving door of novice instructors and substitutes. The building represents the latest in the county’s ambitious efforts to boost academic achievement by first tackling the effects of rural poverty — including a lack of suitable housing, as well as the far-reaching impacts of the decline of the coal industry, two floods, and a catastrophic wave of opioid overdoses and deaths.

Caring for students across six schools last year pushed one certified school nurse on the picket line to the brink. Barbara Raphoon, a registered nurse in the Chicago Public Schools system who also holds an educator license, splits her time between four campuses. Last year, she was assigned to six schools. She was ready to quit. But on Thursday, Raphoon was one of dozens of nurses, social workers, counselors, psychologists and other staff who provide specialized services to children who flooded sidewalks at the morning rush, standing in picket lines and holding signs blasting thousand-to-one ratios.

As tributes poured in for Cummings, who died early Thursday morning, many of them made mention of what could be Cummings’ most lasting legacy: mentor and guide for an army of young men and women with aspirations to change Baltimore or reach beyond it, those who loved him said.

Interest in the seal of biliteracy has surged across the country, with nearly every state scrambling to offer special recognition for high school graduates who demonstrate fluency in two or more languages. But more than 80 percent of students earning the seal are concentrated in just a handful of states, a new report reveals.

Teachers in the third-largest U.S. school district are expected to go on strike Thursday for the first time in seven years after contract negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and city officials hit a stalemate Tuesday night. Along with familiar issues such as contract length, benefits and class sizes, one of the core demands of the teachers union is not explicitly about their work environment but rather community justice: access to affordable housing.

Gumbo. Chile con queso. California roll. Spaghetti and meatballs. The names are as familiar as household brands. Yet how much do you know about these dishes? Based on the names alone, with their roots in other languages and other cultures, each dish sounds like an import. In some ways, they are. But each dish also morphed and adapted to its new environment, transforming into something uniquely American.