ELL News Headlines

Sujei Lugo is a former school librarian in Puerto Rico. She writes, " "I returned to Puerto Rico (with luggage full of books and supplies) for New Year’s and Three Kings’ Day, staying from December 29, 2017 to January 8, 2018. While my family had power when I arrived, it went out a few times while I was there. Seeing the destruction and the lack of progress three months after the storm was startling and upsetting. My people were still in survival mode. But I also saw hope in the Puerto Rican people and their actions–neighbors helping each other, people struggling personally but making an effort to help others, especially kids. March 20 will be the six-month anniversary of the storm and they are still working to rebuild their lives and communities. Here are some of the people who are making a difference."

The Puerto Rican government wants to make big changes to the island's public school systems, including allowing charter schools. But critics say officials want to privatize the system, using the chaos after Hurricane Maria as an excuse.

A study published Thursday in the Journal of Adolescent Health said that U.S. immigration policies have led to psychological distress for many Latino parents, even parents who have legal status in the country.

Nearly 80 percent of educators report having students who have experienced emotional or behavioral problems because they are concerned about immigration enforcement, according to a new national survey from the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. Overall, 84 percent of educators who participated in the survey said they have students who are concerned about immigration enforcement, with 36 percent of them reporting that students felt "nearly overwhelmed by fear and worry."

In a dramatic reversal that has angered Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has turned down a job as head of New York City schools. Carvalho had already privately accepted the job as New York City schools chancellor, which would have made him chief of the nation’s largest school system. Then, after a three-hour meeting in which School Board members, students and members of the public lavished Carvalho with praise, the superintendent appeared to have a change of heart.

What are the secrets to Canada's success in educating immigrant students? Education Week's Kavitha Cardoza visited Toronto to find out.

Read Across America (RAA) and Dr. Seuss have always been linked. RAA events typically involve children in red-and-white striped hats, listening to a Dr. Seuss classic. In past years at the premier event in Washington, DC, local elementary students have heard Michelle Obama read The Cat in the Hat and the National Education Association (NEA) president recite Green Eggs and Ham. This year, however, they will listen to author Jesse Holland read an excerpt from his novel Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther? The 2018 Read Across America theme is "Celebrating a Nation of Diverse Readers" and the NEA press release notes that the hundreds of fourth graders in attendance on Thursday March 1 will be wearing "a rainbow of colors."

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is seeking public comment on a plan to delay the implementation of an Obama-era rule that is intended to prevent schools from unnecessarily pushing minority students into special education. The Education Department published a note in the Federal Register on Tuesday that says it wants to delay for two years the rule that was intended to be implemented starting in the 2018-2019 school year.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a lawsuit over the future of DACA, which protects 690,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation and grants them work permits. The High Court's decision represents a temporary victory for the young adults brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents or guardians under the program established by President Barack Obama in 2012: It ensures DACA will remain in effect for recipients after the March 5 deadline originally set by President Donald Trump. DACA-protected immigrants whose permits lapsed, or those with permits that will expire soon, may continue to apply for renewals for the time being. However, eligible undocumented immigrants who turned 15 after that date still won't be able to apply, and neither will immigrants who would have qualified for DACA but never applied.

See related coverage from The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and USA Today.

Public policy, research, and teaching methods have not adjusted to accommodate the nation's increasingly diverse English-language-learner population—and the problem begins well before children enter K-12 classrooms, a new report from the Migration Policy Institute finds.