ELL News Headlines

Like many rural communities, Storm Lake, Iowa, has seen a swift change in its student demographics in recent years. The number of students still learning English has skyrocketed in the town. English-language learners (ELL) account for 41 percent of the student body, and when you include students who have successfully exited language-service programs, that number climbs to nearly 60 percent. But while this segment of the student population has grown at a fast clip, the district has struggled to hire teachers trained to serve them.  

Hanseul Kang is the state superintendent of education in the District of Columbia. In this essay, she writes, "I was born in South Korea and came to the United States when I was 7 months old, on Christmas Eve, 1982. When I was 16 — excited to get a driver's license and apply to college — I learned that I was undocumented. In one afternoon, my world turned upside down. With all the trappings of a high school overachiever, I had assumed I could attend pretty much any college or university. But without access to federal financial aid, I might not be able to go at all. I couldn't work, couldn’t drive, couldn't travel outside the country. Even worse was the terrifying possibility that my family might be discovered and deported."

Colorado educators who led the way in developing high school diploma endorsements recognizing bilingual students worry that new legislation establishing statewide standards for such "seals of biliteracy" sets the bar too low.

At a time when Congress wants to scale back K-12 testing requirements, the Every Student Succeeds Act could do just the opposite for one group of students—those who don't yet communicate fluently in English.

In this review, NPR contributor John Powers writes, "These days, the whole world, including our politics, is being shaped by migration. Few people explore the nuances of this reality more skillfully than Valeria Luiselli, a strikingly gifted 33-year-old Mexican writer who knows the migratory experience first-hand…The book is based on her experiences working as an interpreter for dozens of Central American child migrants who risked their lives crossing Mexico to escape their fraught existence back home. To stay in the U.S., each must be vetted by the Citizenship and Immigration Services, a vast, impersonal bureaucracy. It's a bit like competing in the ultimate reality show."

Hena Khan and Karuna Riazi are authors who are both part of Salaam Reads, a new imprint of Simon and Schuster that aims to "introduce readers of all faiths and backgrounds to a wide variety of Muslim children and families and offer Muslim kids an opportunity to see themselves reflected positively in published works." The two women recently met up to chat about Salaam Reads, writing for young readers, and their shared experiences as Muslim authors working to bring diverse and authentic voices to the mostly white world of middle grade fiction.

A new pilot program aiming to offer more students in Montgomery County, MD access to enrichment programs has proved so successful that the school district plans to expand it system-wide in the fall. That means all third graders will be evaluated for enrichment programs. And the county will open three new enrichment centers to serve more students. One big reason for the racial and income disparities, school administrators have concluded: making parents responsible for applying to have their child admitted to gifted programs.

Dozens of parents from Sunset Elementary School in San Ysidro graduated Wednesday from a program that empowers them to be involved in their child's education. The program is called Parent Engagement in Education Program. It's a part of PIQE, the Parent Institute for Quality Education. PIQE teaches parents to stay involved in their children's education. It helps them create a homework structure at home and helps parents teach their children self-confidence. 

When Sasha Ariel Alston pursued her love for coding, she noticed there were never many girls ― especially girls of color ― pursuing it, too. That's why she decided to write a children's book to encourage girls to learn about coding and STEM fields at an early age. 

Teaching Tolerance, an education project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, has published an online guide designed to help educators ensure that English-language learners and their families have equitable experiences at school. The primer offers advice on topics ranging from family engagement and anti-bias strategies to classroom culture and instruction. The recommendations were adapted from Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education, the organization's professional-development guide, and advice from the Southern Poverty Law Center's legal team.