ELL News Headlines

At one high school in San Francisco, students speak 18 different languages, and while students can't totally communicate with one another, they're working hard to learn English and other cultures.

What makes a high-quality learning program effective not just for the child but the whole family? What else, besides a well-run pre-K, is essential to help families break out of intergenerational poverty? These are some of the key questions that an approach called "two-generation" programs are working to answer. There are many of these "two-gen" programs across the U.S. And while they differ in emphasis and detail, at their core they intentionally focus on ways to help both the child and parent. Usually this happens through targeted education and career training and other vital support such as health services, mentoring, and transportation.

Following up on a March report about the tax contributions made by the nation’s undocumented population, a new study released Tuesday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) said that young immigrants eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) contribute $2 billion in state and local taxes per year.

Kyle Redford is a 5th grade teacher at Marin Country Day School, a K-8 school in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also the education editor for the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. She writes, "Today, teaching global competency hardly seems novel. In fact, in a rapidly changing political and environmental landscape, focusing on the development of global competency seems urgent. The ability to imagine other perspectives and recognize one's own point of view is essential to understanding the current complexities related to immigration, environmental challenges, and racial and religious tensions at home and abroad. Additionally, studying any environmental, political, economic, or social system without recognizing its global interdependence seems limited."

According to a February 2016 report, "Between 2006 and 2013, the foreign-born population in Buffalo increased by 95 percent, and the most recent American Community Survey reports that the city is home to over 22,000 foreign-born residents." The influx of refugees and immigrants over the last decade reflects the city's pro-immigrant stance and has also made the Buffalo Public School System the most language diverse in the state. In fact, Buffalo is home to more language diversity than New York City — there are seven top languages in Buffalo schools, and more than 80 different languages in all.

School districts that fail to address the anxieties experienced by undocumented students as a result of federal immigration policies of the Trump administration may be violating their students' constitutional rights to a meaningful education, said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF).

Katherine Huete Galeano teaches junior high special education at a charter school in the Gage Park community of Chicago. Huete Galeano, who has Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) status, is in her second year of Teach for America, which has 100 undocumented members teaching 6,000 students across 11 states. Huete Galeano says Teach for America was one of the few places that recognized her skill set and life experiences that better allow her to relate to her students, many of whom share the same fears she did as a child.

Mayor Bill de Blasio this week pushed ahead with plans to make New York City one of nation's few big cities to offer free, full-day preschool for all 3-year-olds­­. His proposal builds on widespread consensus that high-quality pre-K programs can have a huge positive impact on the lives of children – especially low-income ones – as well as on the parents and family.

The La Grande School District is set to receive a boost from the state that will help students from different cultures shine.  The Oregon Department of Education has awarded a $45,000 grant to the school district for its English Language Learners program, which serves students for whom English is their second language. Some money from the $45,000 grant will be used to train teachers to help ELL students better understand academic languages through the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol teaching model.

New York City has announced an ambitious plan to extend universal preschool to 3 year olds. Mayor Bill de Blasio says the effort will expand on the city's current program for 4 year olds.