ELL News Headlines

With the national conversation on immigration at the forefront of the news, teachers are working to incorporate this discussion into their classrooms. Here is how one teacher, Jennifer Ciok, Social Emotional Learning Specialist at Umoja Student Development Corporation, a non-profit organization in Chicago, Illinois, helps students understand their own personal stories of immigration.

On April 30, a group of DREAMers and law enforcement leaders stood on a stage in front of a sold-out crowd in Boulder, Colorado, for a performance centering around the immigrant experience in the United States. The show, titled “Do You Know Who I Am?,” featured monologues written by young undocumented immigrants and, for the first and only time, was read by eight criminal justice system authority figures—including the Boulder County district attorney, the county’s sheriff and five community police chiefs. “It became very clear throughout the presidential primaries, as well as the election that we needed to disrupt the association between criminality and documentation status,” Kirsten Wilson, artistic director and founder of Motus Theater, told Latino USA.

Bana Alabed, the 7-year-old girl whose tweets from besieged Aleppo drew the world's attention to the human toll of the Syria conflict, will publish her memoir this fall. In "Dear World," to be published by Simon & Schuster, Bana will describe her experiences in Syria and how she and her family are adapting to their new life in Turkey.

The threshold for transitioning students from English learners to fluent English proficient status—a process termed reclassification—varies widely across and within states, finds a study by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Oregon State University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The findings, published in a special centennial issue of the American Educational Research Journal, inform conversations about statewide policies for English learner reclassification, which are now mandated under the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act.

Some central San Joaquin Valley school districts have been flagged in a complaint to the California Attorney General's Office for requiring proof of a Social Security number or other personal information upon enrollment – a practice advocates say is harmful to undocumented families.

Sia Yang didn't have a lot of time to learn English or earn a high school diploma after she immigrated to the Wausau area from Laos in 2002. In the years Yang has been in this country, she's managed to learn basic English. She speaks with a heavy accent and has to search her mind for the right word. She wants to refine her English speaking and writing skills, but working full time plus caring for children who range in age from 3 to 13 meant there was little free time for her to pursue those goals. But now her children are getting older, and she is taking steps toward her goals. A new program at Horace Mann Middle School that offers parallel learning programs for adults and their children offers Yang another opportunity to learn.

Rhode Island lawmakers are considering legislation that would ban immigration enforcement agents from school grounds. The legislation would prohibit what it describes as "sensitive locations," including churches, hospitals, and courts, from granting access to federal agents who want to question or detain people suspected of living in the country illegally. Due for a hearing in the state House Judiciary Committee this week, the bill would create an exception if there's a warrant out for the person.

The town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, has opened a small public high school solely aimed at serving refugee and immigrant students. The idea is that by separating these students, their unique needs can be met so they will be more successful when they graduate and hopefully integrate into the community. But some experts question if this practice is a form of segregation and will maintain divisions within cities and towns. As part of The Hechinger Report’s new partnership with APM Reports, the national documentary and investigative unit of American Public Media, Hechinger Report staff writer Meredith Kolodner discusses what she found in reporting her story about challenges for refugee students and explains how Bowling Green’s model works on this week’s episode of the Educate podcast.

The New Mexico Public Education Department is giving parents, educators, advocates and tribal members more time to weigh in on a plan to reshape bilingual education programs after dozens of people voiced fears about what they see as a hastily proposed overhaul that would diminish students' options and threaten the future of dual-language learning. During an emotional public hearing Tuesday, many people, including some lawmakers, complained to a panel of state education officials that they had failed to consult with experts and stakeholders before deciding to eliminate two out of five program models, a move that will affect thousands of students. Several tribal officials even accused the education department of violating a state law by leaving Native communities out of the conversation.

Federal lawmakers have agreed to relatively small spending increases for Title I programs to districts and for special education, as part of a budget deal covering the rest of fiscal 2017 through the end of September. However, Title II grants for teacher development would be cut by $294 million, down to about $2.1 billion for the rest of fiscal 2017. The bill would also provide $400 million for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program, also known as Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Title IV is a block grant that districts can use for a wide range of programs, including health, safety, arts education, college readiness, and more.  Total U.S. Department of Education spending, including both discretionary and mandatory spending covering K-12 and other issues, would fall by $60 million from fiscal 2016, down to $71.6 billion.