ELL News Headlines

In the panicked moments after immigration agents detained Dylan Lopez Contreras in a Manhattan courthouse last month, his mother dialed a familiar number. It was Hedin Bernard, a counselor at her son’s high school, English Language Learner and International Support Preparatory Academy, or ELLIS Prep — a nod to the famous island through which millions of immigrants entered New York City last century. Dylan’s arrest two weeks ago — the first known case of a New York City public school student detained by immigration agents in President Donald Trump’s second term — has galvanized local opposition to federal immigration policy and sparked a fierce debate about the city’s role in protecting immigrant students. His detention also has put a spotlight on the unique brand of public education offered by schools like ELLIS Prep.

I’m retiring from K-12 teaching next week (though will continue to write this blog AND will be a volunteer teacher to the incarcerated). Here are some things I will and won’t miss after 23 years in a high school classroom.

Fifty-one years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided a case that would forever change education for English learners in this country. On this episode of Education Beat, we bring you the story of how this case began and how it changed education, from the perspective of a teacher.

For Choua Lor, a 2nd grade teacher at Vang Pao Elementary in Fresno, Calif., teaching is a calling. But working in the school’s Hmong dual-language immersion program is what she calls her life’s purpose.

Giving students a choice of electives increases engagement and allows them to develop skills outside of core academic subjects.

An effort led by Oklahoma’s state superintendent to require parents to provide proof of citizenship when enrolling their children in school failed in the state legislature this month.

Illinois lawmakers have passed a bill that will help school districts expand dual language programs, in which students are taught in English and another language throughout the school day.

When the Eaton Fire burned through parts of Los Angeles County this January, it destroyed thousands of homes. The hardest-hit district was Pasadena Unified School District, where around 10,000 students out of the district’s 14,000 were displaced. Principals across the district called for help from the county office of education, so that when kids impacted by the fires returned to school, they’d have the mental health support they needed.

The College Board this month changed the criteria for its National Recognition Program awards in a move that could shift tens of thousands of scholarship dollars from Black and Latino students to white students.

Colleges used the awards to recruit and offer scholarships to high-performing students from groups underrepresented in higher education. The award previously recognized academic achievement by students in five categories — Black, Hispanic, Native American, first-generation and those living in rural areas or small towns.

The racial categories have been eliminated.

Engaging in a back-and-forth with AI programs to refine the prompt and the output can help educators generate high-quality learning materials.