ELL News Headlines

The national shortage of multilingual educators has caught the eye of Congress and led school districts to travel overseas and off the U.S. mainland to fill vacancies or newly created positions. Now, a Washington-based think tank has released a guide to help school districts and states that want to identify, develop, and hire bilingual educators in their own communities.  

In sixth grade, Ana Humphrey attended the nation's oldest and most prestigious high school science competition and was inspired after speaking with a student who claimed the top prize that year. Humphrey left that year with dreams of conducting her own research. On Tuesday night, at a black-tie gala inside a soaring hall at the National Building Museum in Washington, the 18-year-old from the city of Alexandria, Va., was awarded the $250,000 top prize at the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Humphrey is the only student from her high school in at least the past decade to place in the competition’s top 10.

Zimbabweans have started raising funds and donating goods to provide relief to those who have been affected by Cyclone Idai, which the government says has killed nearly 100 people and displaced hundreds. The government says people are wary of who receives the donations.

As the end of the school year approached last June, two dozen Filipino teachers packed up their lives, their children and all their belongings. Their visas were expiring, forcing them to move back to a country they hadn’t called home for years and leave behind the students they cherished in Baltimore. Now, after months of advocacy, most of them have been allowed to return — and they are back in their positions in Baltimore classrooms.

"I sometimes dream in Spanish," wrote Bakir Brown. "I was first introduced and fell in love with the language by watching 'Sesame Street.' I just loved how the words just literally rolled off the tongue. It was beautiful. I still remember (how) the skit from so long ago taught me my first Spanish words, "abierto" and "cerrado" -- "open" and "closed." Brown was among scores of readers who responded to a question about languages CNN Opinion posed as part of an op-ed by Reyna Grande, author of the memoirs "The Distance Between Us" and "A Dream Called Home," about her experience in the US school system after leaving Mexico.

Bilingualism Matters, an international research and information center, will launch its Chicago chapter on Tuesday, March 19, hoping to bring the science of bilingualism to the wider Chicago community, including schools and parents.

A pair of bills introduced in the Florida legislature would allow English-language learners to take state tests in their native languages, bypassing a key provision in the state's Every Students Succeeds Act plan.

Claiming a city — or a school — is inclusive doesn’t make it so, says Angela Ward, the supervisor of race and equity programs in the Austin Independent school district. Building environments where everyone feels valued and supported takes a commitment to challenging, thoughtful work, she believes. Ward, a Texas native and former teacher, offers professional development opportunities for teachers and administrators, helping them to understand the way their own identities affect how they teach, interact with students, and lead schools. And she works with community organizations interested in equity to represent the interests of students and to build cooperative programs. And her work complements and enhances the district’s efforts to promote social-emotional learning.

Eighteen-year-olds coming into the U.S. can be placed in adult detention centers, apart from their families. One young woman from Honduras was denied entry while her mother and sister were allowed to seek asylum.

Superintendent Victor Capellan announced the creation of a dual language school in Central Falls beginning in fall 2019. Capellan told NBC 10 News that he wants to utilize the diversity of the student body in the city.