ELL News Headlines

Chicago educators and advocates are concerned about how Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new 60-day limit for shelter stays for migrant families will impact attendance and stability for migrant students. The new rule comes as the city has struggled to house migrants.

On average, child care employees and early educators earn less than half as much as K-12 teachers. They are more likely than other educators to live in poverty and less likely to have health insurance. Billions in federal aid propped up the industry during the pandemic, but those funds ran out this fall. As a result, child care centers have already started reporting decreased wages and benefits.

California enrolls a far lower percentage of English learners in bilingual education programs than other states, according to a report released in October from The Century Foundation. Prioritizing enrollment for English learners in bilingual and dual-language immersion programs is important, the authors stated, because research has shown these programs help English learners.

Studies have found that schools with a greater amount of teacher collaborations have resulted in higher student achievement outcomes in reading and math. Schools that have English language learners (ELLs) can especially benefit from collaborative work between classroom teachers and teachers who specialize in working with ELLs. In schools where ELLs do not have access to a specialized ELL teacher throughout their entire school day, such collaboration between adults is especially vital.

When Los Angeles mother Tania Rivera signed a crucial document for her son Luis' special education program in 2022, she was hoping he would be able to return to in-person classes after two years of distance learning. But the individualized education program, or IEP, required for all children who need special education, was available only in English. Rivera's first language is Spanish.

We have significant evidence that reading and writing are connected processes and highly related to each other. Interventions focused on skills transfer show that writing instruction positively affects reading — just as reading instruction positively affects writing. We know that transfer and benefits exist between the two areas, but the trick? Teachers must make the connections explicit during instruction to pay off.

Dan Santat's A First Time for Everything won the 2023 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. A clearly moved Santat accepted the award at the National Book Foundation ceremony on Wednesday night.

"Differentiated instruction" — both the term and the idea — can carry a lot of baggage in teaching circles. This blog has carried many posts, including a video series my colleague Katie Hull and I produced with Ed Week, on the topic. But I think it's so important that we can't talk too much about it, so today's post kicks off another series on how teachers can implement it.

Much attention in the post-pandemic era has been on what students have lost — days of school, psychological health, knowledge and skills. But now we have evidence that they may also have gained something: schools that address more of their needs. A majority of public schools have begun providing services that are far afield from traditional academics, including health care, housing assistance, childcare and food aid.

Blue Ridge Literacy is has received $70,000 through the Roanoke Women’s Foundation’s 2023 Grant Cycle. The Roanoke Women’s Foundation’s grant will help establish “Pathways to Success: A Mentor-Supported ESOL Bridge Program” to Blue Ridge Literacy’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) curriculum. Pathways to Success will provide adult learners with the English proficiency, academic readiness, and mentorship support they need to transition and succeed in Community Colleges. As a collaborative project, the Bridge ESOL classes will include informational field trips to Virginia Western Community College and help familiarize adult learners with career pathways and certificate courses with a direct tie to the labor market.