ELL News Headlines

The attack on the largest mosque in San Diego Monday not only targeted a house of worship, but also the lower campus of Bright Horizon Academy. The Islamic Center of San Diego’s Imam, Taha Hassane, said as many as 140 children were within fifteen feet of the two gunmen during the shooting.

The Trump administration is using an obscure and typically routine federal budget procedure to withhold more than $2 billion for education that Congress approved in February. Most of these funds aren expected to go out to roughly 33 grant recipients later this year, and none of the department’s larger formula grants — including for Title programs and special education — is among the programs with missing or incomplete apportionments. Still, education advocates and federal budget experts have expressed concern that the lack of routine apportionments could foreshadow more funding disruption in the coming months. Impacted programs include Developing Hispanic-serving Institutions, Full-Service Community Schools, International and Foreign Language Education, Native Hawaiian Education Program, Alaska Native Ed., Ready to Learn, College Assistance Migrant Program, and Statewide Family Engagement Centers.

In a small office at a California university’s teacher education department, a single faculty member is doing the work of an entire department: recruiting bilingual candidates, writing bilingual curriculum, teaching classes bilingually, arranging bilingual student teaching placements in bilingual classrooms, and personally mentoring every bilingual student in the program. There is no staff. There is no dedicated budget line. This one person is a bilingual authorization program coordinator, and in most cases, that person’s commitment is the primary reason California’s bilingual teacher pipeline exists at all in that region.

English learners are significantly more likely to exit out of language services they no longer need when states automatically reclassify them, according to a new study.

Researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession — a slide predating the pandemic’s disruptions in schooling. Scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard.

STEM teachers can try this five-day project-based learning cycle to give students a meaningful experience on a short timeline.

Other than increased funding or staffing, what’s one strategy that would help a district or school better serve English learners? A March EdWeek Research Center survey, which included more than 1,100 educators across the country, asked this open-ended question to capture on-the-ground perspectives. While it’s hard to capture a precise national snapshot of English learner education, the survey explored key issues such as the instructional models schools use for these students, educators’ opinions of their capabilities to serve this population, and more.

From a picture book biography about a woman who climbed Mount Everest to a guide for burgeoning Asian American activists, these informational texts offer a snapshot of Asian American history.

For years now, graphic novels have been a flourishing market for kids’ books. Several popular books and series are being reissued as graphic novels, Front Desk, a 2019 kidlit success story. Set in 1993, Mia is initially excited that her Chinese American immigrant parents have become managers of a motel. Unfortunately, the owner is exploitative and continuously rips off her family; nevertheless, they won’t let him deter them from making it work.

Ninety-five percent of educators say that their school or district has an official policy restricting students’ access to their cellphones during school hours, according to a new EdWeek Research Center survey. But how well are those policies addressing some of the common problems afflicting schools? Fairly well, according to educators.