Ileana Najarro is a reporter for Education Week covering race and opportunity in schools across the country. She previously wrote for the Tampa Bay Times and the Houston Chronicle.
English teacher Jessica Gallo assists students during a writing exercise in her classroom at Dekaney High School in Houston, on Sept. 16, 2025. Newcomer immigrant students in high school with low English-proficiency face multiple barriers schools can address.
Students learn Arabic words while playing with bilingual flash cards during Modern Arabic 1 class at Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Ill., on April 17, 2026. Many bilingual education programs do not extend beyond elementary school to secondary grades, a new analysis shows.
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty
Spanish dictionaries are lined up on the bookshelf of a fourth-grade classroom on Oct. 19, 2023, at Patterson Elementary School in Houston. A new report cites strong demand among Americans for more world language classes in schools.
Student Elias Albert gets help from instructor Nurit Foster, who is using artificial intelligence in her multilingual learners class at Hillside Middle School in Northville, Mich., on Jan. 13, 2025. Statewide assessments in students' native languages are another accommodation states have on hand to help English learners.
Teacher Monica Alvarado, left, leads activities with staff in the infant class at Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach, a very high-quality child care center in Long Beach on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 in Long Beach, Calif. Head Start programs for early childhood education will no longer promote bilingualism under a proposed rule change.
Ron Gochez, a history teacher and member of Union del Barrio, looks for ICE activity during a patrol on the first day of school around Maya Angelou High School on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, Calif. A new report found K-12 educators took on more work this past school year to care for immigrant students.
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English learner students work on a reading assignment on Nov. 10, 2022, in Mason City, Iowa. Reclassification criteria can affect older English learners' access to advanced coursework.
Second-grade teacher Eric Langsev helps a student with a reading lesson at Global Academy in New Brighton, Minn. on Nov. 10, 2025. More than half of the students there are English learners, and many are new to the United States. Not all states offer tests in newcomers' home languages.
Anthony Soufflé/The Minnesota Star Tribune via TNS
Albertville City Schools has one of the state's largest populations of immigrant students on June 11, 2025 in Albertville, located in northeast Alabama. More than a third of students are English learners. Not all states offer assessments in English learners' native languages.
English learners work through disecting a speech at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Antioch, Tenn. on Dec. 3, 2025. National professional development grants focus on developing more teachers to work with these students.
Third-grade students learn about identifying story elements as part of Crestwood Elementary School's Dual Language Program in August 2023 in Tampa, Fla. Due to silos in the teaching profession, English learners with disabilities may miss out on language services such as dual language programs in favor of special education programming.
Douglas R. Clifford/Zuma Press/Tampa Bay Times via TNS
A teacher works with English learner students at Mt. View Elementary School in Antioch, Tenn., on Dec. 3, 2025. A new survey by the EdWeek Research Center shows that schools continue to struggle to find qualified teachers to work with the population.
Signs taped to the front doors of Valley View Elementary School declare that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents can't enter the building, on Feb. 3, 2026, in Columbia Heights, Minn. District leaders across the country are now regularly requesting emergency contact information from families in the wake of heightened immigration enforcement.
Katherine Alfaro works with students at Russellville Elementary School, in Russellville, Ala., Aug. 9, 2022. Alfaro is an aide for English learners, many of whom speak Spanish at home. English-learner education is not immune to anti-DEI policies and politics, according to a new research study.
English Language Learning Program Coordinator Dina Saunders collects worksheets while helping in Katie Pringnitz's 6th grade language arts classroom on Aug. 24, 2016 at Mount Pleasant Middle School in Iowa. For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, English learners’ average English-language proficiency test scores did not decline. <ins data-user-label="Daniela Franco Brown" data-time="06/30/2026 2:24:34 PM" data-user-id="00000185-9ccd-d5c5-a98d-decdaf220001" data-target-id="">Instead, they held steady or increased in most grades</ins>.
A staff member from a district school carts away food and household items to donate to student families in St. Paul, Minn., February 23, 2026. Across the Twin cities, teachers and school administrators adapted to support families affected by heightened immigration enforcement.
TahSoGhay Collah, right, teaches a third-grade English learners class at the 700-student intermediate school that serves grades 3 through 5, in Worthington, Minn., on Oct. 22, 2024. The Education Department discontinued grants last year that would help develop teachers of English learners.
Hutto High School students protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Hutto, Texas. New national survey data found that immigration enforcement continues to affect schools.
The Tennessee Capitol is seen on April 23, 2024, in Nashville. Twice since 2025, lawmakers in the state have failed to pass legislation limiting undocumented students' access to free, public education.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations monitor a high school football game Sept. 12, 2025, at Cardozo High School in Washington. Heightened immigration enforcement activity has raised concerns about its impact on students’ attendance and well-being.