Learning the Language
Education Week reporters covered English-language learners, bilingual education, and civil rights issues and explored the educational, policy, and social issues surrounding ELLs in U.S. schools. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: English language learners and bilingual education.
Education
Large Manhattan School Will Become Three Small Schools
I wonder how English-language learners will be served at Manhattan's Louis D. Brandeis High School, now that that the New York City Department of Education has decided to break it up into three small schools, reported this week by the New York Times.
Education
Mexico Plans to Implement Universal English Instruction
Within six years, Mexican education officials plan to have all 12 million of the country's public primary schoolchildren learning English, according to an article published this week in the Houston Chronicle. (Hat tip to TESOL in the News Blog.) Currently, the Mexican government requires English to be taught in 7th through 9th grades. Starting next fall, a federal pilot program will support 5,000 schools with textbooks and funds to teach English in the primary grades. See "Technology Becomes Substitute for English Teacher," which Kathleen Kennedy Manzo and I wrote for Education Week in April 2006 for more information about Mexico's efforts to expand English instruction in the primary grades.
Education
Utah's Park City School District Requires an ESL Endorsement
Park City School District in Utah is the latest school district I've heard of that is requiring new teachers to get an English-as-a-second-language endorsement. Deseret News reports that the district is requiring all new teachers to get an ESL endorsement within the first three years of their employment.
Education
New York's New Senator Pledges Support for 'DREAM Act'
Kirsten E. Gillibrand, New York's new senator, has told elected Latino officials that she supports a congressional bill that would provide a path to legalization for undocumented students who grew up in the United States and are attending college, according to the New York Times. That bill, called the DREAM Act, which is short for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, last stalled in the U.S. Congress in November 2007.
Education
Texas Will Delay Fixing ELL Programs After All
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in Tyler, Texas, has decided that Texas may wait to overhaul the state's programs for secondary English-language learners until the appeals court decides if a lower court was correct in ruling that the state's programs don't comply with federal law. (Click here for the court document granting the stay.)
Education
Ninth Edition of the English-Learning Blog Carnival is Up
Among the posts selected for the 9th edition of the EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival is one by EFL Classroom 2.0 about Project Peace, which aims to help teachers of English-language learners around the world share ideas about how to teach about peace. Some of the other posts give teachers advice on how to shape lessons on various elements of the English language, such as how to use adverbs.
Education
Two-Year Anniversary for Learning the Language
This week marks the two-year anniversary for this blog about English-language learners at Education Week. The interactive format has helped me to do a better job of covering issues about these students than when I was simply a print reporter. That's because many of you have sent me interesting articles or news tips that have led to blog posts or stories in the newspaper. Thank you and keep it up.
Education
James J. Lyons Returns to Role as Advocate for ELLs
James J. Lyons, a former executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education, is back in town after an absence of a decade and is speaking out about issues concerning English-language learners. He was the executive director of NABE from 1989-1998.
Education
Teaching Tolerance's Take on 'Social Inclusion' for ELLs
"Lonely Language Learners?" in Teaching Tolerance magazine's spring issue emphasizes the social aspects of a dual-language program at La Escuela Fratney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The article pitches such a program as giving English-language learners an opportunity to speak up in class, while in a regular English-only classroom, they might be ignored. In the program, students who are dominant in English and students who are dominant in Spanish learn both languages in the same classroom. It facilitates "social inclusion," the article says.
Federal
Jill Biden Hired to Teach ESL in Virginia
Sen. Joe Biden will no longer have to commute back to Delaware. The flip side of that statement is that Jill Biden, his wife, will no longer live in Delaware.
Education
'The Way We See It'
Rick Nahmias, an internationally recognized photographer, has helped high school students from Los Angeles to create a photo exhibit about immigration. It's called "The Way We See It" and features photos of the students' own families and community. Hat tip to ImmigrationProf Blog.
Education
Dearborn Superintendent Clarifies Language Policy
Dearborn, Mich., schools' superintendent clarified his district's language policy after a consultant wrote in a report that the district should "prohibit the use of any language other than English" except when necessary for communication with parents. The report is posted on the district's Web site. I wrote about the clarification in "Curb on Arabic Use Urged, but Rejected, in Dearborn District," published this week in Education Week.
Education
Schools Look Closer at How to Help High School ELLs Get Credits
I've learned from my reporting and the questions that edweek.org received during a recent chat about the future of the education of English-language learners that schools struggle with how to help ELLs to graduate with a high school diploma. It seems that, in particular, many school districts struggle with how to provide ELLs who arrive as teenagers in U.S. schools with access to the regular core curriculum. I've written an article, "High School Credits for ELLs Still a Challenge," for this week's Education Week about this issue.
Education
Is It Better/Worse for ELLs for Chicago's Consent Decree to End?
A federal court is holding hearings to decide if the desegregation order for Chicago Public Schools should come to an end. A reporter from Medill Reports Chicago has been attending the hearings and reported on them in "Schools' Efforts for Bilingual Students Questioned." Chicago Public Radio reporters have also been blogging about this.