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 This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: English language learners and bilingual education.
Federal
Governing Board of NAEP Considers Inclusion of ELLs
Representatives of education organizations attending a public hearing on how best to include English-language learners and students with disabilities in the National Assessment of Educational Progress this week expressed support for the ELL policies proposed by the test's governing board.
Federal
Obama Visits School Where Large Number of Students Are ELLs
Yesterday, President Obama visited a charter school in Madison, Wis., where 39 percent of students are English-language learners.
Assessment
Public Hearing Will Look at Inclusion of ELLs in NAEP
The governing board for the National Assessment of Educational Progress will hold a public hearing on Monday about including of English-language learners and students with disabilities on the test.
Curriculum
Tom Horne Persists in Critique of Ethnic Studies in Tucson
In his latest move to try to get Tucson Unified School District to halt offering ethnic studies, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction has commissioned a study looking at the test scores of students who take the ethnic studies compared with Hispanics in the state who don't.
Equity & Diversity
Quick Facts on U.S. Immigration
Of immigrants living in the United States who are age 25 and older, only 27.1 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2008, according to facts put together by the Migration Policy Institute.
Assessment
WIDA Tally: New Mexico Joins Consortium
New Mexico has joined 19 states and the District of Columbia in adopting the most popular English-language-proficiency test in the nation, ACCESS for ELLs.
Federal
Opinion: 'Immigrant Children Are Not on Anybody's Agenda'
Ruby Takanishi, co-editor of a new book titled Immigration, Diversity, and Educationtells New America Media that in the Obama administration, "immigrant children are not on anybody's agenda, except in a negative way."
School & District Management
For Some Students in L.A., Once an ELL, Always an ELL
Among students in Los Angeles Unified School District who are classified as English-language learners, 29 percent are not reclassified as fluent in English by the 8th grade.
School & District Management
Identifying Gifted ELLs
The U.S. Department of Education has given a $1.6 million grant to the University of South Florida's college of education to research how to identify English-language learners and students from low-income families who are gifted
Equity & Diversity
AFT Charges That Recruiting Firm Swindled Filipino Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor that a teacher-recruiting company cheated more than 200 teachers from the Philippines out of thousands of dollars.
Federal
Ed Department to Host 'Race to the Top' Meeting on Assessing ELLs
The U.S. Department of Education has made English-language learners the focus of one of the three meetings it will soon be hosting to get public input on how $350 million in Race to the Top funds for assessments should be given out.
School & District Management
Study: How to Ensure ELLs Aren't Sidelined in a District
The Council of the Great City Schools released this week a report that offers a composite description for district policies that support strong achievement among English-language learners.
School & District Management
Healthy Latino Babies' Cognitive Abilities Lag as They Become Toddlers
Latina mothers from low-income households have healthy babies compared with other ethnic groups, but their children don't make as much progress in developing cognitive skills from 9 months to two years as their white middle-class counterparts, according to a study released by the University of California, Berkeley.
Education
Why ELLs—and Other Students—Need Practice Speaking
Researchers at a conference presented findings that show that English-language learners, and other students with weak verbal skills, benefit from oral language.