Learning the Language
Education Week reporters cover English-language learners, bilingual education, and civil rights issues and explore the educational, policy, and social issues surrounding ELLs in U.S. schools.
English-Language Learners
How Will Schools Teach English-Language Learners This Fall?
A new database offers a state-by-state look at guidance on supporting English-learner students and their families amid the global pandemic.
Equity & Diversity
Deportation Fear Grips Latino Students
The mere threat of immigration enforcement could have severe consequences for students' mental health, school engagement, grades, and post-high school lives, a new study finds.
English-Language Learners
Spanish-Speaking Students Need Support. A New Podcast May Help
Por Nuestros Niños, an education-focused Spanish-language radio show and podcast, could help families navigate an uncertain return to school.
Families & the Community
Schools Failed English-Learners During the Shutdown. How Can They Do Better?
A new report urges districts to pay close attention to how they choose and use technology for students who are not yet fluent in English.
Equity & Diversity
A Look Back at How Undocumented Children Won the Right to Attend U.S. Schools
The fight over the rights of undocumented students has its origins in Tyler, a northeast Texas city where municipal leaders feared their school system would be overrun with immigrant families and students.
Equity & Diversity
After Supreme Court Victory, DACA Educators Vow to Keep Fighting
An estimated 15,000 educators in U.S. schools are recipients of DACA, the Obama-era program that allows immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to avoid deportation.
English-Language Learners
How Will Schools Measure English-Learners' 'COVID-Slide' Learning Loss?
Native-language assessments may more fully reflect what English-language learners know and can do academically after months away from school. But not all states offer them.
Standards
How to Assess English-Learners' Needs From a Distance? Here's Some Help
With schools unable to conduct in-person evaluations, schools must find new ways to determine if students need English-language-learner support services.
Federal
More Funds Needed for English-Learners During Coronavirus Crisis, Advocates Tell Congress
More than 40 organizations have signed on to a letter to Congress, requesting $1 billion in aid to help districts and states meet the needs of the nation's nearly 5 million English-learners.
English-Language Learners
Where They Are: The Nation's Small But Growing Population of Black English-Learners
In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.
English-Language Learners
English-Learners May Be Left Behind as Remote Learning Becomes 'New Normal'
English-learners often lack access to technology at home, experts and educators say, and their teachers are less likely to assign them to use digital learning resources outside of class.
Equity & Diversity
The Nation's English-Learner Population Has Surged: 3 Things to Know
The number of English-learner students in U.S. schools has increased 28 percent since 2000; 43 of 50 states have experienced an uptick in enrollment, federal data indicate.
Federal
In Some States, ESSA Goals for English-Learners Are 'Purely Symbolic,' Report Finds
More than four years after the passage of ESSA, English-language-learner education policies across the country remain "disjointed and inaccessible," a new report concludes.
Teacher Preparation
The Invisible Burden Some Bilingual Teachers Face
The extra work that many dual-language bilingual educators take on "too often goes unrecognized and is never remunerated," a new small-scale study concludes.
