Follow your favorite blogs!

Bloglovin' helps you follow the blogs you read by letting you know when they update.

Sign up »
Learning the Language
blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language
13
Mary Ann Zehr is an assistant editor at Education Week. She has written about the schooling of English-language learners for more than seven years and understands through her own experience of studying Spanish that it takes a long time to learn another language well. Her blog will tackle difficult policy questions, explore learning innovations, and share stories about different cultural groups on her beat.
#97207 in All , #42 in Education

Stanford-Led Common Core Project for ELLs Previews New Resources

For those of you hungry for resources, advice, ideas, or guidance on how to prepare educators for teaching the common standards to English-learners, the team of prominent experts working on exactly t...

2 days ago

Can Romney Win Over Latinos With His Education Platform?

with guest blogger Nirvi Shah The same day presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke to a group of Latino small businessmen and women about his education policy vision, a new poll...

24 may 12

Debate Rages Over Accountability for English Learners in Florida

UPDATE: Gerard Robinson, Floridas education commissioner, has issued a response to the mounting criticism over how English-learners will be treated in the states newly revamped accountability system,...

23 may 12

Report: Immigration Legislation on the Decline in 2012

Judging the output of newly-introduced bills and resolutions from state lawmakers in the first three months of this year, 2012 is on track to be less focused on immigration issues than 2011, accordin...

22 may 12

Poll: Latinos Put Education Over Immigration in 2012 Campaign

A survey released this week by two organizations that favor private school vouchers and other forms of school choice shows that Latino voters are more concerned about improving the quality of K-12 ed...

15 may 12

Study: Most ELLs Are in Districts That Fall Short of Federal Goals

CORRECTION AND UPDATE: The Ed. Dept. wants to make clear that this report is not the "biennial" update to Congress mandated by federal law. This report was independently commissioned by the d...

11 may 12

Census: Foreign-Born Population Reaches Record High

The U.S. Census Bureau reports today that the population of foreign-born people living in the United States has reached 40 million, an all-time high. That figure—from the 2010 American Communit...

10 may 12

Grim NAEP Science Results for English Learners

Eighth grade English learners significantly trail their native English-speaking peers in science achievement and gained no ground at all in the last two years, according to results from the Nations R...

10 may 12

Puerto Ricos Governor Pushes for Fully Bilingual Citizenry

In a bid to make Puerto Rico a full-fledged bilingual society, Gov. Luis Fortuño has rolled out a controversial proposal that would make English the primary language of instruction in all courses tau...

08 may 12

Justice Dept to Ala.: Immigration Law Drove Latinos From Schools

A new and stern letter from the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice to the Alabama state schools chief has affirmed what many educators in the state already know—the state l...

04 may 12

Preschool Provides Major Advantages to English-Learners, Study Says

Four-year-old children with parents who speak little to no English reap important benefits by participating in one year of center-based care—such as Head Start or state preschool—before s...

02 may 12

Study: The Sharper Minds of Bilinguals

Theres a new study out this week to add to the mounting stack of evidence that being bilingual has tremendous advantages, beyond the obvious one of being able to communicate with more people. The lat...

01 may 12

A Case for Training All Teachers to Meet Needs of ELLs

Some 25 percent of public school students live in homes where English is not the primary language. That statistic alone seems sufficient reason to expect that all teachers will at some point have stu...

30 apr 12

Study: Pediatric Early Literacy Effort a Boon to English Learners

A program that uses pediatricians to "prescribe" reading aloud with children and provides developmentally appropriate books to families with young children is showing benefits for at-risk Lat...

27 apr 12

Study: More Educated the Mothers = Better Outcome for ELLs

Children who started kindergarten already proficient in English—regardless of the language they spoke at home—scored better as 8th graders on reading, math, and science tests than languag...

26 apr 12

AL Educators Anxious as AZ Immigration Law Goes Before High Court

The Supreme Court tomorrow will hear oral arguments in the federal governments challenge of the Arizona law that cracks down on undocumented immigrants from the Southwestern state. Arizonas law, amon...

24 apr 12

Federal Officials Reach Final Agreement on Services for ELLs in Boston

The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education today announced a new, long-term agreement with Bostons public school system that is meant to provide a permanent fix to violations of the civil rights o...

23 apr 12

Illinois Jump Start With ELLs Provides Lesson for Other States

If you havent seen it already, dont miss reading this new analysis on how Illinois is faring so far in its efforts to provide robust bilingual education services to its large population of English-la...

13 apr 12

Stanford Project on Common Standards and English-Learners Goes Live

The team of English-language learner experts assembled by Stanford University education professor Kenji Hakuta to create resources for teaching the common-core standards to ELLs launched its Understa...

11 apr 12

Perfect Accents Not Realistic for Older Language Learners, Linguists Say

I am an adult language learner. After several years of lying fallow, I have taken up my pursuit of learning Spanish with a great teacher who comes to my office twice a week for one-on-one lessons. In...

04 apr 12

A Look Inside Dual-Language Classrooms

This video published today on edweek.org is a companion to my story on the rise in dual-language programs. The piece was shot by Manny Crisostomo, a great photographer and former colleague whom I wor...

03 apr 12

English-Language Learners on Rise In Appalachia

Enrollment of English-language learners has steadily grown in three of four Appalachian region states—Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia—over the past four years, according to a new brief ...

29 mar 12

More to the Story on Dual-Language Immersion

Ive got a new story up on edweek.org this morning that takes a look at the steady growth in dual-language immersion programs across the nation and why educators are increasingly adopting this approac...

23 mar 12

Language Politics Play Into GOP Primary Race in Puerto Rico

Mitt Romney routed Rick Santorum in the Puerto Rico primary yesterday, and analysts agree that Santorum basically dug his own grave late last week when he told various media outlets that English woul...

19 mar 12

Study: ELLs Who Reach Proficiency Quickly Fare Better

English learners who complete language-acquisition courses—whether through an English-as-a-second-language program or bilingual education—within three years go on to have much more academ...

15 mar 12

San Jose Elem. School Provides Rich Language Experience

Im back in my regular Ed Week saddle after a trip to the West Coast, where I had the chance to visit schools and classrooms full of English learners. One of my favorite days was the one I spent at Ga...

13 mar 12

Common Core Standards and ELLs: Whats Happening in Calif.?

Ive been spending this week in northern California reporting on a number of things: dual language programs, a new biliteracy seal for graduating seniors, and other issues in this state where one in f...

09 mar 12

Undocumented Students: What You Should Know About Us

Undocumented high school students from San Diego have written a powerful letter to describe the worries they live with every day as they approach turning 18 and moving on from the somewhat sheltered ...

06 mar 12

Unaccompanied Minors Face Uncertainty in U.S. System

Every year, several thousand unaccompanied minors—children who are younger than 18, have no legal status, and do not have a parent or guardian to care for them—enter the complex web of th...

01 mar 12

Teaching Standards in Central States Vary for English Learners

As the number of students learning English climbs steadily upward in states like Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas, teachers across the spectrum are in need of resources and training to help them develop...

28 feb 12

You are no longer following . Undo?