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Practical Parent Tools for Building Vocabulary Children are constantly learning new words.  The number of words they learn and retain has a significant impact on their literacy and language skills.  A strong vocabulary is necessary in order to cultivate a lifetime love for learning and reading. Additionally, a vast vocabulary is the strongest indicator of academic achievement in all curriculum … Read More

California English Learner Roadmap: An Overview In July of 2017, the California State Board of Education approved the English Learner (EL) Roadmap policy, which is intended to assist the California Department of Education (CDE) in providing guidance to local educational agencies (LEAs) in order to welcome, understand, and educate the diverse population of students who are English learners. The policy … Read More

2018 Update on the Every Student Succeeds Act – ESSA ESSA went into effect across the country during the 2017-18 academic year. It’s now in place and drives how school districts manage their programs and budgets. Under ESSA, states have a lot of leeway in several areas. As in the past, under the No Child Left Behind Act, states still … Read More

New English Learner Data Story from U.S. Dept. of Ed U.S. Department of Education launched a new interactive web page dedicated to data on English Learner students (ELs). The site uses colorful maps, bar graphs and charts to provide a clearer understanding of America’s diverse ELs population in a “data story” format based on data from the Common Core of Data … Read More

The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) will go into effect this fall.  The original act was first signed into law in 1965 and reaffirms the commitment to equal opportunity for all students in the U.S.  Title III, Part A of the new ESSA requires states to uphold key protections for vulnerable groups of students, such as English Learners (ELs), … Read More

Family literacy is a form of literacy education that places an emphasis on bringing reading into the home and turning it into a family activity where children and parents learn together, states The Ohio Literacy Resource Center.  The rationale for this theory is that parents are their children’s first teachers.  Family literacy programs provide parents with instruction in parenting skills, … Read More

A Grant Opportunity for Literacy Programs in Low-Income Communities The U.S. Department of Education intends to promote innovative literacy programs that support the development of literacy skills in low-income communities.  Innovative Approaches to Literacy includes programs that: (1) develop and enhance effective school library programs, which may include providing professional development for school librarians, books, and up-to-date materials to high-need … Read More

A Focus on Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) Classrooms that place a special focus on social and emotional learning (SEL) are, according to the Promote Prevent organization, positive learning environments that have caring student-teacher relationships at their center. These are classrooms that use a myriad of management and instructional techniques which address the emotional and social needs of the students. … Read More

Literacy doesn’t just help with reading and writing, says an article examining global literacy. It also improves social and civil participation, personal empowerment, self-esteem and informed decision-making. … Read More