ELL Student Resources and Support in New Mexico

The state of New Mexico has 53,071 students enrolled in grades K-12, making up just 16.1% of the school population. Within this group Spanish is spoken by a large majority with Navajo, Nias, German, and Vietnamese making up the top five languages currently spoken by non-English speaking students. The state has also adopted the English language development framework of WIDA. … Read More

English Learner Programs and Resources in Virginia

The state of Virginia has a total enrollment of 1,263,660 students in grades K-12 in the state public school system. 99,897 of them are English Language Learners making up 7.9% of the student population as of years 2012-2013. The vast majority of ELL students in Virginia speak Spanish, with Arabic, Vietnamese, Urdu, and Korean rounding out the top five other … Read More

Helpful Resources for English Learners in Florida

The state of Florida had 277,802 ELL students in their public school system as of 2012-2013. That figure represents just over 10% of the children enrolled in grades K-12. The largest concentration of ELLs is found in Dade County with an estimated 66,497 students. Among the state’s ELL population, 72% speak Spanish, with Haitian, Portuguese, Arabic, and Vietnamese rounding out … Read More

Where are All the English Learners?

English Language Learners – ELLs English Language Learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing section of the U.S. student population today. The National Council of Teachers of English shares that “ELLs now comprise 10.5 percent of the nation’s K–12 enrollment, up from 5 percent in 1990.” While ELLs are a diverse group of students who have varying socio-economic standing and language … Read More

Links and Resources for English Language Learners in Washington

The state of Washington has an ELL population of 107,307 students in the public school system. With a total enrollment of 1,051,694, ELLs make up just over 10% of the students enrolled in grades K-12. The five languages spoken by ELLs are Spanish, followed by Russian, Vietnamese, Somali, and Chinese. The following is a list of useful resources and programs … Read More

Home-School Connections with Parents of ELL Students

Home-School Connections with Parents of ELL Students Successful parental engagement for ELL students starts with getting the parents actively involved. Unfortunately, this can be a much tougher obstacle to navigate than one might expect. There are a variety of hindrances in the path to engagement with parents of ELL’s, most of them rooted in a reluctance on the part of … Read More

Useful Support Resources for ELL Students in New York

In the state of New York, ELL enrollment was 237,499 students in the state public school system in 2012-2013, making up over 14% of the classroom population. 61% of all ELL students in the state speak Spanish, with Chinese, Arabic, Bengali, and Haitian representing the next four most common spoken languages at 19% combined. The following is a list of … Read More

James Crawford’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition

We conclude our look at some of the most prominent voices in the second language learning community with James Crawford, who has long been an activist for more effective bilingual education policies. A former editor of the online magazine, Education Week, Crawford has written numerous essays and books discussing language policy in schools, advocating for sensible language-learning legislation, pushing for … Read More

How an Anti-bias Curriculum Benefits the School Community

An anti-bias preschool curriculum is one that seeks to acknowledge and challenge prejudices in education and works to remove them from the teaching and learning environment. Schools using an anti-bias curriculum are acknowledging that many Western societies, though growingly diverse, continue to function with inherent inequity and racial cultural bias, and that this naturally carries over into education, which is … Read More

Resourceful Programs in Illinois for ELL Students

With an approximate ELL enrollment of 9.2% among grades K-12, Illinois has 190,172 English Language Learners in the state public school system as of years 2012-2013. 80% of ELL students in Illinois speak Spanish, with Arabic, Polish, Chinese, and Urdu making up the majority of the most common languages spoken by these families, in that order. The following is a … Read More