Ariz. English-learning issue back in court

TUSCON, AZ–A federal judge will begin a lengthy hearing Monday to take another look at the adequacy and funding of Arizona school programs for students learning English, including a new state mandate for four-hour instruction blocks. The hearing full story

English immersion — a dismal failure

PORTLAND, OR–As specialists in the field of English language learning, we were appalled to read Rosalie Pedalino Porter’s opinion piece on Measure 58. Porter’s guest opinion contains numerous false claims about the experience of states that have passes measures similar to Measure 58. Porter is wrong about the research on language learning and she is wrong about Measure full story

New citizens prepare for their first vote

MILFORD, MA–Like their fellow Americans, Lucy and Joseph Rozman have been agonizing over which presidential candidate can restore prosperity and security to their adopted country. The 58-year-old Framingham couple, who left Murmansk in northwest Russia in 2000, said they’re proud to vote as an important duty of their newly-acquired citizenship. “I still don’t know full story

Suffering test anxiety

BALTIMORE, MD–Inti Guaman is a senior on the brink of either going off to college or staying behind to get through high school. It all depends on how quickly he is able to soak up vocabulary words so that he can pass his High School Assessment exam in English II. Guaman, 18, arrived with his family from Ecuador three years ago speaking Spanish and only”a little bit” of English, he full story

BANNING LATIN

LANGUAGE HAT–My initial thought was that this Telegraph story must be a joke, but since it quoted a bunch of real people and the date wasn’t the first of April, I reluctantly concluded it must be factual: Local authorities have ordered employees to stop using the words and phrases on documents and when communicating with members of the public and to rely on wordier alternatives full story

New ESL Testing Brings ‘Fs’ for Some Schools

ELGIN, IL–When you think of Harriet Gifford Elementary School, principle Joe Corcoran wants you to think of things like the musical his students are putting on… MUSICAL: Oh the things you can think, when you think about Seuss! TEACHER: Good! Corcoran would rather not focus on the failed rating his school got this year. CORCORAN: I just want to put a little editorial out there for full story

JISD adjusting to new English standards

JACKSONVILLE, PA–Some of the new English Language Arts and Reading curriculum standards approved by the State Board of Education are proving popular with school officials in Jacksonville, although some aspects of the standards remain unclear. The new standards represent the first changes in curriculum for those areas since 1997. Revisions have been mulled full story

Flagler sees jump in Hispanic population

PALM COAST, FL–The man swirls the dominoes around the green felt table, the white rectangles with black dots clacking as they are pushed together and apart. One of the veteran players instructs a rookie unsure of the rules as the domino tiles grow into a line eventually turning toward the shelf of plantains and other produce inside the Latino Market and Bakery in St. Joe’s Plaza in full story

Amendment Seeks to Make English Official Language of Missouri

ST. LOUIS, MO–There’s a vote you can cast on this year’s ballot that won’t raise your taxes, or put someone in office, but it definitely has people choosing sides. Constitutional Amendment Number One, has voters choosing to make English the official language of the Show Me State. In this classroom two languages are spoken, English and Spanish. It’s what many are full story