After months spent poring over the grades and test scores of her English-language learners with a team of counselors and experts, Davidson Middle School Principal Harriet MacLean came to a surprising conclusion.

The students who needed the most help learning English weren’t recent immigrants, but rather those who had spent four or more years in San Rafael schools – yet were still enrolled in English development classes meant for newcomers.

“We had to create content classes mainly for those intermediate students who had been in this country their whole lives, and yet were still scoring far below basic,” said MacLean, who saw the percentage of Davidson students achieving proficiency on the state’s English language development test jump from 37 to 53 percent in the past year – even while the number of students being tested rose from 263 to 300. (more…)

A portrait of long-term English-language learners in 40 California school districts shows that the specific needs of such students are largely being ignored, a statewide coalition of education and civil rights groups contends in a new report.

Based on survey data, the studyRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader by Californians Together found that 59 percent of English-language learners in secondary schools in the districts had been in U.S. schools for more than six years without reaching a sufficient level of English proficiency to be reclassified as fluent. It also found that few school districts had programs or formal approaches designed especially for the long-term English-language learners. (more…)

America's game — in Spanish and English for the Legends Lexington Herald Leader The Houston Astros, the Legends' parent team, provide English-as-a-second-language classes to dozens of players on affiliate teams such as the Legends, ... and more »

When Darnelly Forester met her husband in Ecuador, she never dreamed she would eventually be living in the United States with two children, two college degrees and a successful small business and career. Her husband was vacationing in Ecuador when they met. She came to the United States in 2001 and has since earned an Associate in Arts degree from Haywood Community College and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Western Carolina University.

Forester credits much of her success with the classes she first took at HCC in English as a Second Language (ESL). “These classes helped me with the language and gave me a foundation to start from,” Forester said. “It prepared me for my next step. The teachers there support and understand me.” (more…)

Buffalo public schools provide inconsistent, inadequate and inequitable services to students who speak English as their second language, according to a scathing report recently released to the administration and Board of Education. The city's rapidly growing student population of recent immigrants and refugees — now numbering more than 3,000 — has historically been "largely invisible" in Buffalo schools, the report contends. "The school system didn't seem to notice they were here, didn't think to modify an otherwise successful program to ensure that these newcomers could succeed, and didn't create an effective system to reach out to those communities," states the Council of Great City Schools report, which was commissioned by the board. (more...)

Language center needs host families The Tennessean COM • May 15, 2010 ELS Language Centers/Nashville is assisting internationals in learning the English language from offices on the MTSU campus — and needs ... and more »

Kansas City Star

Immigrants find old careers don't transfer to new life in America Kansas City Star Formerly a well-paid professional in Iraq, Jol Ghazi (left) is studying English at the Don Bosco English as a Second Language Center. ...

Language of instruction not most important for English-learners The JHU Gazette On measures of Spanish language and reading, fourth-graders who had been taught to read in Spanish from kindergarten to second grade did not significantly ...