Note: this is the third in a series of posts explaining the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) recent report on the education of dual language learners (DLLs) and English Learners (ELs), Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures. To read New America’s initial coverage of the report’s […]
Conor Williams
Conor Williams is a Senior Researcher in the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation. Find him on Twitter: @ConorPWilliams
Posted inEducation, K-12
Same Topic, Different Tongue: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Report on Language Learning
Two DLL reports on the same day!
Posted inEducation, K-12
Universal Pre-K, Open Enrollment, Millennial Parents, and City Living
Macroeconomic trends are changing how millennial parents view education policies.
Posted inEducation, K-12
New Research Suggests That English-Only Programs Reach Beyond Classrooms
Research shows that maintaining a child’s primary language is crucial for scholastic success, although families prefer an English-only program.
Posted inEducation, K-12
Helping Every English Learner Student Succeed…By Leaving 40 Percent Out
How Every Student Succeeds Act leaves out English Learners
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Federal English Learners Policy Changes: Lots of Talk, Little Policy Clarity
Last Thursday was a busy day during a busy week for English learner (EL) policy in Washington, DC. The Department of Education sent regulatory suggestions to the committee tasked with clarifying the concrete meaning of Every Student Succeeds Act’s (ESSA) legislative language. Two of the Department’s suggestions were related to ELs: one covers ELs’ participation […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
New Research: Children of Immigrants Benefit from Integrated Support
Last week, I published a speech in which I explained one of the Dual Language Learners National Work Group’s primary challenges: Now, as has usually been the case, our education debates are dominated by two considerations: race and class. This is, perhaps, as it should be. Those are traditional divides in this country. They are […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Multilingualism and American Schools: Sensible Policies, Senseless Politics
[I was recently asked to give keynote remarks at the Massachusetts Association for Bilingual Education’s annual conference. What follows here are my prepared remarks, which I’ve edited a bit to improve readability. Note: some of the speech is borrowed from this earlier post on how state and federal policies affect DLLs’ educational opportunities.] Hello, and […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Starting Early, Starting Right with Dual Language Learners
We talk a lot about how the the number and percentage of young, multilingual students are growing rapidly in American schools — particularly in the early years. These dual language learners (DLLs) make up nearly one-third of Head Start participants nationwide, and in many communities that ratio is even higher. Here’s another way of getting […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
The Federal and State Dynamics Shaping Dual Language Learner Debates
Education policy is getting even less attention than usual this election season. Other than some token nods to early education investments and doing something (usually vaguely-described) about student loan debt, 2016 looks to be a dormant year for education politics. This is particularly true as far as dual language learners (DLLs) are concerned. While the […]
