Watch Now: Registering and Enrolling Refugee and Immigrant Students in Secondary Schools |
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In case you missed it, the recording from OELA’s recent webinar on registering and enrolling newcomer students is now available. Panelists discussed best practices and resources for facilitating refugee and immigrant students’ transition into U.S. schools, including scheduling considerations, academic evaluations, and options for newcomer students who arrive without academic credentials or who do not meet state academic requirements. Five key takeaways:
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Refugee and immigrant students tend to be overlooked and underserved – Immigrant students’ prior schooling experiences are an important predictor of their academic achievement. A stronger understanding of these students’ prior schooling can be an important consideration.
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Recommendations to effectively serve refugee and immigrant students – Create systems to collect, understand, and use data on students’ prior schooling and experiences and provide professional development to educators to understand and use this data.
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Ask families and students about their educational history and goals – Identify students who may be English learners (ELs), determine if students’ education was interrupted or inconsistent, assess content knowledge and home language literacy, screen students for trauma, and assess students for gifted and talented programs and for disabilities.
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Intake prior academic experience – Award credit when documentation is available, interpret prior schooling experiences to make decisions about credit transfer and course placement, and identify adaptations when an international transcript is not available.
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September 16
Virtual Summit
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The Ohio Family Engagement Leadership Summit is a free day of professional learning and connecting virtually with those dedicated to advancing effective family-school-community partnerships across Ohio and beyond. Hosted by the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at The Ohio State University, this Summit includes sessions on a variety of topics, including early literacy and family engagement, family-school partnerships to address student mental health, addressing inequity through family voice, family leadership in education, connecting with families to engage at home, and evidence-based family engagement practices. |
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September 23–24
Conference
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The Mid-America Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (MIDTESOL) conference is the premier regional event for English language educators from Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. This year’s conference will be held in Kansas City, MO, and the theme is “Emerging Stronger: Leading Positive Change in ELT Education.” |
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September 28–30
Hybrid Conference
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The WIDA Annual Conference is the premier event for educators of K–12 multilingual learners, giving educators from around the globe the opportunity to share best practices and discover innovative classroom strategies. The in-person conference is sold out, but registration for the curated virtual option is still available.
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October 7–8
Hybrid Conference
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This conference is for program directors and administrators of community-based heritage language schools; members of the language communities involved in these schools; and directors and leaders in public, private, and charter schools who are interested in working with community-based heritage language schools. The conference will be held both on site at American University in Washington, DC, and online. The 2022 conference theme is “The Power and Sustainability of Multilingualism.” |
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October 18–19
Online Event
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Join primary and secondary English language professionals at TESOL Elevate, a highly engaging and interactive online event with in-depth workshops led by top English language teaching (ELT) experts. Explore critical areas of the field, such as student-centered learning, family engagement, and trauma-informed practices. Register by September 15 to save. TESOL International Association members receive discounted pricing. |
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November 2–5
Hybrid Conference
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This November, come together at La Cosecha Dual Language Conference 2022 in Santa Fe, NM, to share current theory, best practices, and resources — and build networks to fuel community efforts for a better future for our children! This national conference brings together the largest gathering of educators, parents, researchers, and practitioners supporting dual language, two-way immersion, one-way developmental bilingual, and one-way heritage language immersion programs from across the United States. |
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Language Magazine
In July 2022, the House of Representatives approved an amendment to the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act that authorizes the Biliteracy Education and Seal Teaching Act, which would provide support for states to establish, improve, and implement Seal of Biliteracy programs. This bill directs the Department of Education to award renewable two-year grants to states to establish or improve, and carry out, Seal of Biliteracy programs to recognize student proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing in both English and in a second language.
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VPM
A law allowing undocumented students to receive in-state financial aid at certain colleges in Virginia took effect in August 2022. Students with a wide range of immigration statuses, including those with pending refugee or asylum applications, will be eligible for the funds. The Virginia Alternative State Aid Application went live in January 2022 and 836 applications have been completed. The majority of applicants have applied to colleges in Northern Virginia.
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TNTP
As it distributed American Recovery Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding, ED required states and districts to address multilingual students’ needs. General investments in academic interventions focused on low-income students who may not meet the specific needs of multilingual learners. TNTP analyzed district ESSER spending plans in five states with significant multilingual student populations: Texas, California, New Mexico, Illinois, and North Carolina. The analysis indicated that 2.8 million multilingual learners attend school in a district that did not plan to spend ESSER funding on interventions targeted to them.
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The Ohio State University
The Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE), a translational research center, is spearheading a new project to address issues that have impacted the outcomes of Ohio’s English learners (ELs) in the aftermath of the pandemic. Advancing Ohio’s English Learners (AOEL) is a partnership between the Ohio Department of Education and CETE to strengthen local systems of support for ELs, their families, and the educators who support them. The project is expected to develop resources that will enhance the engagement, instruction, and support of Ohio’s EL students from PreK–12 and beyond.
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Lexia
Lexia recently hosted a roundtable symposium, “Unifying Language Acquisition with Literacy Instruction for Language Minority Students.” The goal of the event was to engage with and discuss the question of how to best assist Emergent Bilingual students as they learn to read and speak English. Literacy and language acquisition experts from around the world explored a question: How do Emergent Bilinguals learn to read? The experts discussed a variety of solutions that will benefit all students. The biggest takeaway from the event was that these conversations must remain ongoing as progress continues in the science of reading for Emergent Bilingual students.
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Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL): Virtual Institutes, Registration Open
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October 6–27: SIOP Training of Trainers Institute: Foundations – This comprehensive and interactive institute is designed to help participants develop and deliver Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model professional development as facilitators in their school or district.
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NAELPA’s call for proposals is now open to present one of six breakout sessions at its 2023 conference. NAELPA welcomes submissions that address: how diversity, equity, and inclusion work for language learners within the content classroom; how approaches meet the needs of Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) can be successful; how teachers and administrators can advocate for language learners within school, district, or state-level education structures; and how charter schools are planning for and executing on systems that meet the needs of language learners and their families.
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NABE is now accepting submissions for the 2023 Student Essay Competition, Bilingual Teacher of the Year Award, Bilingual Teacher Scholarship, and the Outstanding Dissertation Award. The dissertation competition is open to those who have completed a dissertation in the field of bilingual education between May 1, 2021 and August 31, 2022.
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Miami University
Middletown, OH
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Internationals Network for Public Schools:
Serving multiple regions in New York, New Jersey, and the DC Metro Area
Bay Area, CA
New York, NY
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ELs who are students with interrupted formal education, or SIFE, often face many serious challenges when attending school in the United States. Educators also often encounter difficulties in meeting their needs. In this two-part podcast, Francisco Lopez, an Education Program Specialist from OELA, speaks with educators on research and practices in the field related to SIFE.
In part 1, Dr. Margarita Calderon, professor Emerita at Johns Hopkins University, describes her research on ELs who are SIFE and provides information to educators on research-based best practices for supporting this population of students. In part 2, Teresa Vignaroli, an English Learners Supervisor from Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia, discusses practical considerations and the day-to-day programming involved with serving ELs who are SIFE.
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National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA)
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Disclaimer: NCELA Nexus is intended to share information that can be of use to educators, parents, learners, leaders, and other stakeholders in their efforts to ensure that every student, including ELs, is provided with the highest quality education and expanded opportunities to succeed. The information and materials presented on NCELA Nexus do not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by NCELA, the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), or the U.S. Department of Education.
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