ELL and NCLB on NPR

I tried to see if I could throw another acronym up there, too, but I couldn't come up with one that works.

Weekend Edition Sunday this past weekend had an informative report from Claudio Sanchez on the teaching of English Language Learners, particularly under No Child Left Behind. You can find both the audio and the text of the report here:

"The research certainly has in the past shown dual language programs to be the most effective," says Nancy Rowch.

Rowch oversees instruction for English-language learners in Nebraska. She swears that building on a child's native language, rather than discarding it, has proven to be the best way to help kids make the transition to English — but that's neither here nor there, because the actual programs that schools use have less to do with research than with politics and funding.

This matters enormously here in Worcester, where so many of our kids are ELL at some point in their school lives.