Heidi Larson

English learners are the fastest-growing group of students in U.S. schools, with 43 states seeing increases in their English learner (EL) student population between the 2000/01 and 2016/17 school years.1 The 10 Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) are committed to supporting EL students and their families so that students can thrive in school and beyond. To this end, RELs have partnered with states and districts to identify and address the needs and priorities of EL students and formed a ...

How can teachers support dual language learners in the preK classroom, especially when considering the number of languages spoken? In Boston's Head Start programs in 2015 alone, children spoke more than 140 languages and more than 35 percent lived in households where English was not the primary language.1 In 2016, about 12 million (22 percent) of children in the United States spoke a language other than English at home. This rate has risen by 1.2 million (2 percent) over the last decade.2 Edu...