"Despite the growing societal awareness of the need for interventions and programs to increase literacy levels of adolescents, education policymakers and school reformers have mostly overlooked the needs of the large and growing English language learner population. Though recent reports have helped to focus attention on the adolescent literacy crisis, they offer very little guidance on how best to meet the varied and challenging literacy needs of adolescent ELLs.

What do schools need to do to make sure English learners succeed? This article highlights nine elements of a strong program, based on three decades of research. Recommended best practices include accessible preschool programs, support for newcomers of all ages, and a focus on English language development.

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, has released a new intervention report highlighting available research on Instructional Conversations and Literature Logs, an English Language Learning intervention.

A new report from the London-based National Centre for Languages (CILT) describes the benefits of bilingualism and highlights the contribution of community languages to UK education and society. The report cites a number of studies demonstrating the academic success of multilingual students. For example, a study of Portuguese children at secondary schools in London showed that those who were encouraged to continue studying their native language were five times as likely to achieve five top grade A to C grades on the General Certificate of Secondary Education. As Sir Trevor McDonald states in his introduction to the report,"We know that children are capable of acquiring more than one language and that doing so brings a range of educational benefits, including cognitive advantages, enhanced communication skills and an openness to different cultural perspectives."