Some parents of minority students may not be inclined to get involved in their children's schools if they feel the staff make negative assumptions about them and aren't interested in their cultural background, a report released today says.

Expecting the U.S. Senate to cast a procedural vote on the DREAM Act tomorrow, the U.S. Secretary of Education urged senators to pass legislation that would give some undocumented youths a path to legalization.

Juan Sepúlveda, the director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, will be a guest today for an EdWeek web chat about how administration officials plan to work with communities across the country to carry out President Obama's October 19 executive order to improve education for Latino students.

A research center that specializes in instruction for English-language learners has published a framework recommended for teaching social studies lessons for ELLs in the middle grades.

The Immigration Policy Center issued a statement calling for Congress to pass the DREAM Act signed by 250 scholars.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made a plug for the teaching of foreign languages in elementary and secondary schools last week without mentioning the great resource this country has of children who grow up speaking a language other than English at home.

Sylvia Mendez will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 in honor of her lifelong work in speaking out for the importance of educational equity, according to Latina magazine.

In court yesterday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. used the words "illegal aliens" to describe people who are living illegally in this country while Justice Sonia Sotomayor tended to refer to them as "undocumented aliens."

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid initiated the tabling of a procedural vote on the Senate version of the DREAM Act today in an effort to keep the issue alive in Congress.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the DREAM Act with a 216-198 vote; eight Republicans voted "yea".