The National Council of State Title III Directors (soon re-branding to the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators) held a council meeting and professional development conference in Coronado Springs, Florida on March 6, 2019. NCSTIIID's professional development purposes include ensuring that members are knowledgeable of effective administration of national and state programs for the education of EL students and ensuring that members are knowledgeable of the laws governing the administration of language development programs.

English Learners are an integral population and a large focus of the National ESEA Conference (formerly the National Title I Conference), as they were before the conference was re-branded. While the comprehensive approach boasts content that serves more populations and Title Programs, there are still many presentations that focus on ELs. This includes my presentation, ESSA Title I EL Requirements for All Title I Funded Districts, Wednesday, Jan. 30th at 11:30am.

This blog has been modified from its original version, which appeared in the Ellevation blog. 

As part of our commitment to provide school district administrators with resources and guidance on federal program compliance and administration, we regularly publish blogs featuring guest writers. We are honored to feature a co-written article between TransACT Executive Director of Federal Compliance and State Relationships, Dr. Holbrook, and his former colleague Keja Nokomis Whiteman, 

an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians discussing the importance of incorporating cultural history to support positive learning outcomes for Native Americans. 

I was motivated to initiate the writing of this blog when I saw a news story via Politico about the return of the remains of four Native American children from the graveyard associated with the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, one of the boarding schools that were part of past attempts to forcibly assimilate Native Americans into the dominant American culture. The mortality rate for Native American students at this school was approximately 2%. The school operated from 1879 through 1918 and over that time period housed about 10,000 students.

TransACT Communications, the leader in parent engagement compliance, is proud to announce that Executive Director for Federal Compliance and State Relationships, Dr. David Holbrook, will serve as a policy adviser for the Ellevation Advisory Board.  In this role, which is the first of its kind at Ellevation, Dr. Holbrook will help the Ellevation ELL community understand the impact of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 on the work of English Language Learner (ELL) educators and their students.

TransACT’s Executive Director for Federal Compliance and State Relationships, Dr. David Holbrook, has been selected to serve as the Executive Director of the National Council of State Title III Directors (NCSTIIID). In this role, David will be responsible for guiding the board and its activities associated with advocacy for English Learners and immigrant students. 

The National Council of State Title III Directors (NCSTIIID) has opened registration for a special meeting. This National Special Meeting will be held November 14, 2018 in Santa Fe, New Mexico in collaboration with La Cosecha. The NCSTIIID typically only meets face-to-face with members once annually.

Back in February I wrote about the U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos’, proposed reorganization of the U.S. Department of Education (USED) that would eliminate the USED’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA). Since then, a group of 18 EL advocacy organizations and members of the U.S. Congress have written letters in opposition to the elimination of OELA.

If you have been following the situation with regard to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, you'll know:

The National Council of State Title III Directors (NCSTIIID) will host its Spring Webinar on May 10, 2018 from 11:30 am - 1:00pm Eastern Time. Those interested are invited to join to learn how State Title I and Title III Directors are collaborating at the national level to meet the needs of English Learners (ELs). The meeting will include information about the EL Newcomer Toolkit from USED, updates on NCSTIIID activities, and what is happening at the federal level.