Education Secretary Rod Paige presented awards to three education professionals credited for improving academic achievement among English language learners (ELLs) at the U.S. Department of Education's third annual conference on improving opportunities for ELL students, Oct. 7, 2004. The "Excellence in Teaching English Language Learners" award was presented to Kathy Mellor, National Teacher of the Year, Davisville Middle School, North Kingstown, R.I., with awards for "Outstanding Commitment, Dedication and Contributions to Improving Education for English Language Learners" going to Carmen P?rez-Hogan, coordinator, Office of Bilingual Education, New York State Education Department, and Adela Weinstein, consultant, Illinois Resource Center. At the awards luncheon, Secretary Paige said that these educators shone every day, no matter how difficult their work, noting that they ignited a passion for learning in their students, and in many cases, their students become vital links to the outside world for their families. More than 1,500 educators, policy-makers and parents attended the conference, which included dozens of presentations on how ELL professionals can improve the quality of education for children who enter school unable to speak English proficiently. Currently, there are more than 4 million English language learners in the U.S. public school system, of which the largest percentage is Spanish-speaking at about 80 percent. More than $680 million in federal funding is available for ELL programs this year. These topics and others like it are presented in this issue of the Department of Education's "The Achiever," a semi-monthly publication of the Department of Education for parents and community leaders.