The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. The topics for this report on English learners who are Arab Americans include: (1) Most Common Languages Spoken by EL Students K-12 (Excluding Spanish); (2) Numbers of Reported Arabic-Speaking EL…

The purpose of this study was to examine Arab American parents' perceptions of difficulties their children experience in the USA. Both Arab American children born outside the USA who later moved to the country and children born in the USA to Arab parents were examined. Fifty Arab American families were interviewed in two areas in the State of…

Within the field of school psychology there exists literature for school psychologists working with specific ethnic and linguistic groups (Frisby & Reynolds, 2005; Tomes, 2011). The Arab American population is estimated to be 3.6 million (Arab American Institute, 2012). However, there is a paucity of school psychology research on Arab American…

The Arab American/Muslim population is the fastest growing ethnic and religious minority group in the United States. However, due to traditional American religious and cultural influences, the practices employed by physical education teachers often conflict with the family and individual values of the Arab American and Muslim culture. Furthermore,…

This article presents an overview of the Arabic language in the United States. Drawing on archival research and statistical analysis, the article is divided into 4 major sections. The first discusses the history of immigration from the Arab world to the United States, as well as past efforts at Arabic language maintenance. The article continues…

This article examines a sample of educational source materials meant to be used to foster the inclusion of Arab American components in multicultural curriculum. Even though the materials examined can be thought of as good sources (in that they did not provide outright biased misinformation), the authors identify three general areas of concern: (a)…

Incidents of terrorism and other forms of heinous violence around the world are so dramatic and painfully wrenching that they often dictate change: in politics, in social convention, in battle, and in the classroom. The five years since the 9/11 attacks, in particular, have brought about huge shifts in the collective global view of Arabs, and it…

American K-12 school curricula are often bereft of acknowledgements of the historical contributions of Arab societies to our present-day intellectual heritage, an oversight most apparent in the sciences. Teachers in a thriving democracy are obliged to introduce contemporary scholarship that reflects the contributions of Arab scientists between the…

The recent critical turn toward post-secularism, particularly on behalf of theorists working from the perspective of Christian societies, has highlighted the difficulty of approaching the history of the Middle East through the binary of religion and secularism. This article argues that such terms are of little explanatory value in and of…

It's no accident that in undertaking improvements to its school system, the Ministry of Education in this small, oil-rich Persian Gulf country has made the most progress so far with an initiative to retrain school principals. After all, Vincent L. Ferrandino, the American consultant the ministry hired to help develop the school improvement…

Understanding a process is the key to maximizing the outcomes of such a process; teachers' professional development (PD) can be further facilitated through fully apprehending the process by which they grow professionally and the factors that contribute to such growth. In this study, the author intends to explore the relationship between a school…

The demographics of the American K-12 student body population have changed and include a growing number of students with limited English proficiency (LEP). These students require special instruction, but the prevalence of specialized English as Second Language (ESL) teachers is in short supply. This shortage has lead to general education teachers-…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Engineering Solutions to the National Crisis in Literacy": Alliance Brief Calls for Alignment Between…

Despite increased interest in studying school violence, much less attention has been given to examining students' fear of experiencing this violence. A better understanding is important, because fear of victimization can generate negative academic consequences for the individual student and larger school environment. To explore students' fear, our…

This book examines the complex and varied relations between educational institutions and societies at war. Drawn from the pages of the "Harvard Educational Review," the essays provide multiple perspectives on how educational institutions support and oppose wartime efforts. As the editors of the volume note, the book reveals how people…