ELL News Headlines

In elementary schools, children got 30 minutes of remote instruction in English and math each day. Teachers were supposed to incorporate language skills into that work, but students missed out on 55 minutes of daily English language development they received before the virus struck. The rapid shift to remote learning forced by the COVID-19 crisis has left the nation’s roughly 5 million English language learners in a precarious position. Many have seen their language instruction shrink as districts balance competing priorities and struggle to connect with students attending school from their living rooms. Schools and districts have largely had to figure out how to meet the needs of English learners on their own. 

Distance learning during this pandemic has been a learning curve. It’s no secret it has comes with challenges as parents take on a new role as teachers. A Suncoast radio station is helping parents adapt to distance learning with a new educational program for parents and students. Solmart Media and Dreamers Academy teamed up to create “Nuestros Niños” or “Our Children.” It’s a new half-hour weekly program for Spanish-speaking parents. It covers educational topics focusing on the needs of parents who are now involved in distance learning with their children. It allows Spanish-speaking parents to engage in their child's education, while still using their language and upholding their culture.

While some students are learning in homes with abundant resources and parental support, others are sharing devices or bandwidth, taking care of siblings, or fitting school work around jobs. Such varied learning conditions raise a question: how can schools grade fairly during a pandemic? For some educators, the answer is simple: they can’t. “If we’re grading right now, we’re grading privilege,” said school equity consultant Sheldon L. Eakins. Resource disparities are one of several reasons that grades cannot accurately represent student learning right now. Other factors include the enormous stress families are experiencing, which can impede cognition and lower student performance, and the reality that teachers have rapidly shifted to online instruction with little training. At San Leandro Unified, leaders took all of those factors into consideration when devising a plan for grading during COVID-19. Their solutions included switching to a pass/incomplete system at secondary schools and focusing on narrative feedback at elementary schools.