Analysis: Educators Say Distance Learning Failed Most English Learners Last Spring. Here’s 10 Ways to More Effectively Serve ELs as Schools Reopen for Virtual and Blended Learning

By Martha Hernandez, Californians Together Executive Director

American schools’ responses to COVID-19’s sudden interruption to public education varied considerably across the nation as students went from daily classroom learning to stay-at-home orders nearly overnight. Now, a new survey reveals the limits of that patchwork response to the emergency — and indicates key lessons for schools’ reopening this fall.

BARTLETT, ILLINOIS - MAY 01: Seven-year-old Hamza Haqqani, a 2nd grade student at Al-Huda Academy, uses a computer to participate in an E-learning class with his teacher and classmates while at his home on May 01, 2020 in Bartlett, Illinois. Al-Huda Academy, an Islam based private school that teaches pre-school through the 6th grade students, has had to adopt an E-learning program to finish the school year after all schools in the state were forced to cancel classes in an attempt to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Over the past several months, Californians Together, an English-learner advocacy organization, asked more than 650 educators to provide details about their schools’ distance learning plans, focusing particularly on how they served English learners. The results were sobering. Martha Hernandez discusses a 10-point road map for how Local, state leaders, and schools can address inequities as they prepare to relaunch public education in the fall.

Read the Full Piece Here