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Californians Together

Championing the Success of English Learners

COVID-19

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

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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.

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A new EL Resource Hub and much, much more!

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Now Available: New Resource Hub Gathers Tools to Bring California’s English Learner Roadmap to Life 

As California leads the way to protect our families and uphold our values in response to COVID-19, it is more important than ever for us to come together and share resources to ensure all of our students, particularly Dual Language Learners and English learners, thrive. We’re proud to partner with leading advocates to advance the California English Learner Roadmap’s vision of honoring equity, ensuring meaningful access and embracing the diversity that makes our state great. In collaboration with six other organizations committed to advancing equity in education, we’ve launched the English Learner Roadmap Resource Hub to translate vision to action across our state. Together, we will harness the power of language to prepare our students to participate in a global, diverse and multilingual world, thus ensuring a thriving future for California.

Spanish and Korean Dual Immersion Instruction Through Distance Learning: Anaheim Elementary School District

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While most districts are struggling to address the needs of English Learners through distance learning, Anaheim Elementary School District (AESD) has kept their focus on bilingualism, biliteracy and English Learners while planning for distance learning during school closures. 

AESD is one of the largest elementary school districts in California, serving approximately 16,000 preschool through 6th grade students across 23 schools in a dynamic, standards-based learning community. The student population is approximately 52% English learners, 18% Reclassified-Fluent English Proficient (R-FEP), 2% Initially-Fluent English Proficient (I-FEP), and 26% English only students. Of their English learners, 94% have a home language of Spanish. Additionally, 86% of the students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, 11% GATE, 11% receive special education services, and 9% are homeless.

With the leadership from the superintendent, support from the Board of Education and the community, AESD has either a Spanish or Korean Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Program at all 23 elementary schools, leading to comprehensive DLI programs from TK through 6th grade.  They also offer Accelerated Language Academy or Structured English Immersion and Mainstream English Immersion for their English Learners not enrolled in DLI programs. 

Ensuring Technology Access for All Students 

Prior to COVID-19, AESD was already a 1:1 digital district with one chromebook per family. Upon announcement of school closures, parents received an email or phone call (via parent link) to pick up their chromebook with a charger at their school sites. This happened over the course of 3 days. For the families who didn't pick one up, the school site individually called each parent. They had already established a partnership/grant with T-Mobile for wireless internet hotspots allowing free access to the internet. To expand access, AESD identified companies such as Comcast and Spectrum who are offering free internet service for three months.

Delivering Content in English, Spanish and Korean 

From the very first notification of possible school closure, the district pulled together all the curriculum specialists including their digital learning specialist to create a plan for teachers to use for distance learning.  Initially until their spring break, the week of April 13th, teachers did not introduce new materials or concepts. After spring break, teachers have begun to introduce new concepts from their curriculum. A continuity plan per grade level was developed in English, Spanish (will be linked to plans in our box) and Korean (also linked to plans in box) that was structured around the hours in a minimum daily schedule with another hour for daily planning time. 

The district also took steps to ensure that units of study and materials from the core curriculum are available in English, Spanish, and Korean. All teachers received professional development and a template for their grade level, allowing them to plug in units of study from their core curriculum (commercially developed) in English and Spanish. To develop the curriculum in Korean and ensure alignment with the same themes, the district has a partnership with professors from CSU Long Beach. Korean interpreters also read stories and taped content lessons for all subject matters. The DLI teachers maintain the same language of delivery consistent with their prior classroom instruction.

In addition to the core curriculum in language arts and math, the district also developed:

  • Daily 30-minute ELD lessons delivered using Rosetta Stone Foundations (different from the commercial Rosetta Stone for world language lessons).  
  • Short lessons on how to address the social emotional needs of students, integrated into the language arts instruction. These lessons, developed by the two district social emotional specialists, came from the understanding that students are worried and often stressed about their family situation and the news about the coronavirus.
  • Weekly 30-minute music lessons in the languages of the programs, produced by music teachers.
  • Videos of short PE activities for the students to do at home. 

Accessing the Content

The district webpage has icon links in all three languages that take students directly to the online platforms needed. The core curriculum is available digitally and in all three languages for teachers to upload and send via google classroom, which is the main portal for students to access the lessons.  

While not perfect, it is very significant that distance learning is not English-only instruction and the language, academic, and social emotional needs of English learners are at the core of their developmental work for equity in distance learning. 

As Magaly Rodriquez, the district’s Dual Language Immersion Curriculum Specialist said, “These are the highlights of our process, and it is ongoing minute to minute.  All departments and everyone in the district incorporate English learners in all of our efforts.  It is a mission we take to heart. It is our reality.”

Stories from the Field

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Photo by Kyo Azuma

The crisis created by COVID-19 has placed a magnifying glass on opportunity gaps faced by many students across California. From access to healthy meals to meeting mental health and education technology needs, communities are depending on public schools to help weather the storm. Of particular concern to Californians Together is the impact on our state’s 1.2 million English learners, multilingual families, and refugee and immigrant students. This crisis has highlighted and amplified the equity challenge to ensure that learning plans meet the needs of English learners (ELs) and their families.

Fortunately, many districts, schools, and educators are stepping up to the challenge and implementing strategies from which we can learn. In an effort to share these practices, Californians Together has been uplifting these stories through Weekly Zooms: Communities of Practice Supporting EL Teachers and Administrators, blog posts, and newsletter articles. Through Alas y Voz,  resources for families are also available in Spanish. 

To further support district, school, and community leaders, we also developed the following four considerations to ensure that ELs continue to have full access to the curriculum (Supporting English Learners Through Distance Learning: Considerations for District and School Leaders). The list and examples are not exhaustive but are meant to help informally assess and guide a conversation about how distance learning is being implemented in your district, school, and community. 

The list is organized into four key areas essential to supporting ELs, including to:

  1. Provide full access to the curriculum, ensuring that designated and integrated ELD are incorporated within distance learning plans.
  2. Meet technology needs, providing students with devices and no cost internet access that support learning in multiple languages.
  3. Proactively engage parents and guardians, disseminating information and  explaining assignments for their children in students’ home languages and implementing a robust plan to reach out to families; and 
  4. Meet the needs of the whole child, ensuring that students have access to essential resources to stay safe and healthy, such as social-emotional supports and meals.

As you review this list and reflect on the progress in your school and district, it is important to continue to celebrate and build on the positive stories from your community. There is not a “one size fits all” approach to ensure that ELs are supported by distance learning, as we know that students and communities are diverse. However, we know that progress in each of the four key areas is important and must be at the forefront of every district and school strategy.

Put together with our Weekly Zooms: Communities of Practice Supporting EL Teachers and Administrators, blog posts, and newsletter articles, you will find many examples of how leaders like yourselves have tackled some of the challenges. We encourage you to share these resources to ensure that ELs continue to be a focus with our communities.

Thank you in advance for your tireless work on behalf of students across California.

Supporting English Learners Through Distance Learning: Considerations for District and School Leaders

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Photo by Kyo Azuma
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With the unexpected school closures due to COVID-19, districts and schools across the state have shifted from in-person instruction to distance learning. This has highlighted the equity challenge to ensure that learning plans meet the needs of English learners (ELs) and their families. This list of considerations includes some of the steps that can be taken by districts and schools to ensure that ELs continue to have full access to the curriculum. The list and examples are not exhaustive but are meant to informally assess and help guide a conversation about how distance learning is being implemented in your district, school, and community. 

Provide Full Access to the Curriculum

Providing ELs with resources and lessons that allows them to make academic progress should be an important consideration for all schools and districts. This means that distance learning plans should provide ELs with designated English language development (ELD) and integrated ELD. Moreover, steps should be taken to ensure that learning plans are relevant, engaging, and enable ELs to have full access to the curriculum.

  • Ensure designated ELD is including within distance learning plans. For example, designated ELD can be part of a distance learning schedule for ELs as a core subject.
  • Ensure that integrated ELD is incorporated within lesson plans for all other subjects. For example, teachers can be provided with a list of tasks for each language domain that can be incorporated within lesson plans.
  • Incorporate project-based learning that allows students to learn from their environment. For example, students can write an article about heroes in their community helping others.
  • Ensure students have access to a minimum number of minutes of direct virtual instruction. For example, setting district guidelines to ensure that all students have access to a minimum number of minutes of instruction for all subjects.
  • Provide culturally relevant enrichment resources and bilingual materials. For example, working with district or city libraries to ensure that students and families can access books, magazines, and other resources in multiple languages.

Meet Technology Needs

Given that ELs come from a variety of backgrounds and many come from low-income households, districts and schools should take steps to ensure that all students have access to the technology and resources they need to access distance learning opportunities.This includes ensuring that all students have a computer at home, a reliable internet connection, and a safe space to learn.

  • Ensure students have access to a device for learning at home. For example, distributing chromebooks to students without a computer at home.
  • Ensure students have access to the internet. For example, negotiating agreements with commercial vendors to provide free access without the need to disclose personal or financial information.
  • Ensure students have a safe space to learn. For example, calling families to discuss strategies for creating a safe place to learn at home.
  • Ensure students have access to the curriculum in their devices in the language of instruction. For example, uploading resources in devices before distribution.

Proactively Engage Parents and Guardians

Parents and guardians are an essential component of effective distance learning. Therefore communications with them in their home language and with staff that are culturally competent is important. Districts and schools must be proactive in reaching out to parents and guardians, both because it provides them with important information but also because these interactions can provide school leaders with important information about the needs of their children.

  • Ensure that all communications are translated in the student’s home language. For example, providing a link for direct translation within the district and school webpages.
  • Plan to reach out to parents and guardians on an ongoing basis to understand the needs of students. For example, having ELD coordinators calling families regularly for support.
  • Provide opportunities for parents and guardians to learn strategies, in the language they understand, to support the education of their children at home. For example, organizing webinars for families on distance learning tips.

Meet the Needs of the Whole Child

This time of physical distancing and disruption to daily lives has an impact on us as humans and can create added stress on children, their families, and communities, It is for this reason that the needs of the whole child must be considered in order for them to be fully prepared to learn. This includes creating partnerships with nonprofits, cities, counties, and other partners to ensure that essential resources are available to families and children.

  • Provide children and families with socioemotional supports. For example, establishing a district hotline to easily connect students and families with social-emotional supports.
  • Ensure students continue to have access to meals. For example, establishing a daily schedule for families to pick-up meals and for meals to be delivered to families without a car.
  • Create a resource list of essential services for families and children. For example, regularly updating a dedicated COVID-19 page within the school and district website that includes information about access to childcare for essential workers, healthcare options, and resources for families facing economic challenges.

COVID-19 Resources for Educators

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COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
STORIES FROM THE FIELD
RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES
STAND AGAINST RACISM
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With the news of school closures until the end of the school year, we have heard that there is an increased need for you and your colleagues to connect and learn from each other, share resources and provide the emotional and professional support to meet the demands of equitable access and EL appropriate instruction through distance learning, materials or one-on-one outreach with your English Learners.

Over the course of two months (from April to May 2020), Californians Together asked over 650 teachers and administrators to provide details about their schools’ distance learning plans, focusing particularly on how they served English learners (ELs). This survey reveals the limits of that patchwork response to the emergency — and indicates key lessons for schools’ reopening this fall.  See survey results.

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We at Californians Together have witnessed through various hosted Zoom webinars and meetings the need for people to be connected and wanting to share and learn from each other.  With that in mind, we offered various opportunities to uplift each other and at the same time make a difference for our students.

Centering English Learners in School Reopening

This was a collaborative discussion about centering English learners in school reopening planning. Currently, local school districts are pivoting to planning for the upcoming school year. During this session, examples were shared of how educators can ensure that reopening conversations and plans are equity-focused and prioritize the needs of English learners. Attendees will learn from lessons gathered and information shared through our Communities of Practice series and educator survey and from educators engaged in reopening planning conversations in their schools and districts. Breakout sessions also provided all attendees with an opportunity to share how they are continuing the focus on serving English learners in their own context.

Here is the video recording of the meeting.

All the resources shared during the call can be found on this page.

 

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This session will provided school, district, and community leaders the opportunity to share best practices, resources, and lessons learned for coordinating successful DELAC and ELAC Committee Meetings in virtual settings. A space was created for participants to engage in a small group breakout session to share local practices, ask questions, and identify needs to facilitate the active engagement of parents and families when schools are closed.

Here is the video recording of the meeting.

All the resources shared during the call can be found on this page.

CoP SIRS FINAL

This session provided teachers, administrators, specialists, and support staff the opportunity to share best practices, resources and challenges and the work they are doing to support immigrant and refugee students under COVID-19 and beyond. A space was created for participants to engage in a small group breakout session to share local practices, ask questions and identify needs to support this population moving forward. 

Here is the video recording of the meeting.

All the resources shared during the call can be found on this page.

Bilingual Asian revised2

This was a collaborative discussion about implementing Asian languages bilingual instruction through distance learning. Classroom teachers  shared how they are able to continue their bilingual instruction through their distance learning experiences. A space was created for teachers to share in a facilitated breakout session.

Here is the video recording of the meeting.

All the resources shared during the call can be found on this page.

 

CoP Bilingual Spanish Post Zoom

This was a collaborative discussion about implementing Spanish bilingual instruction through distance learning. Classroom teachers shared how they are able to continue bilingual instruction through their distance learning experiences. A space was created for teachers to share in a facilitated breakout session.

Here is the video recording of the meeting.

All the resources shared during the call can be found on this page.

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Content area teachers will share how they are able to include integrated ELD through their distance learning experiences. A space will be created for secondary teachers to share by content area.

Here is the video recording of the meeting.

All the resources shared during the call can be found on this page.

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This zoom meeting covered examples of teachers implementing designated ELD lessons and instruction and how they outreach to their students to engage in language development through distance learning. A space was created for secondary teachers to share by grade spans.

Resources from the call: video recording of the meeting, slide deck, a summary of resources, comments and questions shared by participants and a compilation of our wishes.

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This zoom meeting covered examples of teachers implementing integrated and designated English language development through distance learning and create a space for elementary school teachers to connect and learn from each other by grade-spans.

Resources from the call: video recording,  slide deck, summary of resources, comments and questions shared by participants and a compilation of our wishes.

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To further support district, school, and community leaders, we also developed the following four considerations to ensure that ELs continue to have full access to the curriculum (Supporting English Learners Through Distance Learning: Considerations for District and School Leaders). The list and examples are not exhaustive but are meant to help informally assess and guide a conversation about how distance learning is being implemented in your district, school, and community.

Spanish and Korean Dual Immersion Instruction Through Distance Learning: Anaheim Elementary School District

While most districts are struggling to address the needs of English Learners through distance learning, Anaheim Elementary School District (AESD) has kept their focus on bilingualism, biliteracy and English Learners while planning for distance learning during school closures. Read more.

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Parenting help with homework. Authentic photo of young mother helping her little boy do homework

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Students: Considerations for School Leaders in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the ending of the school year and the uncertainty about the reopening in the fall, now is the time to develop plans to address the needs of immigrant and refugee students and their families with focused and sensitive attention. Below are three guiding principles for school and district leaders to consider to ensure that immigrant and refugee students and their families receive support and equitable access to educational opportunities during this unprecedented time. Read more.

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Californians Together launched the Alas y Voz campaign on social media to increase awareness about the benefits of biliteracy and bilingual programs among parents of Spanish speaking English learners to encourage them to enroll their children in bilingual programs. 

However, given the rise of the COVID-19 crisis, we have changed the focus of Alas y Voz in order to share resources with parents and to support their children’s learning at home during this time. We are carefully selecting what we share so that it is accessible to parents and from reliable sources.

Our hope is that you will be able to share the resources with your parents, through your social media, your newsletters, or by including them in your websites.

You will be able to find the resources in a few ways. 

We have added a section atop our Alas y Voz website that will take you to these compilations, which we will be updating regularly.

We have sent out a compilation of the first round of these resources through our  Alas y Voz newsletter (in Spanish) earlier this week.

We will continue updating the resources on the Alas y Voz website.

If you come across any resources  that you think we can share, please contact claudia@californianstogether.org.

¡Gracias!

STAND AGAINST RACISM

We Stand Together with Our API Community Against Racism and Bigotry (3)

Often when there is a national or state crisis, the best in our community come together for support and healing.  But too often the worst in our communities, the state and the nation look to blame others, and bigotry and racism raise their ugly heads.  During this coronavirus health crisis, members of our Asian Pacific Islander community are being assaulted, harassed and subject to demeaning and hurtful verbal attacks.  The President, himself, continues to call COVID-19 the Chinese virus.

Often when there is a national or state crisis, the best in our community come together for support and healing.  But too often the worst in our communities, the state and the nation look to blame others, and bigotry and racism raise their ugly heads.  During this coronavirus health crisis, members of our Asian Pacific Islander community are being assaulted, harassed and subject to demeaning and hurtful verbal attacks.  The President, himself, continues to call COVID-19 the Chinese virus.

Our children and their parents have enough to handle with the loss of jobs, childcare, minimal health care options and school.  We, as Californians Together, stand together against this racism and bigotry and ask that each of us reach out to members and friends in the API community to share their pain and uplift their spirits.  If you see or hear any incidents, speak out.

Below is a letter the API Legislative Caucus sent to the Governor about the fear and incidents in their communities and a response by  Governor Newsom which he delivered at one of his press conferences asking us to be better.

Share this information with your networks as we come together with members of the API community as colleagues, friends, family and voices for respect, love and decency.  We've included a downloadable graphic at the end of this email for you to share.

Letter to and Response from Governor Newsom:

On Tuesday, March 17th, our caucus issued a letter to Governor Newsom to share concerns about the discriminatory acts targeting Asian Americans due to the fears of COVID-19. We asked him to join us in condemning these acts and recommended that relevant state agencies create guidelines and share information to prevent discrimination, harassment and bullying.

On Thursday, March 19th, Governor Newsom addressed these concerns during his press conference by strongly denouncing the rise of xenophobia and hate crimes against Asian Americans. We applaud his statement and his commitment to enforcing hate crimes.

Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center:

The API Legislative Caucus joined Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action and San Francisco State University Asian American Studies Department to launch the "Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center" to collect and track incidents of anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander hate, violence and discrimination in California and throughout the country. These incidents will help inform future policy discussions. We encourage individuals to share their stories at www.a3pcon.org/stopaapihate

Click here or on the image below to watch this sweet girl singing.