Conclusion

Today, the majority of students are back to attending school in person and pandemic-related precautions are rapidly fading. While we welcome the easing of the pandemic, too many school systems are shifting "back to normal," which may only harm ELs, given the ineffective ways our education system has historically viewed and served these students.

The educational experiences of English learners during the pandemic were complicated, even conflicting at times, which can make it difficult to understand opportunity gaps. ELs experienced gaps in access to education during the pandemic due to inadequate technological access. Remote learning impacted their language development in positive and negative ways. Processes used to identify and assess these students were interrupted, creating gaps in data that may affect these students down the line. Teachers used new technological tools and made adaptations to facilitate instruction and strengthen communication with families. And school systems sought to provide resources, including direct support to teachers, digital devices and internet hotspots, learning hubs, and more, to help minimize the impact of school closures.

Unfortunately, we are already seeing many of the advancements propelled by the pandemic being rolled back, including devices being recalled and flexibilities around attendance and coursework being taken away. At the same time, there is a lot of pressure for kids, and ELs in particular, to “catch up.” But as Alvarez asked, “what are we asking them to catch up to? Their pre-pandemic peers? Because those kids are totally different than the kids we see today.” Education leaders, advocates, practitioners, and researchers must take care not to lean too heavily into deficit-oriented narratives around “learning loss” because, as Measel said, building instruction from a deficit perspective does not work. And as Luft explained, the learning loss narrative places “the burden on the students to learn twice as fast" and does not "take stock of the innovative things they can do [and] learned to do and implies that they didn't learn anything” during remote learning. This deficit framing can also impact how curricula and instruction are developed, and it does a disservice to the perseverance that both students and educators showed over the last two years.

The perspectives shared with us for this paper are not exhaustive, but they represent a well-rounded view of the challenges and positive developments prompted by the pandemic. However, the barriers that ELs faced before and during the pandemic will persist unless there is a fundamental shift in how these students are viewed by policymakers and other local leaders across the country. For English learners, this starts with “thinking about them in terms of what language they have,” as Measel told us, and “looking for opportunities to develop students' language skills.” Though this shift may seem small, it can help education leaders build more equitable systems for ELs that can be relied on in times of crisis.