Equity-Driven Practices and Lessons Learned from 2020 Learning Continuity and Attendance Plan

  

How Districts Planned for

Pandemic Learning:

Equity-Driven Practices and Lessons

Learned from 2020 Learning

Continuity and Attendance Plans

May 2021

A Report by:

Californians Together, Children Now,

National Center for Youth Law, and Public Advocates

 

 

a. English Learners

Trends: In meeting the needs of English learners, LEAs are required to provide English learners with

designated and integrated English language development (“ELD” ). While almost all LEAs mentioned ELD,

they lacked specific strategies about how this would be provided. For example, Learning Continuity Plans

did not typically include details about: any guaranteed synchronous instructional time for ELD that would

be provided for English learners; how professional development for all educators would incorporate

ELD strategies (for both teachers of English learners and teachers in other subjects); monitoring of

progress and assessments with specific interventions for the different typologies of English learners;

and instructional materials that would be provided to suppor t language development. While most LEAs

mentioned one or two of these specific areas, it is impor tant that LEAs plan for all of these strategies in

order for English learners to have access to the education that they deserve.

Moreover, when additional learning time or in-person learning was mentioned, most LEAs did not explicitly

discuss if English learners would be prioritized for these oppor tunities, raising serious equity concerns

for these students.

Practices: There were several promising practices wor th highlighting.

Mendota Unified assigned specific counselors to newcomer students at the

secondary level to provide a more personalized introduction to the district

and academic counseling.

See SCUSD Fails it English Learners in the post below.