English language learner students are being more affected by California's prolonged school closures

On January 26, 2021 California Governor Gavin Newsom lifted the second stay-at-home order that was put on the state for a little over a month. Since the stay-at-home order was lifted, coronavirus restrictions fell back in control of the counties and reopenings of businesses and schools are now determined by cases in the county rather than state-wide or regional case numbers. California tracks cases and reopenings county by county by putting the counties into a tier and the state has four tiers which are widespread, substantial, moderate, and minimal. With the tier list a county can reopen schools once it enters the substantial tier, but the issue is that fifty-four out of the fifty-eight counties in California remain in the widespread tier meaning schools remain shut.

The prolonged school closures in California have affected all students but one demographic of students that appears to be more heavily affected by the closures is English language learner students. English language learner students face significantly more issues when it comes to virtual learning than their native English speaking peers. Before schools in most of the state went virtual, California had districts have a curriculum for English language learners to use so they could spend a significant amount of school time learning English. This curriculum could include having English tutors come in to tutor the students, have time carved out of the school day for English learning lessons, or have the students attend additional language classes. Although, when California issued virtual learning guidelines to the school districts throughout the state it failed to mention how to provide English language learning curriculum to students that need it. This has caused many English language learner students to not get the language lessons and instruction they need or get the same amount they have gotten in the past.

Virtual learning has also caused English language learning students to fall behind in classes further than many of their peers. School districts in San Diego County, the second most populous county in the state, have reported that the percentage of English language learning students getting D’s or F’s has jumped to 47% from 34% when schools were open for in person education. Another reason that has caused English language learning students to fall further behind is because most English language learning students are in English only classes or have teachers who only speak English. Parents also have issues helping their children with school work because 41.5% of students live in homes where a language other than English is only spoken, and many of these students are getting help with school work from siblings also enrolled in school if they are lucky enough to have a sibling who can help them and is able to read and speak English.

With many counties in the state still being in the widespread tier and school already in the second half of the year it looks like virtual learning will be the norm for the foreseeable future in California. This will have prolong effects on English language learning students that may last longer than just this school year. Although a glimmer of hope for English language learning students to get back in the classroom is that California continues to see a significant drop in cases over the last month.