How Is the Pandemic Affecting English Learners?

Abstract

With schools across the United States turning to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns are being raised about the quality of instruction that English learners—students whose English proficiency affects their ability to meaningfully participate in school—are receiving. English learners make up nearly 10 percent of all public school students in the United States and, even during normal times, face significant barriers to academic success. Those challenges are multiplied when instruction goes online.