The Impact of Remote Learning on English Language Learners: COVID and Peer Language Environment

• In Event: Contexts, Policies, and Outcomes for English Learners

Abstract

Many studies and reports have documented learning loss associated with COVID-19-related disruptions to learning, including stay-at-home orders and the rapid transition to remote instruction. However, less is known about whether and how these disruptions contributed to learning loss among English Language Learners (ELLs), even though reduced in-person interaction may have been especially consequential for this group. Because ELLs are developing academic skills while also acquiring English proficiency, reduced access to peer language exposure and school-based supports during the pandemic may have posed additional challenges for this population.

In this study, we examine the extent to which COVID-19 disruptions affected the achievement gaps between ELLs and non-ELLs in New York City public schools. We also incorporate students’ school assignment and residential information to investigate whether the academic outcomes among students from non-English-language backgrounds during the COVID period differed across school and neighborhood peer language environments.

We use administrative records from the New York City Department of Education to follow kindergarten cohorts from the 2012-13 to 2019-20 academic years and assess their third-grade academic outcomes, including standardized English Language Arts test scores. We define cohorts as having been affected by COVID-19 if they experienced pandemic-related disruptions before their third-grade year. To better identify achievement gaps, we distinguish non-ELL students whose home language is not English from those whose home language is English, allowing for a more precise comparison between ELL students and peers from English-speaking homes. We also construct school- and neighborhood-level measures of the share of students in each grade cohort who speak a non-English language at home to assess whether COVID-related disruptions differed across peer language environments. For heterogeneity analyses, we assess whether these patterns differ across students from major language groups, such as students from Spanish- and Chinese-speaking homes.

We find a statistically significant decline in academic outcomes among students whose home language is not English but who were not identified as ELLs in kindergarten, whereas we find an increase among ELL students. These results suggest that ELL students may have been protected from pandemic-related disruptions, while students who were proficient enough in English to avoid ELL classification may have been more vulnerable in the absence of similar supports. These findings indicate that the educational consequences of COVID-19 varied within the broader population of students from non-English-language backgrounds. Additional analyses are currently underway.

Author

• Dong Hoon Lee, Syracuse University
  Presenting Author