School districts are under enormous pressure to support English learners, and they’re hungry for strategies that will help them.
A new Education Week special report gives readers an unvarnished look at the challenges district and school leaders and teachers face in supporting the estimated 5 million English learners in the nation’s schools—and it offers practical advice on how to navigate those longstanding barriers.
The stories cover an ambitious amount of ground, from the screening of the English-language skills of early learners to classroom supports for teenagers to attempts at tech-based language support.
Here are three takeaways from those stories.
1. States and districts struggle to diagnose English learners’ needs early
EdWeek Staff Writer Caitlynn Peetz Stephens looks at the state of California’s tangled efforts to accurately assess the needs of young English learners, without putting them on a remedial academic path they don’t need.
Until two years ago, California gave the same English-language proficiency assessment it delivers to students in the K-12 system to children in its universal pre-K program for 4-year-olds, known as transitional kindergarten. The state’s overall goal was to identify and support English learners with language development and literacy help before they enter kindergarten.
But advocates and teachers said some children were shutting down as a result of that early screening—and they were potentially being misidentified as English learners. So in 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation exempting transitional kindergarten students from the assessment, known as ELPAC. The change deferred English-learner designations to kindergarten or whenever a child enters public school.
Instead of using that English-proficiency assessment, the California department of education this school year plans to pilot two new screeners for transitional kindergartners. The new approach will focus more on play and storytelling than formal testing.
2. Older English learners need creative, tailored forms of support
The needs of middle and high school English learners are especially complex. Some are newcomers to the country and lack the English skills of younger students. Others have been getting language support for years, perhaps since elementary school.
EdWeek’s Ileana Najarro looks at how school systems have sought to craft strategies to address these complex realities.
The Chelsea school system in Massachusetts has taken a targeted approach to try to meet the needs of older English learners. It created the Chelsea Opportunity Academy, a school specifically for undercredited students 17 and older.
In addition, the district offers online tutoring programs for English learners and puts an emphasis on teachers learning how to teach language in mainstream classrooms.
Schools face pressure to help older English learners acquire essential language skills in a short period of time, said Almudena Abeyta, the superintendent of the Chelsea district.
“It’s a lot, and the teachers have to work extremely hard at making it work,” said Abeyta.
3. Districts are tapping AI to connect with families
School systems are turning to artificial intelligence tools to overcome language barriers and reach out to non-English-speaking barriers.
The AI-delivered messages could pertain to student health needs or academic supports, reports EdWeek Assistant Editor Alyson Klein.
At the same time, districts are weighing questions about the accuracy of those platforms, and student privacy.
The Croton-Harmon school system in New York’s Hudson Valley is one district using an AI tool to connect with families of English learners. The district sometimes checks translations the system produces with a native speaker, but that’s not always possible.
So far, no parent has said that a message they received was “bonkers or didn’t make sense,” said Ellen Moskowitz, the district’s director of technology.
Some parent-communication tools incorporate AI features, and require a paid subscription. And in some cases, districts are using hand-held tools with AI translation functionality for individual meetings with parents, reports Klein.
“AI is a powerful tool, but any tool is only as good as the user,” said Sharon Mofield-Boswell, the director of family and community engagement for the Fayette County school district in Lexington, Ky., according to the story. Her district’s students speak more than 100 different languages at home.
“AI can generate and translate content, but it can’t give context. It has to have some really clear boundaries, and it cannot take over the human component of translation and interpretation services.”
