Students Learning English Had a Difficult Time During the Pandemic
In The News Piece in Voices of America
Nov. 9, 2021
Leslie Villegas shares with Voices of America the limitations of a recent study of English language learners conducted by the WIDA consortium and calls for additional research on the subject.
Because of the pandemic, students were also tested at irregular times. Instead of being tested every 12 months, students took the test between 9 and 15 months apart. And students who took the test one year, might not have taken the test again.
The total number of students in the study was also low, said Leslie Villegas. She is with the New America Foundation, a public policy research group in Washington, D.C. Students from Texas, California and New York do not take the WIDA test and are not included in the data. However, those three states have the highest numbers of ESL students.
Villegas said the study provides some useful information but that educators should be “careful” about forming opinions from it. The information is “definitely not representative of all (English learners) in the country,” Villegas said. “I think we need to keep that in mind.” Students may not have been in a good academic position before the pandemic either, she said.
Finding good quality information on English learners’ educational progress has been difficult throughout the pandemic, Villegas said.
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