To ensure email delivery directly to your inbox, please add
@migrationpolicy.org to your address book.


The Migration Policy Institute


June 12, 2020

Dear John,

Some experts estimate that U.S. school students will lose 30 percent of their annual reading gains and up to 50 percent of their math gains due to the so-called COVID slide. While the transition to home learning has not been seamless or even adequate for most families, the challenge has proven even greater for English Learners (ELs) and immigrant students.

Teachers have reported that students -- especially ELs and those from low-income households -- have not been showing up online. Lacking computers or internet access at home and cut off from school staff who can communicate in languages other than English, many ELs have been left behind.

Well-known equity gaps due to language, income, and immigration status are at risk of widening in the months ahead, as a new commentary from the Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy explores -- particularly as states face budget shortfalls and consider cuts to education spending.

As states and school districts identify strategies and investments to support ELs through this pandemic and its aftermath, they would do well to partner with immigrant-serving nonprofit organizations that have demonstrated experience in supporting EL students and their families, writes Melissa Lazarín, Senior Advisor for State Early Childhood and K-12 Policy at the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy.

She highlights efforts undertaken by a number of nonprofit organizations that are playing a pivotal role in the wake of COVID-19 to support students' learning at home, meet families' basic living needs, and serve as a trusted source of information through the public-health crisis.

As this abbreviated school year ends and educators and parents plan for the fall, I commend this timely commentary to your attention. You can read it here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/covid-19-inequities-english-learner-students.

And please join us on Tuesday for an interesting conversation around ELs and native language assessments. Find out more about this webchat here: www.migrationpolicy.org/events/english-learner-students-native-language-assessments.

With hopes you are keeping well and safe,


Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications and Public Affairs,
Migration Policy Institute


###

The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org.

_________________________________________


Migration Policy Institute
Stay up to date on MPI's events and newest publications: [link removed]

Migration Information Source
Read a unique, online journal that provides fresh thought and global analysis of international migration and refugee trends: [link removed]

Click here to unsubscribe [ [link removed] ]