The term “learning loss” is too often used to describe the restorative restart needed in California’s most underserved communities for the 2021-2022 academic year. It is accurate that many students have experienced enormous disruptions in their lives and learning, but historically most approaches to learning deficits have meant remediation, which has not proven to be an effective strategy, especially for English learners.

According to NASEM (2017), diagnosing student needs and addressing them instructionally necessitates a mind shift that involves “seeing instruction as supporting students’ academic development rather than as remediation for their lack of English language proficiency” (p 273). Focusing on loss is not the whole “truth” of what we will experience when classroom doors open. It is glass-half-empty thinking, deficit thinking, that limits our ability to see and build on the strengths and the assets that our students bring with them as they enter classrooms again. There are better approaches.

A positive view based on the recognition of assets provides a stronger starting place for addressing both unmet needs and new opportunities for thriving. While we recognize and address student needs, we also recognize that our students are resilient. Our students adjusted the best they could to learning from home. Black and Latino families especially faced economic and health challenges, often signaling “the triple pandemic.” They return to school, perhaps a bit unsure about how the new year will unfold, but also with a belief that school is good for them, a place where they can continue to grow in academics, athletics, activities, and affirmations from their peers and teachers. Our students have shown that they are resilient, and as they begin in-person learning again, their willingness to engage in learning renews our hope and commitment to re-energizing education.

Our responsibility is to build on these assets and create learning environments characterized by the new ABC’s: Accelerate, Build and Communicate. For English learners, these new ABC’s incorporate the key principles of the California English Learner Roadmap, the state policy for equitable and effective instruction. This roadmap comprises four principles:

1. Assets-Oriented and Needs-Responsive Schools 2. Intellectual Quality of Instruction and Meaningful Access 3. System Conditions that Support Effectiveness, and 4. Alignment and Articulation Within and Across Systems.

Let’s see how the new ABC’s align to the four principles and guide us in providing the most effective schools for English learners.

It is a truism that one must go faster to catch up. Yet that seldom happens in our schools. Traditionally, students who have not had equitable learning opportunities are pulled out of the grade level instruction for some portion of the day and taught the prior grade-level lessons. While this may help students master prior year expectations, it still leaves them behind, partly because of reduced exposure to the current year expectations. Acceleration, however, better meets teachers’ goal to help students meet grade level or course expectations. With acceleration, teachers from the current year course and the prior year course identify and align the essential learnings for success in the current course. Many districts and schools do this already. But, here’s the difference: Instead of implementing a remedial approach by assigning students to an intervention course or pull-out program, or taking an extended period of weeks to re-teach the prior content, the teacher orchestrates the acceleration of access to content coupled with academic and linguistics supports/scaffolds. Students remain in the same course and the teacher embeds the prior year content when it is pertinent to the current course. Engaging in the essential prior year content when it is most applicable allows students to learn the content when it will be needed, to make connections between the prior and current year content, and to deepen their understanding. Students continue to have access to the full, intellectually rich, standards-based instruction for their grade or course, and receive the support of exposure to key antecedents necessary for success aligned to current instruction. Additionally, English learners in schools with bilingual or dual language instruction can use the students’ primary language assets to provide even deeper understanding of essential concepts between courses. Acceleration is thus both assets-oriented and needs-responsive, while providing students meaningful access to intellectually rigorous, language-rich, standards-based instruction through alignment and articulation within and across courses (EL Roadmap Principles 1, 2, 4, and with district and/or school support, 3).

Building on strengths is the essence of an asset-based approach to education. Brain research has shown how prior knowledge facilitates acquiring new knowledge. Some of students’ prior knowledge is acquired through formal education, but even during the time of school closures, students have continued to learn … through online instruction and through experiences and observations during stay-at-home orders. Families and siblings have spent more time together, sharing their knowledge, culture, expectations and strategies for handling the pandemic challenges. Older students may have taken outside jobs and acquired practical knowledge in a new environment. Bilingual students’ primary language may be richer and more developed as they have been exposed to many more discussions in their primary language at home with family members and through the news, or other television. The knowledge gained during the pandemic can contribute to further learning once schools reopen. For example, math concepts such as fractions, decimals and money may make more sense if the students were engaged in shopping or budgeting. Discussions at home about coronavirus could contribute to greater understanding of health and science. Discussions about politics can contribute to deeper understanding of challenges seen across history. This informally and experientially acquired content knowledge is a strength that can facilitate continued learning in school of both general educational concepts and career-focused knowledge. It is an asset from which we can continue to build new learning. As such, it exemplifies an assets-oriented approach to education and strengthens meaningful access to new knowledge and experiences, while ensuring coherence between what students already know and what they are in the process of learning. (EL Roadmap Principles 1, 2, and 3).

In addition to communication between home and school that builds on the cultural and linguistic assets of students, families and communities, there are two essential sources of communication within the classroom: teachers and students. Teachers’ communication of affirmations and their recognition of students’ strengths and capabilities to grow intellectually establish a positive learning environment — the necessary foundation for learning. Students’ communications help them capture and retain ideas, make meaning, identify feelings, and retain knowledge. Teacher and peer communications support the expansion of ideas, meaning, empathy and knowledge. All students, as language learners, need ongoing opportunities to listen to language and practice language in authentic ways to communicate their perspective, understandings and wishes. Language-rich classrooms that value and build on the language students bring to school and build language and knowledge through strategies such as dialogic reading and Socratic discussions are instrumental for accelerating learning. For English learners, both designated and integrated ELD are essential for continued language development. Designated ELD provides students the time to acquire specific aspects of language; while integrated ELD provides access to content knowledge across the full curriculum. A rich, standards-based curriculum based on ELD standards and content standards with optimal engagement in authentic language strengthens language development, preferably in both the primary language as well as English (CDE, 2015.; EL Roadmap Principles 1 and 2).