Richard Carranza is Chief of Strategy and Global Development at IXL Learning where he helps identify how the company can make an even greater worldwide impact. Carranza previously served as Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and as the superintendent of Houston Independent School District and San Francisco Unified School District. This article was originally published on Forbes in September 2024.
On a spring morning in 2015, a dozen educators gathered in the White House’s historic Roosevelt Room to speak with President Obama about the most pressing issues that urban school leaders faced. As the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, I had an important task: advocate for English language learners’ (ELLs) access to quality education.
To illustrate the challenges ELLs face, I greeted the president in English and then pivoted to speaking Spanish for about 40 seconds. Everyone was mildly confused, but I had their attention. After a deliberate pause, I asked the president if he understood what I said, and he admitted to catching a few words.
“The reason I did this was to have you experience what tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of students are going through right now in classrooms across America. Today, you are a Spanish-language learner, but I want to talk to you about English-language learners.”
His response was a warm smile and a heartfelt, “Muy bien.”
How The Other Half Learns
I spoke from personal experience: I still vividly recall stepping into my kindergarten classroom as a young ELL, not speaking any English and experiencing a distinctly different academic reality than my English-speaking peers. Despite sharing the same classrooms, I felt lost and overwhelmed, and I struggled to keep up. Some days felt like a nightmare—akin to showing up for a test and realizing you’re completely unprepared.
The challenges I faced then are all too familiar for many children today: Language barriers, limited access to support, lack of teachers with specialized training and a dearth of culturally responsive materials cast a long shadow over educating the fastest-growing student population in the U.S. Progress has been made: The Every Student Succeeds Act was revamped the year we met with the president and created several new requirements for English learner equity. But significant obstacles remain, including the persistent high school graduation rate gap between ELLs and their peers and setbacks in language development due to pandemic-related disruptions.
However, the mainstreaming of educational technology in K-12’s “new normal” era is transforming how we support ELLs and provide them with new opportunities to succeed.
Know Thy Student: A Maxim For Modern ELL Education
English learners are an incredibly diverse group, making one-size-fits-all approaches to their education as effective as calling a disconnected number. Personalizing learning for ELLs is crucial to ensure that students at various language levels can access grade-level content without falling behind. To achieve this, schools must know their students inside and out, including their English proficiency level and knowledge gaps in other content areas.
Forward-thinking districts are increasingly turning to formative adaptive assessments to gain these insights rather than solely relying on a single test score from an end-of-year exam. Adaptive assessments can be used at any point in the year, quickly pinpoint strengths and growth areas and help continually personalize instruction. This approach especially benefits schools with migrant students, as it informs educators about each ELL’s academic progress, even if their education is disrupted by frequent moves.
Once educators know where learners stand, they can differentiate instruction by leveraging personalized learning platforms. By immediately adapting to students with each answered question, these solutions provide just the right level of challenge so ELLs can work at their own pace while striving for mastery. Other support tools, such as on-demand audio and text translations, language toggling and video captions, offer additional scaffolding for ELLs to engage with grade-level content in their native language while developing their English proficiency.
Learning The Lingua Franca
Although every student’s learning journey is unique, research shows that immersive experiences accelerate language acquisition. In the wake of school closures, which underscored the critical need for immersive learning and speaking practice for English language learners, technology has emerged as a powerful solution. For schools without traditional immersion programs, innovative language learning platforms now bring engaging, experiential and language-rich environments directly to students.
These platforms move beyond rote memorization of vocabulary by using visual and verbal cues (dual coding) and spaced practice to reinforce learning over time. By stimulating multiple senses, emphasizing context and reasoning and incorporating cultural themes, edtech empowers learners to acquire language skills organically, mirroring real-world scenarios. This contextual approach fosters intuitive learning, critical thinking and a deeper, more nuanced understanding of English.
In essence, technology is bridging the gap created by limited English exposure at home and missed classroom instruction, ensuring that all students have access to the immersive experiences essential for effective language acquisition.
Nurturing The Next Generation
Although edtech can significantly enhance ELL education, it must be thoughtfully implemented and will never substitute the invaluable roles of dedicated teachers with proven instructional strategies. However, the number of certified licensed English learner instructors has declined even while the ELL population has grown, so we must establish a reliable pipeline for bilingual teachers and highlight the rewards of this career. This involves nurturing multilingual high school students, collaborating with teacher preparation programs and offering competitive salaries and job security. Bilingual education provides the unique reward of witnessing students “turn a corner” right before our eyes and become proficient English speakers and readers, which provides an intrinsic fulfillment that few other professions can offer.
Additionally, terminology matters. Labeling students as “English language learners” emphasizes a perceived deficiency rather than their existing skills and the process of becoming multilingual. Renaming the “English Language Learning Department” to the “Multilingual Department” would better reflect their journey.
Bilingualism has profoundly enriched my ability to express myself in a broader, deeper way. This transformative power is what we must bring to ELL students, using technology and human instruction in harmony to help them thrive.
The post Moving to multilingual: Educating ELLs in K-12’s new normal era appeared first on IXL Official Blog.