They entered high school in a weird place. It is possible that some students started ninth grade not as prepared as they otherwise would have been. - Sarah Part, senior policy analyst at Advocates for Children, regarding the Class of 2025 students who began high school in September 2021 as the first full in-person cohort after pandemic disruptions.
For one, the younger brain learns language more quickly than the teen brain does. The concepts and material high schoolers face in class are more complex and difficult than the ideas taught in elementary school. And teens study more subjects at a faster pace than do younger kids. Many young people long to be bilingual. They know it's necessary for school and work, and aim to earn a seal of biliteracy, recognizing that they've mastered two languages.
An audit released Monday found that a "a significant percentage" of the school system's English Language Learners (ELLs) hadn't received the services they're legally entitled to, such as required courses or a minimum number of instructional minutes.They have also been denied other legally mandated services, the audit found, such as being identified as ELLs through the Home Language Identification Survey, being tested and placed through the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners,