A Pre- and Post-Pandemic Analysis of the Mathematics Performance of Emergent Bilingual Students and Its Relationship to Poverty: A Texas, Multiyear Investigation

Abstract

In this investigation, the extent to which differences were present between Emergent Bilingual students who were economically disadvantaged and Emergent Bilingual students who were not economically disadvantaged in their performance on the Texas state-mandated Algebra I End-of-Couse exam for the 2018-2019, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school years was examined. The specific emphasis in this study was whether performance gaps were present by the economic status of Emergent Bilingual students on the Algebra I End-of-Course exam in the pre-pandemic year and the first and second-post-pandemic years. In the pre-pandemic 2018-2019 school year, Emergent Bilingual students in poverty outperformed Emergent Bilingual students who were not in poverty in all three Grade Level standards. In addition, Emergent Bilingual students in poverty outperformed Emergent Bilingual students who were not economically disadvantaged in the second post-pandemic year in the Approaches Grade Level standard. Both groups of students exhibited substantial learning loss between the pre-pandemic year and the first post-pandemic years in the Approaches and Meets Grade Level standards, with Emergent Bilingual students in poverty experiencing the greatest learning loss. An interesting finding is that in the two post-pandemic years, Emergent Bilingual students in poverty did not outperformed Emergent Bilingual students who were not economically disadvantaged as had occurred in the pre-pandemic year.