Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools and Beyond Deborah J. Short Beverly A. Boyson Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools and Beyond DEBORAH J. SHORT & BEVERLY A. BOYSON A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street NW, Washington, DC 20016 ©2012 by Center for Applied Linguistics All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Center for Applied Linguistics. A full-text PDF of this document is available for free download from www.cal.org/help-newcomers-succeed. Requests for permission to reproduce excerpts from this report should be directed to [email protected]. This report was prepared with funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York but does not necessarily represent the opinions or recommendations of the Corporation. Suggested citation: Short, D. J., & Boyson, B. A. (2012). Helping newcomer students succeed in secondary schools and beyond. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. About Carnegie Corporation of New York Carnegie Corporation of New York is a grant-making foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to do “real and permanent good in this world.” Current priorities in the foundation’s Urban and Higher Education program include upgrading the standards and assessments that guide student learning, improving teaching and ensuring that effective teachers are well deployed in our nation’s schools, and promoting innovative new school and system designs. About the Center for Applied Linguistics The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving communication through better understanding of language and culture. Established in 1959, CAL is headquartered in Washington, DC. CAL has earned a national and international reputation for its research and contributions to the fields of bilingual education, English as a second language, literacy, foreign language education, dialect studies, language policy, refugee orientation, and the education of linguistically and culturally diverse adults, youth, and children. CAL provides a comprehensive range of research-based language resources, testing tools, professional services, publications, and cultural orientation information. For more information, visit www.cal.org. Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................. vi Executive Summary .............................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Newcomer English Language Learners and Specialized Programs That Serve Them ....................... 1 Chapter 2: Findings From the National Survey of Secondary Newcomer Programs ..................................... 9 Chapter 3: A Look Inside the Case Study Programs ........................... 29 Chapter 4: Connections Among Newcomer Programs, Families, and Community and Social Institutions ............................. 51 Chapter 5: Monitoring Programs for Success ..................................... 61 Chapter 6: Challenges, Accomplishments, and Recommendations for Newcomer Programs .................................................. 71 References ............................................................................................ 81 Appendix A: Newcomer Program Survey .............................................. 83 Appendix B: Secondary School Newcomer Programs in CAL’s 2011 Database ....................................................90 Appendix C: Case Study Program Descriptions ..................................... 93 Appendix D: Dearborn SIOP Lesson Plan Template (Dearborn Public Schools) .............................................. 105 Appendix E: Life and Study Skills Checklists (Intensive English Program, Dayton) .............................. 106 Appendix F: Readiness Checklist (ESL Teen Literacy Center) ............................................ 108 Acknowledgments We would like to acknowledge our program officer at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Andrés Henríquez, whose vision for advancing literacy in English language learners has been a guiding light for many years, and our research advisors, Kate Menken of Queens College, City University of New York, and Dennis Terdy, founding director of Newcomer Center 214 in Arlington Heights, Illinois, for their support and guidance throughout this research study. We would like to express our gratitude to colleagues at the Center for Applied Linguistics, including Jennifer Himmel, Leonida Vizcarra, Guadalupe Hernandez Silva, Huy Nguyen, Aileen Bach, Jacki Lopez, Carolyn Adger, and student intern Julia Von Holt, for providing valuable support during the data collection and analysis phases of the work. We would also like to thank the newcomer program staff in the Pasadena (CA) Unified School District for field testing our case study instruments. We gratefully recognize all the teachers, principals, and other staff who work tirelessly at these newcomer programs and in district offices, specifically those who completed the survey and updates for the database and those who assisted us during the 10 case study visits. Their dedication to the newcomer students and their programs is admirable. Their willingness to take the time and share information in order to provide a clear picture of life in newcomer programs strengthened this research immeasurably and will benefit the wider education community. Finally, we salute the newcomer students who come to the United States knowing very little about the school system and the society, yet strive hard, learn well, and look toward the future. Executive Summary s a nation, we have started to make some progress • Guide students’ acculturation to the school system in in serving underperforming students in second- the United States ary schools through targeted interventions, such • Develop or strengthen students’ native language A as small-school approaches and reforming “high literacy skills school dropout factory” schools (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011). Many of these interventions, however, Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools have not focused specifically on English language learners and Beyond has been written for educators and policy (Advocates for Children of New York & Asian American makers in order to focus attention on these newcomer Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2009). Yet, English adolescent English language learners at the middle and language learners are the fastest growing student group in high school grades and to communicate promising the preK–12 school population, and compared with their practices for serving their educational and social needs. non-English-language-learner counterparts, they have The report is based on a 3-year national research study, struggled to succeed in school. Exemplary Programs for Newcomer English Language Learners at the Secondary Level, conducted by the Center Adolescent students who are newly arrived immigrants for Applied Linguistics on behalf of the Carnegie Corpo- and who need to learn English are among the most vul- ration of New York. This research project consisted of a nerable subgroups of English language learners, especially national survey of secondary school newcomer programs; those with gaps in their educational backgrounds. They compilation of program profiles into an online, search- are held to the same accountability standards as native able database; and case studies of 10 of these programs, English speakers while they are just beginning to develop selected for their exemplary practices. their proficiency in academic English and are simultane- ously studying core content areas. With their low levels The findings in this report will show that there is no one of literacy in English, these adolescent newcomers are not set model for a newcomer program. Middle and high prepared for secondary level texts and assignments. New school newcomer students exhibit a variety of charac- to the country and the language, they face acculturation teristics and thus programs must be carefully designed issues too, making engagement with their schools, peers, to meet their needs. Besides newcomers’ different native and teachers challenging. When one considers the likeli- languages and countries of origin, the differences in their hood of these students succeeding in traditional school literacy skills and educational backgrounds prove to be the settings, it is difficult to be optimistic. most important factors for a newcomer program’s design. This report explains how the characteristics of newcomer However, a number of school districts around the United students interact with program goals to determine an ap- States have tried to address the challenges and pressures on propriate design for a newcomer program. these students by developing and implementing newcomer programs. We have defined these as specialized academic After students complete a newcomer program, they typi- environments that serve newly arrived, immigrant English cally make the transition to their school’s regular language language learners for a limited period of time and have found support program that may have ESL or English language through our research that the main goals of these programs development and sheltered content or bilingual content are the following: classes. (Students in full, 4-year newcomer high schools are an exception.)