I. Introduction
My research will
be focused on immigrant students or students from immigrant families from Latin
America that are affected by the different cultural changes. These students
come from homes where Spanish is the main language. With their living
conditions and different cultural background their academic performances in
states tests and for their grade level have resulted to be lower than average.
The percentage of graduates is lower and with the immigration situation that is
going on a lot people believe that these students shouldn’t be here, even with
their citizenship. With that being said we do experience a high level of
students from immigrant parents or themselves being from Latin America,
predominantly from Mexico. In result to this research I want to conclude with
finding an affective program or teaching tool that has benefited these students
in their academic performances. My research will be from scholarly articles and
research that have been already done, I would like to take that research and
see how it can benefit Utah’s education system in helping our students succeed.
From what I have experience, I believe that there is programs that help the
student become more successful in school. They just need someone that believes
and supports them.
II. Statement of
the Problem
With the amount
of new comers that we have in this country some of our schools are becoming
populated with students from different cultures, especially Hispanic students.
It has become difficult for a lot of them to learn the language properly. A lot
of them don’t consider going to college because of their different cultural
views. The majority do not do well on state test. What can we do to help these
children stay away from the streets and focus on a better future? What school
programs has been successful?
III. Purpose of
the Study
With our public
schools being filled with students that come from immigrant families or
themselves being immigrants, the public schools have been filled with
different cultures and some teachers
do not know how to treat or help the them. The purpose of this study would be
to research the most effective programs and teaching technique to help these
students academically.
IV. Review of
the Literature:
Children of
Immigration by Carola and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozxo
· a.
Chapter 5 in this book focuses The Children of Immigration in School.
This basically goes over the cultural views that are past down to the child in
regards to education.
Made in America
by Laurie Olsen
· Focuses
on the condition of a public school where 20% of the students were born in
another country and a third of them have limited English or come from homes
that don”t have English as a main language.
Learning a New
Land by Carola and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozxo
· This
focus on the challenges of learning English.
Educational
Progress of Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Class, Ethnicity, and School
by Alejandro Portes
Crossing the
Schoolhouse Border: Immigrant Students and the California Public Schools. A
California Tomorrow Policy Research Report. By: Laurie Olsen
· This article provides detailed interview
with student in the California school system.
· Overlooked
and Underserved: Immigrant Students in U.S. Secondary Schools
· Jorge
Ruiz de Velasco, Michael E. Fix, Beatriz Chu Clewell.
·
· “These
earlier studies have also suggested the importance of focusing greater
attention on the educational needs of older(middle and high school-age) limited
English proficient (LEP) immigrants and on the challenges facing the
high-poverty secondary schools in which they are found.
·
· 1993,
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported the creation of a program of local
demonstration projects focused on immigrant secondary education that addressed
some of these challenges.
· The
projects name PRIME-Program in Immigrant Education.
·
· Two
Subpopulations of immigrant children of immigrant children that pose special
challenges to secondary schools but have received little attention:
o Immigrant
teens who arrive in the U.S. school system with significant gaps in their
schooling. Many of these children are not fully literate in their native
language, much less in English.
o Students
from language minority homes who have been in U.S. schools longer, but have yet
to master basic language and literacy skills. While these students may be
orally proficient in English, their reading and writing skills lag those of
their students counterparts.
·
· Challenges
for the program:
o Lack
in staff
o Organization
o System
of accountability
·
·
· Understanding
the Needs
· Who
is the student?
· Profiles
of 6 Immigrant Students ( from Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Russia, and
Vietnam)- their educational backgrounds and language
· proficiencies,
and challenges faced in school.
·
· Factors
that shape the need of these students
· Social
Cultural and Development
·
· “First
and second-generation immigrant children are the fastest-growing segment of the
U.S. population under age 15.”
o In
1997 one out of five elementary and secondary school students had a
foreign-born parents.
o 3.2
million LEP students nationwide in 1998
o With
the increase of Immigrant students in different stages of learning English,
there has been an increasing number of students needing extra academic
instruction in addition to ESL classes.
o The
majority of K-12 public schools have lived in only five states- California,
Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas
o Factors
that contribute to that affect immigrant students’ adjustment to U.S. schooling
and their success in the transition form adolescence to adulthood. Including
individual and family characteristics
§ Socioeconomic
status and previous academic achievement, language proficiencies (both native
language and English), the similarities and differences between their native
countries and cultures and the United States, their immigration experiences and
status, and the contexts in which they live in the Unites States.
o “
The demographic realities described above are cause for serious concern, and
many educators believe that the education system believe that the education
system in the United States is poorly prepared to meet the needs of its
linguistically and culturally diverse student population.”
o Drop
out rates are higher among language-minority secondary school students.
§ Hispanic
students are more likely than white students to leave
o New
Concepts and new challenges: Progessional Development for Teachers of Immigrant
Youth by Josue M. Gonzalez and Linda Darling-Hammond
§ Most
classroom teachers do not receive special training in these areas.
·
· Crossing
the Schoolhouse Border: immigrant Students and the California Public Schools. A
California Tomorrow Policy Research Report.
·
·
· “Detailed interviews with immigrant students in the
California school system indicate that the schools are not meeting the
challenge of providing these students with an education adequate to prepare
them to be productive members of American society. The first section presents
demographic data and background information on immigrant children and their immigration
experience. The second section reviews the content and structure of school
programs, describes the school experience of immigrant children, and presents
data on the achievement and school success of immigrant students. The final
section offers suggestions for steps to be taken at the state, local, school
site, and community levels to create a more adequate school experience for
immigrant children. Appendices include the interview guide used in this
study and a bibliography with 134 references. (SKW)”
·
· Educating
Immigrant Students. What We Need to Know to Meet the Challenges.
·
· “The shortcomings and assets of existing knowledge about
educating immigrant students and their implications for serving immigrant
populations traditionally underserved in U.S. public schools are addressed. How
immigration interacts with race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, social class,
and residential location is explored through current information on immigrants,
the conceptualization of racial and ethnic socialization for immigrant
children, and studying the educational experiences of immigrants. The first
four chapters are an overview of factors and issues in immigration in the
United States. They summarize the most current information on the
socioeconomic, demographic, linguistic, and educational characteristics of U.S.
immigrant children. The next two chapters examine the racial and ethnic
identity reconstruction of immigrant minority children and its implications for
their schooling. The following three chapters describe the different groups of
people dominating current immigration, discussing groups by areas of geographic
origin. Chapter 10 provides a brief review and summary to make recommendations
and consider implications for policy and practice. The chapters are titled: (1)
"Immigration and Schooling in the United States"; (2) "Families
and Communities"; (3) "Overcoming Language Barriers"; (4)
"Educational Attainment"; (5) "Learning New Cultures"; (6)
"Learning in School"; (7) "Hispanic Children"; (8)
"Asian Children"; (9) "Caribbean and African Black
Children"; and (10) "The Future for Immigrant Students."
(Contains 11 tables, 15 figures, and 200 references.) (SLD)”
·
· The
New Californians: Comparative Research Findings on the Educational Progress of
Immigrant Children.
V. Question
and/or Hypothesis
What programs
are affective?
Would these
programs help the street crimes?
What I would like to do for my own research is interview students that come from these backgrounds that attend UVU. A lot of the questions would to determine their conditions growing up in their household and school.
