Wednesday, February 29, 2012


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.
·       
·      779
·       
·      “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. 

Thursday, February 23, 2012


Assignment 5:

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:
1)   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.
2)   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:
·      Lack in staff
·      Organization
·      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.”
·      In 1997 one out of five elementary and secondary school students had a foreign-born parents.
·      3.2 million LEP students nationwide in 1998
·      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.
·      The majority of K-12 public schools have lived in only five states- California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas
·      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
o      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.
·      “ 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.”
·      Drop out rates are higher among language-minority secondary school students.
o      Hispanic students are more likely than white students to leave
·      New Concepts and new challenges: Progessional Development for Teachers of Immigrant Youth by Josue M. Gonzalez and Linda Darling-Hammond
o      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.


Monday, February 13, 2012


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. 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. 

1)    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.
2)    Made in America by Laurie Olsen
a.     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.
3)    Learning a New Land by Carola and Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozxo
a.     This focus on the challenges of learning English.
4)    Educational Progress of Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Class, Ethnicity, and School by Alejandro Portes
5)    Crossing the Schoolhouse Border: Immigrant Students and the California Public Schools. A California Tomorrow Policy Research Report. By: Laurie Olsen
a.      This article provides detailed interview with student in the California school system.

Monday, February 6, 2012


For many years now, people have migrated to this country to for a better life. Every person from different countries have different reason for migrating here, that is how our country started. Now it continues to be a big political issue. Many parents bring their children, at a young age, to this country and the change they experience is unexplainable. Some of the current concerns about these families and new students is their behavior. A lot of these children experience terrifying experiences that change their view and start misbehaving.  Many teachers after experiencing trouble with these students give up on them and all these kids need is someone to believe in them. Some may ask the question, where are their parents? There are many different immigrants so I would like to focus on the Hispanic low-income homes with children of elementary age. In these certain case many of the parents work more than 40 hours a week, usually less than minimum wage according to the state. Most of these kids do not have parents home to help them with homework, especially when they do not understand the language themselves. These students lack in help from their parents and their teacher, if their teacher does not know how to handle new students. With this research I would like to focus on the following questions:

1)    How does a new environment and language affect the children in their behavior? Do they experience some type of trauma? Either from student or teacher at a school environment?
2)    Is there programs that can provide them with the help necessary?
3)    How does their parents work schedule affect their behavior and progress in school?
4)    Does their parents immigration status and process and their own affect them in school?
One in five children of school age in United States is an immigrant or child of immigrants.
This is a little clearer than the previous post but I will add a new post tomorrow with more information on my research.