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The demographics of US elementary and secondary
schools are changing rapidly as a result of record-high immigration,
growing national origin and linguistic diversity, and immigrants’ increasing
geographic dispersal. Sustained high levels of immigration have also
led to a rapid increase in the number of children with immigrant
parents.
By 2000, immigrants represented one in nine of all US residents,
but their children represented one in five of all children under
age 18. Many of these children do not speak English well, have low-educated
parents, and live in poor families. Meeting their linguistic and
academic needs presents a challenge to educators nationwide.
Education policy – and in particular immigrant education policy – is
in flux with the enactment, implementation, and pending 2007 reauthorization
of the controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The NCLB, which may represent an important new de facto integration
policy, requires that schools identify, teach, and test limited-English-proficient (LEP) students using standardized state tests. It requires
that their scores be separately reported as a subgroup and that schools
be held accountable for that subgroup’s performance.
Schools
that fail to meet standards can be subjected to increasingly severe
sanctions. In addition, NCLB for the time imposes a federal requirement
that LEP students make progress learning English. NCLB can be seen
as the culmination of a decade of reform that began with schools
often leaving immigrant and LEP students overlooked and underserved. |
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Recent MPI Analyses |
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Gambling
on the Future: Managing the Education Challenges of Rapid
Growth in Nevada
 By
Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix
October 2008
Nevada, the fastest growing state in the United States, is experiencing a population
boom – driven in part by immigration – that has key implications
for its school system and labor market. Immigrants represent one in five Nevada
residents and their children account for one in three Nevadans under age 18.
Yet even as schools have experienced a surge in enrollment, federal and state
investments in the state's failing education system haven't kept pace.
Download
Report | Press
Release
Los
Angeles on the Leading Edge: Immigrant Integration Indicators
and Their Policy Implications
By Michael Fix, Margie McHugh, Aaron Matteo Terrazas, and Laureen Laglagaron
April 2008
As Los Angeles makes the transition from being a city of immigrants to one dominated
by their US-born children, it can serve as a policy laboratory for other cities
facing the need to better integrate immigrants into US classrooms, workplaces,
and civic life. MPI’s report details the imperative for integration policies
that will benefit immigrants and the broader US society alike.
Download
Report | Press
Release
Measures of Change: The Demography and Literacy of Adolescent English Learners
A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York by Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix, and Julie Murray
March 2007
Educating the Children of Immigrants
By Julie Murray, Jeanne Batalova, and Michael Fix
Securing the Future: US Immigrant Integration Policy, A Reader
February 2007
New
Estimates of Unauthorized Youth Eligible for Legal Status under the DREAM Act
Backgrounder by Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
October 2006
The New Demography of
America's Schools
By Randolph Capps, Michael Fix, Julie
Murray, Jason Ost, Jeffrey S. Passel, and
Shinta Hirontoro
Urban Institute, September 2005
Immigrant
Children, Urban Schools, and the No Child Left Behind Act
By Michael Fix, Migration Policy Institute
Randy Capps, The Urban Institute
Migration Information Source, November 1, 2005 |
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In the Spotlight |
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The Binational Option: Meeting the Instructional Needs of Limited English Proficient Students
By Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix
With 1 in 10 children in US schools having limited English proficiency, school districts across the country face challenges in meeting the students' educational needs and finding enough qualified bilingual and English as a Second Language educators. This report identifies international teacher exchanges as an innovative, near-term strategy for school administrators to respond to immediate teaching needs, particularly in subject areas where knowledge of a foreign language is necessary. In conjunction with efforts to recruit local teachers, foreign teachers can help alleviate endemic shortages — particularly in districts that face rapid, unexpected, or short-term changes in the student population.
Download Report | Press Release
Recommendations
for Addressing the Needs of English Language Learners
Policymakers and state and local school administrators disbursing federal stimulus
funds designed to improve children’s educational outcomes should pay targeted
attention to the nation’s growing population of English language learners,
a group of researchers with extensive experience regarding ELL students recommends
in a new report. The ELL Working Group, of which MPI Senior Vice President Michael
Fix is a member, was convened by Diane August, Kenji Hakuta, and Jennifer O’Day.
The group’s recommendations were presented to senior US Department of Education
officials and other senior education officers, among others.
Download
Report |
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Selected Readings
(List Under Development) |
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The New Latino South and the Challenge to Public Education: Strategies for Educators and Policymakers in Emerging Immigrant Communities
By Andrew Wainer
The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, 2004
The No Child Left Behind Act and English Language Learners: Assessment and Accountability Issues
By Jamal Abedi
Educational Researcher, 33, 4-14, 2003
Secondary School Newcomer Programs in the United States
By Deborah J. Short and Beverly A. Boyson
Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence, 2003
The Effects of Universal Pre-K in Oklahoma: Research Highlights and Policy Implications
By William T. Gormley, Jr. and Deborah Phillips
Policy Studies Journal, 33 (1), 65–82, 2005
A National Study of School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students’ Long-Term Academic Achievement
By Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier
Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence, 2002
Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation
By Alejandro Portes and Rubén G. Rumbaut
University of California Press, 2001
How Long Does It Take English Learners to Attain Proficiency?
By Kenji Hakuta, Yuko Goto Butler, and Daria Witt
The University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute, 2000
Testing English-Language Learners in U.S. Schools: Report and Workshop Summary
Kenji Hakuta and Alexandra Beatty, Editors
National Research Council, Committee on Educational Excellence and Testing, 2000
Overlooked and Underserved: Immigrant Students in US Secondary Schools
By Jorge Ruiz-de-Velasco and Michael Fix
Urban Institute, 2000
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