Engaging Immigrant Youth: Education for the 21 st Century

1. Engaging Immigrant Youth: Education for the 21st Century CarolaSuárez-Orozco, Ph.D. Co-Director Immigration Studies @ NYU Professor of Applied Psychology NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development www.nyu.education/immigration/

2. Growing & Diverse Immigrant Student Population

3. Overlooked and Underserved

4. Harvard Immigration Study • Longitudinal, interdisciplinary, & comparative • Documenting continuities and discontinuities in immigration youth’s educational attitudes and adaptations over time • 400 Youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, & Mexico • Ages 9 & 14 at beginning of study • Recruited from 51 schools in 7 school districts in the Boston & San Franciscoareas • Thirty graduate level bicultural & multilingual research assistants • Funded to date by the National Science Foundation, the W.T. Grant Foundation and The Spencer Foundation

5. Study Objectives • Identify factors that contribute to 2 ACADEMIC outcomes in Year 5 • Grades • Achievement tests • Identify Trajectories of Grade performance over the course of 5 years • Describe Factors that contribute to Trajectories • Ecological framework • Using mixed methods • Cumulative & interactional developmental challenges

6. Triangulated Data Collection Strategies • Ethnographic Observations • Structured Interviews: • Students • Parents • School Personnel • Bilingual Verbal Abilities Testing • Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement • Report Cards • Teacher Completed Behavioral Checklists

7. Engagement Cognitive Engagement BEHAVIORAL ENGAGEMENT GRADES Relational Engagement

8. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. GRADES Year 5

9. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. GRADES Year 5 School Factors ~School Segregation ~Percent of students in school passing high stakes English test

10. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. GRADES Year 5 Home Factors ~2 Adults in home ~Mother’s Education ~Working Father School Factors ~School Segregation ~Percent of students in school passing high stakes English test

11. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Student Factors ~Attitudes towards School ~Psychological Symptoms ~Cognitive engagement ~Relational engagement ~Behavioral engagement ~Academic English proficiency Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. GRADES Year 5 Home Factors ~2 Adults in home ~Mother’s Education ~Working Father School Factors ~School Segregation ~Percent of students in school passing high stakes English test 32% of variance

12. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Student Factors ~Attitudes towards School ~Psychological Symptoms ~Cognitive engagement ~Relational engagement ~Behavioral engagement ~Academic English proficiency Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. Achievement Test Year 5 Home Factors ~2 Adults in home ~Mother’s Education ~Working Father School Factors ~School Segregation ~Percent of students in school passing high stakes English test

13. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Student Factors ~Attitudes towards School ~Psychological Symptoms ~Cognitive engagement ~Relational engagement ~Behavioral engagement ~Academic English proficiency Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. Achievement Test Year 5 Home Factors ~2 Adults in home ~Mother’s Education ~Working Father School Factors ~School Segregation ~Percent of students in school passing high stakes English test 75% of variance

14. Predicting Academic Achievement Outcomes Student Factors ~Attitudes towards School ~Psychological Symptoms ~Cognitive engagement ~Relational engagement ~Behavioral engagement ~Academic English proficiency Control Variables ~Gender ~Country of Origin ~Years in U.S. Achievement Test Year 5 Home Factors ~2 Adults in home ~Mother’s Education ~Working Father School Factors ~School Segregation ~Percent of students in school passing high stakes English test 11% of variance

15. English Language Proficiency

16. Challenge of Learning English

17. Academic Performance Pathways A B C D

18. Characteristics of Declining Pathways • Less educated parents • Attending poor quality schools • Gaps in English language proficiency • Most family conflict • More likely to have protracted separations • Many with unauthorized status • Endorsed psychological symptoms • Few supportive school relations • Low behavioral engagement • Difficulty sustaining incoming hope & drive

19. Myriam—Declining Case Study

20. Characteristics of Low Achievers • Least resources • Come in with gaps in literacy & schooling • Attended worst schools • Significant family problems • Few supportive school relations • Did not have the psychological issues of the Decliners • Lure of work • Never find their academic bearings

21. Leon—Case Study of a Low Achiever

22. Characteristics of Improvers • Initial transplant shock • Often had undergone pre-migration trauma • Attended better schools than decliners or low achievers • More likely to have intact families & working parents • More likely to connect with a mentor

23. Ramón—Improving Case Study

24. Characteristics of High Achievers • Most educated parents • Least family separations • Better family relations • Best emotional wellbeing • Attended best schools • Most supportive school based relationships • Best English language skills • Highest behavioral engagement

25. Li—Case Study of a High Achiever

26. Educational Implications • Practices that serve ALL students well • Rigorous • Relevant for the 21st century • Fostering Relationships • Students at the center of Teaching & Learning • Innovative Pedagogy (beyond “chalk & talk”) • Flexible & Relevant Assessment (e.g. portfolios) • Providing Explicit College Pathway Knowledge • Providing Tutoring/After-school/Summer academic supports • Finding ways NOT to make mentoring accidental

27. Accommodating Specific Newcomer Students • Engaging family & community supports • Community outreach & cultural brokers • Faith based supports too often overlooked • New culturally relevant definitions of parental involvement • Thorough initial intake evaluation assessing strengths and gaps • Literacy • Interrupted schooling • Academic strengths & deficits • Providing Language learning supports • Providing supports for psychological needs • Trauma & Separations • Adjustments to a new land • Fostering Relationships

28. References • Cynthia García-Coll and Katherine Magnuson. (1997). "The Psychological Experience of Immigration: A Developmental Perspective," in A. Booth, A. C. Crouter & Nancy Landale, eds., Immigration and the Family, pp. 91-132. • Hernández, D., and E. Charney. 1998. From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-Being of Children of Immigrant Families. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press. 1998. • Suárez-Orozco, C., Gaytán, F. Bang, H. J., Pakes, J., & Rhodes, J. (2010). Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth. Developmental Psychology, 46(3) 602-618. • Suárez-Orozco, C. and Suárez-Orozco, M. Children of Immigration, 2001. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. • CarolaSuárez-Orozco, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, and Irina Todorova. Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society, 2008. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. • CarolaSuárez-Orozco, Irina Todorova, and Josephine Louie, "Making Up for Lost Time:" The Experience of Separation and Reunification Among Immigrant Families. Family Process 41(4), (2001), pp. 625-643.