Educators Must Focus on Immigrant Children in the Classroom

Most immigrants' journeys to America are filled with hope and promise not only for themselves, but their children. Whether this hope becomes reality has much to do with what a school offers in the classroom, according to researchers who presented at the Askwith Forum, "Moving Stories: The Educational Pathways of Immigrant Youth," on Monday, October 23.

Speakers included Professors Carola Suárez-Orozco and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, co-directors of immigration studies at New York University, and HGSE assistant professor Vivian Shuh Ming Louie. Kennedy School of Government lecturer Ronald Ferguson moderated the forum which was co-sponsored by the Achievement Gap Initiative.

Co-founders of the Harvard Immigration Project, the Suárez-Orozcos presented recent findings from their long-term research on immigrant children which has sought to identify the determinants of success among immigrant children. This research will be published in the summer of 2007.

Coming to the United States can be a "utopia realized" for many immigrants, Marcelo said. However, high hopes and high expectations for immigrant children often run headlong into hard realities in the educational system. For students, difficulties include language acquisition and interrupted schooling prior to their arrival in America. Immigrant parents also face challenges such as language barriers, unfamiliarity with the U.S. school system, low education, difficulty assisting children with homework, and little control over work schedules. Making matters worse for immigrant children is the fact that many enter poor school districts with insufficient English language learner courses and certified teachers.

To gain a better understanding of these difficulties, the Suárez-Orozcos conducted a study looking at three different levels of engagement including behavioral, cognitive, and relational to assess changes in immigrant children's performance over five years. The study included children aged 9 – 14 from areas including China, Central America, Haiti, Mexico, and Dominican Republic attending Boston and San Francisco schools. The study revealed a downward decline in grade point average over the five-year period.

Looking beyond just performance levels, the Suárez-Orozcos discovered that behavior was strongly linked to grade point average and that English proficiency had a huge effect on academic achievement. "School quality matters significantly," Carola said.

Louie told the audience, estimated at 200, that for nearly 50 years America has focused on how to reduce immigration and bilingualism issues, but hasn't considered who immigrants are, why they are here, what their lives are like, and how it affects children. "Immigration was everywhere, but no where," she said.

"Given the high stakes [in education], children of immigrants face greater challenges than before," Louie said. She encouraged researchers to focus their work on immigration and be careful about the comparisons they make.