Crossroads: The Psychology of Immigration in the New Century

Finally, none of the educational structures for ELL students
reviewed previously are designed to meet the specific
needs of students with interrupted or no prior education.
Newcomers with interrupted education are generally placed
in the same bilingual or ESL classrooms as other students,
leaving ELL teachers to struggle with how to meet their
complex educational needs without additional support.
While other countries such as Australia and Israel place
newly arrived students into special year-long newcomer
programs, the United States has essentially adopted a “sink
or swim” approach, placing these students directly into
mainstream classrooms with limited pull-out ESL support.
Although a range of “newcomer” programs has been tried
across varied U.S. school systems, there is no systematic
research describing variations among them and testing their
effectiveness for “underschooled” students (R. Constantino
& Lavadenz, 1993).
In general, well-designed and implemented programs offer
good educational results and buffer at-risk students from
dropping out by easing transitions and providing academic
scaffolding and a sense of community (Padilla et al., 1991).
There is, however, a huge disparity in quality of instruction
among settings. While it has been well demonstrated that
high-quality programs produce excellent results, those
plagued with problems produce, not surprisingly, less than
optimal results (August & Hakuta, 1997; Thomas & Collier,
2002). Many bilingual programs unfortunately face real
challenges in their implementation: inadequate resources,
poor administrative support, and a dearth of fully certified
bilingual teachers who are trained in second-language
acquisition and can serve as proper language models to their
students (U.S. Department of Education, 2002).
school Belonging
In addition to language-related challenges, immigrant
students must transfer their academic skills to the U.S.
school environment and form relationships with peers and
school adults. A sense of school belonging has been defined
as the level of attachment, commitment, involvement,
and belief students have in the value of their school (Kia-
Keating & Ellis, 2007). This sense of belonging, in turn, has
implications for increasing social involvement, motivation,
school attendance, academic engagement, and, ultimately,
achievement (Hamre & Pianta, 2001). In addition, for
immigrant students, sense of school belonging has been
found to predict better mental health (Kia-Keating & Ellis,
Immigrant Populations in Educational Contexts
2007), indicating the importance of feeling “at home” in
their new environment.
Sense of school belonging can be fostered by social support
from school peers and adults. Social support in the school
has been linked to academic adaptation of immigrant
students (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Zhou & Bankston,
1998). Positive relationships with school adults can help
bridge the gap between home and school cultures and
create important linguistic and cultural connections to the
new society (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1994). Supportive
relationships with caring adults in the school context also
provide emotional sustenance and practical help and advice
for newcomers, sometimes sparking active participation in
subject areas that may have traditionally held little interest
for students. Conversely, students may lose interest in the
subject matter if they perceive a diminished interest in their
progress on the part of the teacher.
English language learner (bilingual and ESL) teachers play
a critically important role in the school experience of
newcomer students. As “first responders” to the nation’s
immigrant students, they tend to spend more time, in smaller
classrooms, getting to know them and becoming their
advocates in the school (Birman, 2005). Bilingual teachers
have the additional advantage of being able to communicate
with parents in their native language and serve as a bridge
between home and school. These teachers are asked to fill a
number of roles inside and outside the classroom often not
formally recognized or valued by school authorities (Bascia,
1996; Trickett et al., 2012). They are often asked to fill gaps
in educational programs that do not meet the needs of their
students, provide professional development for mainstream
teachers, reach out to students’ families, and search for
additional resources unavailable at school to support their
students (Bascia & Jacka, 2001). They are also blamed when
their students do not perform well in mainstream classes
(e.g., Olsen, 1997). Despite the tremendous importance of
their work for immigrant-origin students, research suggests
that ELL teachers are not sufficiently supported in this role
(Trickett et al., 2012).
Parental Involvement
Parental school involvement (e.g., participating in parent–
teacher organizations, volunteering in class, and chaperoning
field trips) has shown profound effects on performance and
adaptation to school for U.S.-born students (Henderson
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