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Summary of Data in Directory of Secondary Newcomer programs in the United States, Revised 2000

Many school districts across the United States are enrolling increasing numbers of secondary immigrant students with low level English and/or native language skills, and often limited formal schooling in their native countries. In response, they have developed newcomer programs to serve the students through an intensive language development and academic/cultural orientation program, for a limited period of time, before placing them in the districts' regular language support and academic programs. Most of these secondary newcomer programs enroll students for up to 2 years. The programs may be located at a separate site or as a program within a school. In a few cases, the newcomer programs are full-length high schools; in other words, students may enter in the ninth grade and remain in the program until graduation.

The Directory of Secondary Newcomer Programs in the United States, Revised 2000 profiles 115 newcomer programs that operated in 29 states plus the District of Columbia during the 1999-2000 school year. This publication features programs not formerly profiled and updates other programs that had been listed in the Secondary Newcomer Programs in the United States: 1996-97 Directory (Short & Boyson, 1997), Secondary Newcomer Programs in the United States: 1997-98 Supplement (Short & Boyson, 1998), and Secondary Newcomer Programs in the United States: 1998-99 Supplement (Short & Boyson, 1999). The directory is available to purchase in hard copy through the CALstore. There is also a searchable database of newcomer programs, The Newcomer Database for Secondary School Programs, Revised 2000

The goals of newcomer programs are to help students acquire beginning English skills, provide some instruction in core academic content areas, and guide the students' acculturation to the school system in the United States. Some programs have additional goals, such as developing students' native language skills and acclimating students and their parents to the community. Some of the programs have developed their courses and curricula according to an English as a second language (ESL) design; some follow a bilingual education design; some are native language literacy programs; and others offer a combination of these three designs.

The rationale for establishing these programs differs across sites, but many programs were established for one or more of the following reasons:

• students were at risk for educational failure or drop out,
• students were over age for their grade level placement due to weak academic skills and limited formal education,
• the needs of these students surpassed the instructional design of the regular ESL or bilingual program that was in place in the district,
• students had no or very low English proficiency, or
• students had no or low native language literacy skills.

This revised directory reports on one aspect of a 4-year research project, "Newcomers: Language and Academic Programs for Recent Immigrants," that began in 1996 and was sponsored by the National Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz. CREDE is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, as part of the National Institute for the Education of At-Risk Students in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Data on secondary newcomer programs were collected for the 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, and 1999-2000 school years and compiled into a database. Most of the data were supplied by the newcomer sites through survey questionnaires and phone interviews. In addition, site visits took place at several programs and case studies were conducted on a select few. The case study component of the project looked more closely at the implementation of newcomer programs, the achievement of students within the programs, and their transition out of the newcomer program into other schools or academic programs. Additional information about the research project and products can be found at www.cal.org/crede/newcomer.htm.

The 115 profiles included in this directory represent the wide range of features found in secondary newcomer programs across the United States, but they are not the only newcomer programs in operation. Many districts offer newcomer programs to elementary students and other secondary programs exist but were unable to participate in this research study.

Newcomer Database Highlights

This section provides information about the full complement of programs listed in our database. The 115 programs operate in 196 sites, meaning that some programs have multiple locations within a district. More than 50% of the programs (62) in the project database serve high school students. Twenty-three percent of the programs (26) serve middle school students; the remaining programs (27) provide instruction to both middle and high school students. Over 50% of the programs are located in four states: California, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. Table 1 shows the breakdown of programs by state: identifying the number of programs and the number of sites in each state, and further indicating which grade levels served are served at the different sites (middle school, high school, or middle and high school combined).¹

Table 1: SECONDARY NEWCOMER PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES, REVISED 2000

Information about the type of community in which the programs are found has been collected, along with the date that the programs were established. Among the 115 programs, 76% (87) are in urban metropolitan areas, 17% (20) are suburban, and 7% (8) are rural. Seventy-two percent of the programs (84) began operating in the 1990s, suggesting that student demographics have been changing in the past decade with the arrival of more immigrant students fitting the definition of a newcomer (e.g., a student with no English and low native language literacy skills).

Secondary newcomer students are from over 90 different countries and speak over 60 different languages. Many are recent immigrants to the United States; some are refugees. Over 60% of the students in newcomer programs are in three states: California, New York, and Texas. Ninety-five percent of the programs (109) serve Spanish speakers within the student population, 38% (44) serve Vietnamese speakers, and 22 % (25) serve Somali speakers. Small numbers of programs serve students of other language backgrounds. The age range of the students in these middle and high schools is 10 to 26 years old. Some of the programs are designed for over-age students.

The size of the student population varies in these newcomer programs as shown in Table 2. Although one school serves over 1,000 students, almost two-thirds of the programs (65) have fewer than 100 students. One-third of the programs have over 100 students.

Table 2: STUDENT POPULATIONS IN NEWCOMER PROGRAMS

Figure 1 identifies the location of the programs within their districts. More than 75% of the programs (89) in the database are designed as programs within a school. Students who are in these types of newcomer programs often have some classes (e.g., physical education) with other students outside the program. Seventeen percent (19) of the programs are at separate sites from the students' home schools. Among these separate sites, two programs are located at district intake centers, where all language minority students are assessed and placed. Newcomer students receive instruction for a range of 4-18 weeks at the intake centers before being placed in a district school. The third category for program location, whole school, is the design found in 6% of the programs (7). This number is an increase over the 1996-97 data when only 3 whole schools were part of the database. Whole schools, as mentioned before, offer a complete educational program for the school level, namely a 4-year, high school curriculum that leads to graduation.

Figure 1: LOCATION OF PROGRAMS

Figure 2 indicates the length of the daily program. Fifty-six percent of the programs (65) instruct newcomer students for the full day, while 17% of the programs (19) are designed with a half-day schedule for the students. Six percent of the programs (7) have courses for less than half of the school day, that is, a program for one to three class periods. Two percent of the programs (2) operated solely after school. Nineteen percent of the programs (22) offer more than one option. For example, some students may attend for a half day while others attend for the full day, depending on their individual needs; or some programs operate for the full day plus after school.

Figure 2: LENGTH OF DAILY PROGRAM

Figure 3 illustrates the length of time students remain in the program. Six percent of the programs (7) enroll students for less than 1 year. Forty-three percent of the programs (49) enroll students for 1 year, and thirteen percent (15) for 1 year plus the summer. This means that more than 60% of the programs serve students for no more than one calendar year. Thirty-eight percent of the programs (44) enroll students for more than 1 year. During the 4 years of the research study, there has been a slight trend towards offering instruction to newcomer students for more than 1 school year. This trend may be taking place because more newcomer students are arriving with interrupted education and low literacy skills in their native language.

Figure 3: LENGTH OF ENROLLMENT IN PROGRAM

Figure 4 shows the approximate number of students enrolled in newcomer programs during one school year. Close to 15,000 students are served by the secondary newcomer programs in this database. Only 5% of the secondary newcomer population is enrolled in programs that last for less than 1 year. Twenty-four percent of the student population is in programs that last for one year. Thirty percent of the newcomer students are in programs where they might stay for one year or more depending on their needs. Forty-one percent of the students are enrolled in programs lasting longer than 1 year.

Figure 4: NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN PROFILED PROGRAMS IN DATABASE

Table 3 shows some of the prevailing types of instruction provided by the programs. All of the 115 programs offer English as a second language or English language development (ELD) courses to the newcomer students. Over 40% of the programs (48) have courses to develop the students' native language literacy skills. Ninety-seven percent of the programs (112) provide some content instruction through English and/or the native language of the students. More than 80% of the programs (93) provide newcomer students with cross-cultural information and orientation to the United States.

As Table 3 reveals, content instruction is delivered through different instructional approaches. Some programs (102) teach content through sheltered instruction where the language of instruction is primarily English but the content is made comprehensible through specialized strategies and techniques. Other programs (63) teach content through the native language of the students. Some programs (53) teach content via the native language for some students (e.g., when they have large numbers of students from the same language backgrounds and available teachers and instructional materials) and via sheltered instruction for other students. Among the programs that offer content through sheltered instruction or the native language, a math course is the most common offering, followed by language arts, social studies, and then science. As noted, 24 different native languages are used for content instruction, sometimes through the assistance of bilingual paraprofessionals.

Table 3: TYPE OF INSTRUCTION IN PROGRAMS

Staffing of newcomer programs often includes an administrator, teachers, and paraprofessionals (also known as teacher aides). Ninety-seven percent of the programs (111) have a program administrator; most of them are associated part time with the program. The number of teachers in these programs ranges from 1 to 76, however, more than half of the programs have 2-7 teachers. Ninety-six percent of the programs (110) have certified ESL teachers, 59% of the programs (63) have certified bilingual teachers, and 83% of them (96) have teachers certified in one or more of the content areas. Bilingual paraprofessionals play important roles in most newcomer programs, often serving as native language resources for the students. Eighty-three percent of the programs (96) have bilingual paraprofessionals.

Many newcomer programs offer additional services to the students, besides English language development and academic courses. Sixty-seven percent of the programs (77) offer physical health services, 42% (48) offer mental health services, and 43% (50) offer social services. These may be on-site services or referrals. Forty-three percent of the programs (50) participate in Title I and 54% (62) have special education available for referred students. However, only 22% of the programs (25) offer gifted and talented educational services. Fifty percent of the programs (58), primarily at the high school level, provide career counseling. Seventy-seven percent of the programs (84) offer tutoring.

The newcomer programs also offer services to parents with 70% of the programs (81) conducting active parental outreach. To support their outreach efforts, 62% (71) have a school liaison who works with parents. Sixty-six percent of the programs (76) have adult ESL classes available either at the program site or at another district location and 36% (41) have adult basic education classes. Twenty-four percent (28) offer native language literacy classes. Forty-eight percent of the programs (55) provide orientation for parents to US schools and 43% (49) provide orientation to the United States.

NOTE

¹The percentage and frequency counts discussed in this introduction are based on information provided by the programs. Eighty-five of the 115 programs submitted revised information for the 1999-2000 school year, but 13 of the programs still in operation did not update their information from the original year in which the data was submitted.

Related Websites

Summary Table of Directory Data

Matrix with Key Features of 115 programs (1996-2000)