Equity and State Immigrant Inclusivity: English Learner Education in ESSA

Abstract

With the 2015 passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the oversight of language policy in U.S. schools shifted from federal to state governance. Although the education of students officially designated as English learners (ELs) has historically been grounded in federal law, we argue that ELs’ educational experiences are also largely influenced by societal attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. Using a critical policy analysis (CPA) approach, we examine how 12 states’ immigrant policy contexts are associated with the EL educational policies articulated in their ESSA implementation plans. We find that states’ demographic and immigrant policy contexts combine to produce four distinct approaches toward EL education, from departing to approaching equity.

Safety and Belonging in Immigrant-Serving Districts: Domains of Educator Practice in a Charged Political Landscape

“…In recent years, immigrant-origin children and youth have faced an increasingly challenging set of circumstances: federal policies that narrowly circumscribe everyday worlds (Gonzales, 2016), enforcement practices that sow fear (Hipsman & Meissner, 2017), and a polarized political landscape that has negatively affected their schooling (Ee & Gándara, 2020;Rogers et al, 2017). 1 While the safety and belonging of these students are perennially at stake (Gonzales, 2016;Gonzales et al, 2013;Ríos-Rojas, 2011), the years from 2016 to 2020 were an especially difficult period (Callahan et al, 2020;Rogers et al, 2017). The Trump administration's expansion of immigration enforcement, child separation policies, and attempts to repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)-among other actions-have threatened the safety of immigrant communities across the country (García, 2019), with a direct impact on K-12 school districts (Costello, 2016;Ee & Gándara, 2020;Quinn et al, 2017).…”

“…The Trump administration's expansion of immigration enforcement, child separation policies, and attempts to repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)-among other actions-have threatened the safety of immigrant communities across the country (García, 2019), with a direct impact on K-12 school districts (Costello, 2016;Ee & Gándara, 2020;Quinn et al, 2017). This article builds on a small but growing body of research exploring educational stakeholders' experiences of schooling during periods of intensified anti-immigrant discourse and policymaking, specifically examining how educators perceive of their role and responsibilities in relation to their immigrant-origin students (Callahan et al, 2020;Ee & Gándara, 2020).…”

“…Studies of public school settings serving immigrant-origin students in the United States have highlighted the various ways in which schools are nested within broader sociopolitical dimensions of context (Callahan et al, 2020;Dabach, 2015b). In regions considered nontraditional immigration sites-known in the literature as parts of the New Latino Diaspora in the Midwest and Southeast-school districts are often unfamiliar with the particular experiences of their growing immigrant-origin populations and may be unprepared to offer relevant educational and social resources (Hamann et al, 2015;Hopkins et al, 2015;Mangual Figueroa, 2013).…”

“…Although immigration and education policy tend to be viewed by policymakers and scholars as separate domains, they are in fact intertwined in the everyday practices of U.S. public schools (Callahan et al, 2020; Ee & Gándara, 2020). Turner and Mangual Figueroa (2019) outline three ways in which immigration policy shapes educational policy and vice versa: first, immigration policy shapes which populations of children and youth become students in public schools; second, educators enact policies that can uphold or violate immigrants’ legal rights to access public schooling as ensured by the landmark case Plyler v. Doe ; and third, educators’ actions can unintentionally evoke immigration policy (Mangual Figueroa, 2011, 2013, 2017).…”

Supporting Practitioner Inquiry in Teacher Education: Opportunities and Challenges in ESOL Contexts

“…Both nationwide and in Georgia, wide and alarming gaps have been reported between EBs and their peers in both achievement and graduation rates (Sugarman & Geary, 2018) despite increased accountability and performance monitoring under federal regulations described in the Every Student Succeeds Act (Callahan et al, 2020). To remediate these gaps, formal preparation and professional development to develop expertise for teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) is essential for all teachers, especially given widespread efforts toward inclusion in general education classrooms (Lucas & Villegas, 2013).…”