Dual Language and ENL Comprehension: A First Grade Study for Students at Risk for Delayed English Language Development

This research began by asking how dual language programming impacts English comprehension for ENL students. Research was conducted within one first grade dual language cohort with five bilingual students. The data was collected by interviewing teachers and students, utilizing historical comprehension data, observing read alouds, and assessing student comprehension. Findings revealed that comprehension in a participant’s first language was positively related to English comprehension. However, individual student differences impacted the extent of the correlation. Furthermore, dual language teachers implemented common instructional practices to scaffold ENL student comprehension. Therefore, the data implied that native language instruction is integral, student backgrounds and differences need to be analyzed, and dual language educators need adequate professional development to best aid ENL comprehension

Immigrant Youth and Digital Disparty in California

This study addresses three key research questions regarding immigrant youth and the digital divide:What are the patterns of home technology use among native-born and immigrant families and youth?What are the causes and consequences of the digital divide for immigrant families and youth?How does technology at CTCs in California benefit immigrant families and youth

Cultivating Community: The role of the Winooski school system in creating positive relationships between city institutions and the refugee population

Schools serve as key institutions for absorbing newcomers into American society, as they provide resources, programming, and access points into a community for immigrant children and their families. In Winooski, Vermont, the public school building serves as a center for support and engagement for the refugee population, offering a variety of services to children and their parents. As demographics shift to include more foreign-born students, schools need to rethink classroom strategies and ways of engaging with families that best navigate cultural divides. My findings suggest that Winooski can be viewed as a model city for bridging the cultural divides inherent in refugee resettlement: various community institutions, in collaboration with the school system, provide services and support for refugee families, and the school serves as a center for support and community engagement. These processes can be examined through the social network concept of multiplexity. Put simply, community members know and trust each other in several different roles, increasing the capacity of the community to support one another and generate trust. At the center of this social network are the multicultural liaisons, who play a critical role in supporting refugees in communities, and enhance this network of trust. The research presented here highlights the unique processes in place that make Winooski a successful site for refugee resettlement, and recognizes the work of those in the community that dedicate themselves to increasing the level of acceptance and cultural understanding throughout the district and the community as a whole

Reviews

Researching into Teaching Methods in Colleges and Universities by Clinton Bennett, Lorraine Foreman‐Peck and Chris Higgins, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494–1768–4, 136 (+ vii) pages, paperback. £14.99

Supporting Parent Engagement: Lessons from Settlement House Programs

This report is intended to give readers a picture of some of the challenges and best practices involved when settlement houses and other similar agencies undertake parent engagement programming. The report draws on the experiences of six UNH member agencies, all based in New York City, that have received grants from the MetLife Foundation to support parent engagement work

Adding spaces to Thai and English: Effects on reading

Most research on reading has used Western languages, which have the property of being spaced. This paper examines how spacing and meaning affect reading in Thai, a modern, alphabetic and unspaced language. Results show that subjects were faster in reading and made less errors when spaces were added. Meaning facilitates reading as well, and does not interact with spacing. Finally, ability to read unspaced texts in Thai does not transfer to English. The results support the hypothesis that spaces, when present at all, offer perceptual cues that facilitate reading. Efficiency considerations raise the question of whether Thai should follow the example of Western languages and incorporate spaces and punctuation

Positioning for the Possible: Investing in Education Reform in New Mexico

At the beginning of 2010, the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers (NMAG ) asked Chris Sturgis of MetisNet to explore ways in which philanthropic investments could be structured to lead to improved student achievement and to produce a more effective public education system. This paper is designed to provoke discussion among funders and educational leadership to discover ways to maximize the benefits of philanthropic investments in New Mexico