Southeast Asian Parent Empowerment: The Challenge of Changing Demographics in Lowell, Massachusetts

A report on the increased role of Southeast Asian parents in the Lowell, Massachusetts public school system in the 1980s

We Could Shape It: Organizing for Asian Pacific American Student Empowerment

With the doubling of the school-age population of Asian Pacific Americans during the 1990s, the unmet needs of Asian Pacific Americans are escalating dramatically in schools throughout the country. In most settings, teachers, counselors, and administrators do not share the ethnic, linguistic, and racial backgrounds of their Asian Pacific American students. Constrained by limited resources, an increasingly hostile, anti-immigrant climate, and their own stereotypical assumptions, educators have been unable to respond effectively to the full range of academic, social, and personal challenges that face growing numbers of Asian Pacific American students

[Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Asian American Studies

Response to Dr. Mark E. Pfeifer\u27s featured article

English Learners in Boston Public Schools: Enrollment and Educational Outcomes of Native Speakers of Vietnamese

In November 2002, the voters of Massachusetts approved Referendum Question 2. This referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts. In its place came a radically different policy called Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Unlike TBE, which relies on the English learners’ own language to facilitate the learning of academic subjects as they master English, SEI programs rely on the use of simple English in the classroom to impart academic content; teachers use students’ native language only to assist them in completing tasks or to answer a question. This change represented a dramatic shift in the philosophy and practice of teaching English to populations of English Learners. Five years after the start of the implementation of SEI in Massachusetts, there is still scant information about the impact of this change on language education. Models of implementation have varied across the state, with those districts that approach the process most flexibly exhibiting the most substantial gains or the least losses (DeJong, Gort, & Cobb, 2005; Rennie Center, 2007). But there has been no analysis of the outcomes for students under SEI at the state level or in the city of Boston, where the largest number of English Learners in Massachusetts live and attend school. Aside from providing an account of the performance of English Learners in Boston between academic years 2003 and 2006, this study has allowed for a unique look at the performance of groups of students defined by language. This specific report is one of five reports focusing on the enrollment and academic outcomes of the largest groups of native speakers of languages other than English: speakers of Spanish, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean Creole. For Chinese, Vietnamese, Haitian, and Cape Verdean students and families, this is one of the first looks at the performance of students from these groups in Boston schools. Usually reported as part of aggregates defined by race (e.g., “Asian” or “Black”), information specific to these ethnic groups is seldom reported separately. Our presentation is limited to the data available data which does not allow us to determine the outcomes of all students from these groups but only of those students within these groups who are designated native speakers of their particular language. It also precludes the presentation of the standardized testing (MCAS) outcomes of students from these groups who attend programs for English Learners

English Learners in Boston Public Schools: Enrollment, Engagement and Academic Outcomes of Native Speakers of Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese Dialects, Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Vietnamese

This study focuses on the academic experience of English Learners (ELs) in Boston’s public schools in the year before and in the three years following the implementation of Referendum Question 2. In 2002, this referendum spelled an end to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as the primary program available for children requiring language support in Massachusetts public schools, replacing it with Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). Specifically, this report focuses on the enrollment and academic outcomes of the five largest groups of native speakers of languages other than English in the Boston Public Schools: speakers of Spanish, Chinese dialects, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean Creole and explores the different effects of the implementation of Question 2 on each of the groups. It does so by analyzing data on identification, program participation, engagement and achievement for each group and comparing the outcomes for students in programs for ELs with native speakers of these languages enrolled in General Education programs. In this report we list the findings for each group separately and conclude with discussion which compares the outcomes for the groups. For Chinese, Vietnamese, Haitian, and Cape Verdean students and families, this is one of the first looks at the performance of students from these groups in Boston schools. Usually reported as part of aggregates defined by race (e.g., “Asian” or “Black”), information specific to these ethnic groups is seldom reported separately. We present here a limited view, since the available data do not allow us to ascertain the outcomes of all students from these groups but only of those students within these groups who are designated native speakers of their particular language

Southeast Asian Parent Empowerment: The Challenge of Changing Demographics in Lowell, Massachusetts

A report on the increased role of Southeast Asian parents in the Lowell, Massachusetts public school system in the 1980s

We Could Shape It: Organizing for Asian Pacific American Student Empowerment

With the doubling of the school-age population of Asian Pacific Americans during the 1990s, the unmet needs of Asian Pacific Americans are escalating dramatically in schools throughout the country. In most settings, teachers, counselors, and administrators do not share the ethnic, linguistic, and racial backgrounds of their Asian Pacific American students. Constrained by limited resources, an increasingly hostile, anti-immigrant climate, and their own stereotypical assumptions, educators have been unable to respond effectively to the full range of academic, social, and personal challenges that face growing numbers of Asian Pacific American students

[Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Asian American Studies

Response to Dr. Mark E. Pfeifer's featured articl

Checking Southeast Asian American Realities in Pan-Asian American Agendas

This article is based on a briefing paper commissioned by the Harvard Civil Rights Project for a Roundtable on Emerging Asian American Civil Rights Issues held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in October 2002. I was asked to address whether subgroups within the Asian American population have been adequately served by pan-Asian American agendas, particularly in relation to civil rights advocacy, and to highlight specific instances that show both positive and negative dimensions of those dynamics. In response, I chose to focus on Southeast Asian American (Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, Mien, Vietnamese, etc.) populations who, by measures of socioeconomic status, persistent poverty, and quality of life, are the most poorly resourced ethnic constituencies within Asian America. Through analysis of issues related to educational equity, policy, and development, both nationally and locally in the state of Massachusetts, I describe ways in which Southeast Asian American realities have been neglected or ignored. In light of the ethical and empirical consequences of failing to intervene proactively in this local and national commitments have had sustained impact. Finally, I suggest some ways to account more faithfully for the needs, interests, and visions of Southeast Asian American communities in the development of pan-Asian American civil rights agendas. Underlying my argument are commitments to equity and justice rather than identity and representation per se