Examining Contexts of Reception for Newcomer Students

ABSTRACT

The educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of immigrant students are shaped in critical ways by the districts and schools they attend. Using a context of reception framework, we draw on administrative data from two states to examine several features of contexts of reception for newcomers as a whole and for newcomer subgroups. Specifically, we explore a range of distributional, demographic, and academic factors that shape the contexts of reception newcomers encountered in each state’s districts and schools. Given that our findings suggest newcomers’ contexts of reception vary widely, we discuss implications for educational leaders serving newcomers in different contexts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In other work, we have referred to this group of EL-classified students who are between the ages of 3–21, were born outside the U.S., and have been enrolled in U.S. schools for fewer than three academic years, as recently-arrived immigrant English learners (RAIELs; Umansky et al., 2018). For clearer alignment with other literature, including other pieces in this special issue, we use the term newcomer here.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers, by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through grant R305H140072, and by the Spencer Foundation. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the funders.