Immigrant Acculturation in Suburban Schools Serving the New Latino Diaspora

Abstract

Recent immigration patterns have led to widespread growth in school enrollments of Spanish-speakers in nontraditional immigrant destinations in many parts of the United States. This paper explores the ways in which suburban school districts respond to this demographic shift, with a focus on how schooling impacts the acculturation experiences of immigrants to this particular context. Drawing on a statewide survey of administrators and teachers in schools serving Wisconsin's New Latino Diaspora, results from suburban schools are analyzed in comparison to urban and rural contexts. In this paper, I explore the ways in which suburban schools in the study were more likely to structure integration than schools in rural or urban locales. At the same time, these contexts were less likely to provide asset-based supports for Spanish-speakers, particularly those no longer designated as “beginner” English learners. These findings suggest that the opportunity to foster additive acculturation was limited, as many schools espoused a “sink or swim” approach in the context of scarce resources. Given the ongoing growth of immigrant communities in new suburban destinations, the paper ends with implications for future research and practice.

Notes

This term is used for the reporting of state and district enrollments in Wisconsin and captures the group of students most closely aligned to members of the New Latino Diaspora.

Specifically, NCES defines suburban locales as those areas outside a principal city yet inside an urbanized area.

Table 1 Distribution of Responses by Locale

Response categories included the following: only Spanish-speaking ELLs, only ELL peers from multiple home languages, both ELL and non-ELL peers, only non-ELL peers. For analysis, I dichotomized responses as either separate classes, characterized by only ELLs, or integration with non-ELL peers.

In English class for beginners, Pearson chi-square results were statistically significant (χ²(2, N = 138) = 5.91, p =.052).

Figure 2 ELL-only compositions in English by locale.

Results were also significant for the other academic areas for beginners (χ²(2, N = 137) = 13.97, p =.001) and intermediate learners (χ²(2, N = 139) = 8.34, p =.015).

Figure 3 ELL-only compositions in math, science, social studies by locale.

Teachers were given the options “English,” “Spanish,” or “English with Spanish support.” For the purposes of analysis, I dichotomized responses as either English only or at least some Spanish.

Pearson chi-square results were significant for beginners in English (χ²(2, N = 137) = 12.50, p =.002) and in math, science, and social studies (χ²(2, N = 137) = 8.76, p =.013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Lowenhaupt

Rebecca Lowenhaupt is Assistant Professor at Boston College. Her research focuses on district and school leadership. She studies school reform in the context of immigration, as well as changing instructional policies. A former middle school teacher, she holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University with the Distributed Leadership Study.