Implementing a summer enrichment program for secondary newcomer students in a New England community

ABSTRACT

This paper is a case study of an English Learner (EL) summer enrichment program that supported English language fluency and comprehension of middle and high school students, many of whom were refugees, immigrants, or newcomers from U.S. territories. In this case, we share how a program can successfully provide an equitable education for newcomer students, whether they are newly settled refugees, unaccompanied youth, asylum seekers or other types of immigrants from around the world. Focusing on how a program for newcomers was designed and implemented to ensure inclusive and asset-based practices, we discuss the findings from document analysis and qualitative data collected at a New England district. We found that education leaders created rich learning environments through inclusive and asset-based curricula, community partnerships, and creative enrichment programming. The Summer Academy’s leaders and educators met newly arriving students where they were in their formal education and prepared them to achieve their educational goals while being newly arrived in the United States. This study provides insight into practices that promote refugee and newcomer students’ education and shares implications for the practices of school and district leaders who serve diverse groups of students who are learning English.

Acknowledgments

This research took place at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University in 2014. We would like to acknowledge the research team members who contributed to the design and implementation of the larger study: Sara McAlister, Kerri Ullucci, Vianna Alcantara, and Julia Stoller.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. All identifiers have been changed and only pseudonyms will be used throughout the paper.

2. Source hidden as it would reveal the location.

3. Report citation hidden for blind review.

4. Leaders involved in the program included the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendents, the Coordinator of Extended Time, the Coordinator of English Learner Education, the Specialist for English Learner Research and Testing, and an English Learner lead teacher, who served as the summer coordinator.

5. We choose to use the term English learners or ELs throughout our paper as an asset-based term. However, we have kept English language learner (ELL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) when used by other authors. The program we focus on included refugee students who were English learners.

6. Sometimes referred to as extended learning time and out-of-school time. We use expanded in this paper.

7. NEPS (Pseudonym) is a district in a large New England city. In 2013, the district served between 10,000–15,000 students, almost 40% of whom were non-native English speakers and 30% of whom were English Learners (ELs).

8. We’ll refer to this organization as the Center throughout the paper. Actual organization name is hidden for confidentiality.