Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), there has been an increase of students receiving special education services in U.S. public schools in the last 20 years (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Parents are active participants in the educational decision-making process for their children with disabilities, providing…

There is a significant diaspora of Mixtec people residing along California's Central Coast, mostly working in the agricultural sector. The new realities in the diaspora have brought Mixtec varieties in contact in new contexts where they co-exist with other Mexican Indigenous languages, as well as with Spanish and English. We urgently need more…

This study examined how heritage language and cultural funds of knowledge of Spanish-dominant Latinx immigrant families served as powerful resources for their concientización--critical awareness of important problems and social conditions--and bridged their cultural worlds of home, community, and school policy. The study drew on three…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on languages spoken by English learners (ELs) are: (1) Twenty most common EL languages, as reported in states' top five lists: SY 2013-14; (2) States,…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on English learners include: (1) Top 20 EL languages, as reported in states' top five lists: SY 2011-12; (2) States, including DC, with 80 percent or…

This study reports on a randomized controlled pilot intervention study examining the effectiveness and feasibility of a low-intensity (i.e. three sessions), low-cost, parent advocacy intervention. The intervention study employed community-partnered research methods and targeted a low-income community of mostly Latinx, immigrant-origin parents of…

Every year, there are between 150,000 and 200,000 immigrant students in California who have been in U.S. schools for less than 3 years. These newcomers generally require specialized academic instruction and social services to succeed in school. Despite great efforts, many districts are struggling to create these conditions for success. Many…

In 2016, California voters overturned a 1998 law that curtailed bilingual instruction throughout the state. After nearly 20 years of "English only" programs, what will it take to restore the schools' capacity to provide a broader range of services to English Learners, including dual language immersion and other forms of bilingual…

In this article, we explore digital storytelling as a community-engaged pedagogy to create students' immigration stories in Maryland as part of the project "Intercultural Tales: Learning with Maryland's Immigrant Communities." Stories highlight students' lived experiences of immigration, language, and identity. By envisioning themselves…

U.S. Latinx youth from immigrant backgrounds bring to schools their transnational literacies, complex lived experiences of marginalization and resistance, and politicized translanguaging practices that are seldom recognized in classrooms. This article examines U.S. Latinx bilingual youth who participated in a podcast project within a…

Given the steady increase of students from diverse backgrounds in the U.S. educational system, in particular immigrant and Latino students, it is important to consider how to best support all students within our schools. The present study focuses on the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition (BASC-2) Behavioral and Emotional…

This dissertation examines individual, constricted agency in a multilingual environment within the context of a language discussion group and the form of social capital possessed by their Mexican Indigenous diasporic community living on the California Central Coast. The research is based on participant-observation ethnographic work with a language…

In teaching newcomer students, educators must envision how to provide opportunities for language use and development through age-appropriate content instruction. This article describes a design research study, in which we developed and piloted 5th grade science units and studied the participation of two newcomer students in sense-making…

The term "newcomers" is commonly used to describe students who have recently arrived in U.S. schools. Depending on usage, newcomers may mean students in their first 6 months in U.S. schools, in their first 4 years, or anywhere in between. A majority arrive speaking little to no English, most are from socioeconomically disadvantaged…

English learners (ELs) lag behind their peers in academic achievement and attainment, partly due to limited exposure to academic content. Prior studies that examine high school course-taking find significant course access gaps between ELs and non-ELs but provide little information on the relation between course-taking and time spent as an EL. This…