The early 1980s saw an influx of Southeast Asian refugees from various demographic groups and backgrounds to Minnesota. As teachers, the author and her colleagues regularly added children from these groups to their classrooms, receiving little explanation of a student's history or language proficiency. To counteract increasing teacher resentment…

Asian Americans encounter barriers to mental health care, some of which are structural, whereas others may be cultural. Using data from a probability sample (N = 490) drawn from the largest Cambodian refugee community in the United States, the authors assessed the extent to which structural and cultural barriers were experienced. Surprisingly, a…

The "No Child Left Behind Act" establishes federal education policy for the United States, with a heavy focus on accountability through high-stakes testing. Provisions specific to English language learners (ELLs) include the mandate for their inclusion in state math tests, even for newcomer students enrolled for less than one year. Most…

Three Southeast Asian teachers, one from Vietnam, one from Cambodia, and one from Thailand, develop curriculum materials for native language instruction for students in Project LOWELL, the Lowell (MA) Public Schools transitional program for limited English speaking Asian refugee children. Their duties and the importance of them are discussed. (PS)

Presents a framework of biliteracy development focusing on the following three continua: (1) the macro-micro continuum of policy; (2) the monolingual-bilingual continuum; and (3) the oral-literate continuum. These are discussed in the contexts of Cambodian and Puerto Rican students in two public elementary schools in Philadelphia. (SLD)