Enhancing Immigrant Students Opportunities to Learn and Stay in School: Lessons From the Sanctuary School

• In Event: 81.011 - Leadership, Policy, and Language: Implication for Dual Language Teachers and Learners

Abstract

Social justice researchers argue that the purpose of education for children and youth living in low wealth communities is to enhance their real freedoms and opportunities to achieve, not just in school, but in life. However, current utilitarian reform efforts in education across the globe, often focus on academic achievement alone and fail to identify or address the many obstacles that severely undermine children’s abilities to focus on and benefit from education. In this paper, we argue that overly narrow achievement policies and practices are poorly aligned with the learning and human support needs of all children, however, they are particularly detrimental to the education and life chances of recently arrived immigrant populations that do not speak English.

Authors

• Chandler Patton Miranda, New York University

• Colleen L. Larson, New York University