Getting Newcomer Youth “On the College Bus”: A Collaborative Effort to Increase College Access

• In Event: Dismantling Oppressive Practices and Envisioning Tailored Practices to Foster Multilingual Learners’ College and Career Readiness

Abstract

For years, scholars have been calling attention to the low college readiness levels of high school multilingual learners (MLs; Callahan & Shifrer, 2016; Author 3, 2016; 2021). Though the majority of MLs are U.S. born, a small percentage of them have recently migrated to the United States as adolescents. Like their U.S. counterparts, they encounter an educational system that limits their access to college readiness opportunities (Hos, 2020; Suárez-Orozco, 1989). Additionally they face challenges including having to learn a new language in a shortened time span, adapt to a new culture, master a high school curriculum, and prepare for postsecondary life (Yip, 2013), it is important to examine how high schools are addressing policies and practices that foreclose MLs opportunities to become college ready. In this ethnographic study, I examine how one team of educators at Esperanza High School (EHS; pseudonym), a comprehensive high school in Los Angeles, worked to improve their MLs’ access to college readiness opportunities.

Informed by multilevel intersectionality (Núñez, 2014), I examine how the EL (English learner) team worked to enact structural change at EHS. I pay particular attention to how the individual actors making up the EL team and working within systems of power and oppression (Aleman, 2018) addressed problematic district educational policy by changing school level practices. As educators occupying a range of positions including administrator, instructional coach, lead teacher, and school counselor, I highlight how they used their power and resources at hand to get as many of their MLs on the “college bus.” Informing this analysis include (1) participant observations of the EL team meetings across 2020-2021; (2) participant observations of college-and-career presentations; (3) interviews with the various members of the EL team and (4) interviews with 75 MLs enrolled in 9th to 12th grade. The EHS ML population was composed of Latinx and Maya youth who were economically disadvantaged and had arrived in the United States as 14-16 year olds.

I find that the programmatic shifts were well received by MLs at EHS but there were some problems that remain unaddressed. One of the major shifts that occurred was that EHS started enrolling MLs in college-preparatory English courses instead of English language development courses (non-college-preparatory courses). Yet general education teachers questioned these efforts and MLs reported lacking support to succeed in these college-preparatory courses. Additionally, I find that MLs enjoyed the year-long series where invited guest speakers discussed their college journey as well as speak about their current career; however, MLs would have preferred presentations that spoke to their individual career interests. This points to the need to better tailor presentations to the interests and needs of MLs. The work of the EL team at EHS is significant given their commitment to shifting a school culture that has historically limited access to college readiness opportunities. However, these efforts call on all teachers working collaboratively to support and address the needs for a diverse ML student population when working towards equitable opportunities in preparing MLs for postsecondary education.

Author

• Sophia L. Angeles, Pennsylvania State University