Improving Outcomes for Immigrant Youth Through Teacher Professional Culture: A Mixed-Method Study  

• In Event: Addressing and Dismantling Intersecting Inequities to Promote Educational Justice for Newcomer Youth

Abstract

Objectives
Research on improving schools for recently-arrived immigrant ELs (newcomers) has largely focused on language pedagogy and classroom interactions or the broader impacts of language policies, but not the professional conditions within a school that can support student outcomes and belonging for immigrant EL students.

Methods
To address this gap, we partner with INPS schools and employ a mixed-methods study design to examine if and how these conditions shape the experiences and outcomes of recently arrived immigrant students. First, we assess the impact of Network schools by comparing the academic achievement of students at Network schools with the achievement of newcomer and EBI students who attend other NYC public high schools. Building on the findings from this impact study, we present findings from two years of in-depth qualitative data focusing on the school-level structures and professional conditions in two of the highest impact Network schools. Third, we operationalized and linked specific practices that emerged from our qualitative study with academic outcomes using NYC administrative data and data from the New York City School Survey, a large-scale survey administered to NYC Department of Education leaders and teachers with high response rates and over 100 questions asking about instruction and work and school culture and climate.

Preliminary Findings
Overall, we find, as a network and among the majority of INPS schools, positive impacts on academic outcomes. Our qualitative work reveals three important school conditions that are key mechanisms for student success: a teacher’s sense of their influence in the school, structured opportunities to collaborate with peers, and a broader sense of collective responsibility over student academic success. We then were able to create these constructs using factor analysis of items from the NYC School Survey. We found that student outcomes were more positive in schools with more teacher influence, peer collaboration, and collective responsibility. Moreover, this pattern was more striking in schools that served a higher proportion of ELs, which mirror INPS schools.

Authors

• Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, New York University

• Adriana Villavicencio, New York University

• Reva Jaffe-Walter, Montclair State University