Conceptualizing Ever–English Learner Students' College-Going: Addressing the Central Role of State and Federal Immigrant and Immigration Policy

• In Event: Immigrant Ever–English Learner Students in Higher Education: Policy Levers in Access, Interventions, Interactions, Transfer, and Understanding

Abstract

K-12 students who have ever been English learner (EL)-identified, are among the fastest-growing U.S. school-age populations, yet their college-going rates remain precariously low (Núñez et al., 2016), as the previous papers have noted. While numerous models exist to examine college-going among “mainstream” populations, relatively little is known about how they function for ever-EL students. Here, we build upon Perna’s (2006) seminal college-going model to address ever-EL students’ positionality at the intersection of language, education, immigrant, and immigration policy.

In particular, we consider the sociopolitical contexts of a variety of state (immigrant) and federal (immigration) policies, with an eye to regional variation in state policy and temporal variation in federal policy. Specifically, while state policy varies by geographic space, federal policy varies with each new administration. While most research work on K-12 EL students’ college access has focused on the individual or local context as the analytical unit, much less has considered the state and federal forces. To address this gap, we consider the individual and the educational organization influenced by broader sociopolitical contexts.

Our proposed model parallels Perna’s (2006) focus on the individual, where EL students hold multiple identities informed by race/ethnicity, nativity, and social class—all of which interact with schools’ organizational habitus to shape their individual habitus toward postsecondary education (Kanno, 2018). We quickly move outward, however, with a focus on local and state policy where EL students often attend less-resourced schools and districts as a result of state budget priorities (Jiménez-Castellanos & García, 2017). Additionally, state-level EL educational directives are implemented via the filter of regional attitudes and policies regarding immigrant communities (Rodriguez & Monreal, 2017). Finally, we note the importance of contextualizing ever-EL inquiry temporally at the national level. Historically, the education of EL students has been uniquely regulated via federal judicial decisions, policies, and legislation (Mavrogordato, 2012). We contextualize ever-EL college-going research both geographically (state) and temporally (federal), suggesting that these two outermost layers carry greater weight for the ever-EL population than they might for other groups.

It is in these two outermost layers, state and federal policy, that we argue the greatest impact on ever-EL students’ educational trajectories occurs. Just as federal education policy as it relates to EL students changes with each new administration (Mavrogordato, 2012), so does federal immigration policy, shaping how citizens and states respond to and engage with the immigrant and children of immigrant population, which includes the vast majority of ever-EL students. We argue that the sociopolitical impacts of state immigrant policies—both pro- and anti-immigrant—must be accounted for (Author, 2020) to understand the long-term educational attainment of immigrant ever-EL students. By accounting for the policy context, future research has the potential to capture the considerable variation in college-going pathways unique to the immigrant ever-EL population, and inform more effective policies and practices, targeted to specific ever-EL populations, in certain geographic contexts, and under the influence of both federal and state policies.

Authors

• Rebecca M. Callahan, University of Vermont

• Lei Jiang, University of Kansas

• Anne-Marie Nunez, The Ohio State University