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Going to School in the United States: Voices of Adolescent Newcomers
Author(s) -
Scully Jennifer E.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
tesol journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.468
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1949-3533
pISSN - 1056-7941
DOI - 10.1002/tesj.226
Subject(s) - immigration , multiculturalism , acculturation , psychology , pedagogy , special needs , medical education , political science , medicine , psychiatry , law
Secondary newcomer schools vary tremendously in format but share the common characteristic of being comprised of recently arrived adolescent immigrants. These schools, designed to meet the educational and acculturative needs of adolescent immigrants, have been proliferating across the United States for years. Yet little is known about the experiences of the students attending newcomer schools or about how or how well these schools meet their needs. For this article the author conducted in‐depth interviews with seven graduates of an urban secondary newcomer school to address this issue. Participants, two in particular, revealed that, although the school met their needs, there were significant gaps in addressing issues of segregation, the needs of disabled students, and multicultural conflict. Recommendations for teachers, administrators, and policy makers are made in light of these findings.