1. This story addresses the challenges immigrant children face when entering schools in the U.S. The Internationals Network for Public Schools provides resources for traumatized teens and English lessons embedded into other subjects. Students are encouraged to help each other learn in native languages while learning English, with teachers as the facilitators. Some individuals are not supportive of this academic style due to its incongruency with the Common Core assessment milestones. However, students from these settings have outperformed students from typical ESL backgrounds. This collaborative instruction method strikes me as much more useful and dignifying than typical ESL courses high schools around the country use. It allows students to adjust in the own time and learn aspects of American culture bit by bit, while eliminating the 'otherization' that can occur in Americanized public schools. This solution is encouraging, particularly as a tutor at SEA Literacy, tutoring Rohingya high schoolers in Milwaukee. I have always ignored the rule of 'English only' while tutoring because it seemed counter-intuitive to limit someone's learning only to what they can verbally express in one modality. I agree with the justification for the Internationals Network for Public Schools’ approach, that students learn best when supported by peers and using their strengths to learn other subjects. This educational system clearly has a welcoming context of reception. Beyond the Common Core argument, it likely faces opposition from people who only want to hear English, either due to bigotry or to believing there is only one way to learn. I know individuals at SEA Literacy who truly love the students but firmly believe the fastest way to learn a language is to only use that language. This reminds me of our class discussion on raising a child in a language you are not fluent in. It may be possible, but instruction can be more efficiently done with scaffolding, using what someone already knows of a language to learn a new language.

2. This article is about a school district in California that offers English classes for parents of enrolled students. Nationwide, there are more than 100 school districts focusing on family literacy to help the children learn as well. Participating school districts report benefits of increased parent involvement in the child’s education. This program is largely so beneficial because it expands an existing community rather than asking parents to go to an adult learning center outside of their community. Their children’s schools are often the first step in a longer education process. This experience has also helped parents understand the difficulties their children face in a school environment.  

Parent language programs address the class topic of raising a child in a language other than your own. The solution addresses numerous problems that face immigrant communities, such as language barriers, poverty, and educational barriers. Family literacy program participation has been associated with higher school attendance, better academic performance, and higher paying jobs for parents. Communities that offer these programs are welcoming contexts of reception in emerging or continuous gateways. I believe such a program would be beneficial in Milwaukee, as it was successful in Detroit, another post-emerging gateway with a large immigrant influx to rustbelt cities.

This solution seems so feasible and effective. One lesson plan from this school really left an impression on me. Teachers had parents send an email to their child’s teacher as a part of a digital literacy lesson. This task epitomizes the language and culture gap between new-arriving immigrants and native English speakers. Such a simple task demonstrates involvement in your child’s education. Given the research the article discussed regarding teacher perceptions of immigrant parents as less involved, such a small but meaningful assignment can offer numerous benefits and create space for relationships between teachers and parents.

3. This article is about the multiple ways schools across the country can protect undocumented immigrant students from ICE. ICE considers schools, churches, and hospitals “sensitive locations. As such, ICE cannot partake in enforcement activities on these campuses. Although this is guidance that could be overturned and is not an explicit directive, schools can take additional steps to protect students from ICE and the threat of deportation or family separation. One way allows schools outside sanctuary cities to pass protections via school boards to prevent requirements that discriminate against children of undocumented immigrants. Schools also can legislate against sharing records with ICE. The protective atmospheres schools provide can encourage students to form their own advocacy organizations seeking legal advice and protection. Schools innately have the potential to be welcoming contexts of reception, but depending on the rules of the school, not all may be. The room for improvement demonstrates the gap between sanctuary laws and implementation in the broader context of a society. I appreciate this solution as a way to ensure schools remain protected areas even if ICE policies change. It highlights how vulnerable the system is as a whole to change in administration but reveals the resilience of immigrant communities. It was hopeful to read about student-led organizations pushing administrators to put policies into place in addition to simply saying they support immigrants. I enjoy reading about youth-led organizations, as this is often an overlooked demographic. This solution to challenges undocumented youth and children of undocumented immigrants face provides realistic steps communities across the country can begin to implement to protect students and families. It would likely face opposition in conservative and/or anti-immigrant areas. In addition, sanctuary cities may not see the benefit of school district policies under the assumption that sanctuary laws would extend down to smaller institutions. These solutions are mostly taking place in continuous and emerging gateways and may face more obstacles in different contexts.