Local Context Mediating Districts’ Approaches to Serving Immigrant and Refugee Newcomers

We employed a qualitative comparative approach using semi-structured interviews with district and school staff and community partners from three K-12 school districts: Middleton, Southside, and Northridge. Interviews provided various perspectives on community and district approaches to serving newcomers, and allowed us to learn, from participants’ perspectives, whether and how external forces were aligned with district-provided supports.<br><br>Districts were selected for inclusion in the study in collaboration with the English Learners Collaborative of the Council of Chief State School Officers, who provided support for the broader project. Districts were nominated for consideration if they were experiencing an increase in their newcomer population and had an interest in participating. Districts were selected from the pool of nominees for their geographic diversity yet similarity in size. Specifically, while each was a mid-sized district serving about 20,000 students, with an average of 20% of whom were identified as English learners, they were located in different regions of the country and ultimately served demographically distinct populations.

本研究采用质性比较研究范式，对来自米德尔顿（Middleton）、南区（Southside）与北岭（Northridge）三个K-12学区的学区及学校工作人员、社区合作伙伴开展半结构化访谈。访谈获取了社区与学区服务新入学移民学生的多元视角，并使我们得以从参与者的立场出发，探究外部因素是否以及如何与学区提供的支持举措相契合。

本研究的学区遴选工作与美国各州学校总监委员会（Council of Chief State School Officers）下属的英语学习者协作项目（English Learners Collaborative）合作开展，该机构为整个研究项目提供了支持。凡新入学移民学生人数呈增长趋势且有意参与研究的学区，均可被提名纳入遴选范围。研究人员从候选学区池中遴选样本，考量其地域多样性与办学规模的一致性。具体而言，所有入选学区均为中型学区，在校生规模约为20000人，其中平均20%的学生被认定为英语学习者；各学区分布于该国不同区域，最终服务的人口统计学特征各不相同。