NCIIP: Early Childhood and K-12 Education

Policy Briefs

April 2024

Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families through Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Services

Young girl talks to a child psychologist

iStock.com/Lacheev

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) services can offer vital support for young children’s healthy development. Yet, young children in immigrant and refugee families often do not benefit, due in part to lower levels of health-care coverage and limited cultural responsiveness in the field. This issue brief explores the benefits and barriers to supporting these children via IECMH services, and some ways to close key gaps.

Reports

January 2024

Refining State Accountability Systems for English Learner Success

A high school student answers a math problem on a whiteboard

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

State accountability systems are designed to identify and close student achievement gaps. Yet most do not report and interpret English Learner (EL) outcomes in a way that paints a full picture of how different instructional services have contributed to academic development. This report sketches a vision for reimagined accountability systems that can support better understanding of ELs’ learning and inform school improvement strategies.

Fact Sheets

October 2023

Recent Immigrant Children: A Profile of New Arrivals to U.S. Schools

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

A significant increase in the number of immigrant children in U.S. schools over the last decade has challenged K-12 educators to expand their capacity to serve students with different backgrounds and educational needs. This fact sheet sketches a profile of recently arrived immigrant children, presenting data on top states of residence, national origins, household characteristics, and more.

Policy Briefs

July 2023

ESSER: Moving the Needle on Equitable and Adequate Education Funding for English Learners

4th and 5th grade students working on posters

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

The pandemic and move to remote learning affected students across the United States, and certain groups—including the nation’s 5 million English Learners (ELs)—were hit particularly hard. At the same time, the federal government made unprecedented investments in public K-12 education to counter the pandemic’s adverse impacts. This issue brief explores the ways school districts have invested these funds to support ELs.

Reports

April 2023

Unlocking Opportunities: Supporting English Learners’ Equitable Access to Career and Technical Education

Three students in a digital filmmaking class set up a camera

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

Increasing equitable access to educational opportunities is a major focus for U.S. educators and others. For English Learners, the hands-on courses offered through career and technical education (CTE) programs can play an important role in helping them stay engaged in school, graduate, and get on a path to a career providing a family-sustaining wage. This report explores policies and practices to support their participation in CTE, as well as persistent barriers.

Commentaries

November 2022

Apprenticeship Programs Are a Promising Solution to Bring More Multilingual Workers into Early Childhood Field

Photo of a preschool teacher reading to students.

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

Shortages of workers continue to plague early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems across the United States. With the field already struggling to effectively serve young children in families that speak languages other than English, apprenticeship programs offer a promising solution to bring more—and more multilingual—workers into early childhood careers.

Featured

English Learners and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes a number of new requirements for the education of English Learners (ELs), including standardized criteria for identifying EL students and inclusion of English proficiency as a measurement of school quality. Resources on this page can help inform decisions such as how quickly schools must improve and how states can intervene with struggling districts.

Featured

ELL Information Center

The English Language Learner (ELL) Information Center provides informative fact sheets, maps, and state-level data resources that chronicle the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children.

Recent Activity

Reports February 2022 Advancing Digital Equity among Immigrant-Origin Youth By Essey Workie, Lillie Hinkle, Anna deDufour and Valerie Lacarte	Fact Sheets February 2022 Una guía para padres sobre las evaluaciones de estudiantes de inglés By Delia Pompa and Jazmin Flores Peña
Fact Sheets February 2022 A Parent’s Guide to English Learner Assessments By Delia Pompa and Jazmin Flores Peña	Multimedia December 1, 2021 The Importance of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care for Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families
Policy Briefs December 2021 The Invisible Work of Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers and Its Importance for Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families By Maki Park and Jazmin Flores Peña	Multimedia November 2, 2021 Effects of the Pandemic on High School English Learners and Ways to Help Them Recover
Multimedia November 5, 2021 Immigrant Integration: Essential to the Success of Immigration Policy	Reports November 2021 The Impacts on English Learners of Key State High School Policies and Graduation Requirements By Julie Sugarman

Pages

Fact Sheets April 2021 Immigrant and U.S.-Born Parents of Young and Elementary-School-Age Children: Key Sociodemographic Characteristics By Jacob Hofstetter and Margie McHugh	Policy Briefs March 2021 Funding English Learner Education: Making the Most of Policy and Budget Levers By Julie Sugarman
Policy Briefs October 2020 Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families through Home Visiting: Innovative State and Local Approaches By Caitlin Katsiaficas	Policy Briefs September 2020 Educating English Learners during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Policy Ideas for States and School Districts By Julie Sugarman and Melissa Lazarin
Reports September 2020 Immigration Enforcement and the Mental Health of Latino High School Students By Randy Capps, Jodi Berger Cardoso, Kalina Brabeck, Michael Fix and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto	Policy Briefs June 2020 Native Language Assessments for K-12 English Learners: Policy Considerations and State Practices By Julie Sugarman and Leslie Villegas
Policy Briefs March 2020 Which English Learners Count When? Understanding State EL Subgroup Definitions in ESSA Reporting By Julie Sugarman	Reports February 2020 The Patchy Landscape of State English Learner Policies under ESSA By Leslie Villegas and Delia Pompa

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Video, Audio

September 29, 2020

Centering English Learners in Schools’ Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Practioners from California and Tennessee join MPI researchers in a discussion on key challenges to meeting English Learners’ needs during the pandemic and the policies and practices school systems will need to put in place to support them and their families through the public-health and education crisis, as well as when schooling returns to normal.

Flickr Alberto G Exam 5843577306_06fd6132f7_c (1)

Video, Audio

June 16, 2020

Addressing Equity Concerns for English Learners: Where Do Native Language Assessments Fit In?

This webchat marks the release of a report examining the role native language assessments play in addressing equity concerns for English Learner (EL) students.

Expert Q&A, Audio

March 11, 2020

Expert Podcast: Understanding How English Learners Count in ESSA Reporting

This podcast features a discussion between MPI's Margie McHugh and Julie Sugarman about how to understand the varying composition of states' English Learner (EL) subgroup under ESSA, and why understanding these technical differences matters when making decisions about how ELs and schools are faring.

flickr KOMUnews Columbia School Board to Discuss English Language Learners Program

Video, Audio

February 12, 2020

An Uneven Landscape: The Differing State Approaches to English Learner Policies under ESSA

Experts share how states have approached Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) implementation, areas where the law and state efforts to support English Learners can be improved, and findings from the compendium, The Patchy Landscape of State English Learner Policies under ESSA.

Flickr SweetwaterISDCowen Early Childhood CenterNationalTeddyBearDay

Video, Audio

August 28, 2019

Effectively Serving Immigrant and Dual Language Learner Families through Home Visiting Programs

Marking a policy brief's release, this webinar explores the promise of home visiting services that support new parents alongside their infants and toddlers, plus strategies for improving how these programs work with immigrant and linguistically diverse families.

Recent Activity

Reports

April 2019

The Unintended Consequences for English Learners of Using the Four-Year Graduation Rate for School Accountability

High school graduation is a landmark event for students. It also plays an important role in the state accountability systems designed to ensure that schools provide all students a high-quality education. Yet relying on a school's four-year graduation rate for federal accountability purposes can have unintended consequences for English Learners, who may need extra time to graduate.

Fact Sheets

April 2019

How Many Unauthorized Immigrants Graduate from U.S. High Schools Annually?

A high school diploma has been a core requirement of proposed DREAM Act legislation and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Yet a fresh estimate of the number of unauthorized immigrants graduating annually from U.S. high schools has long been missing from the debate. This fact sheet provides up-to-date estimates for the United States and top 15 states, estimating 98,000 such students graduate yearly.

Video, Audio, Webinars

April 3, 2019

Addressing Trauma in Young Children in Immigrant and Refugee Families through Early Childhood Programs

During this webinar, speakers provide an overview of an MPI policy brief that seeks to raise awareness of the intersection of trauma and early childhood development, and how U.S. early childhood programs could more effectively address this trauma in young children in refugee and immigrant households. The participants discuss efforts to integrate trauma-informed approaches into early childhood systems and how home visiting services can effectively address trauma and mental health through a two-generation approach.

Policy Briefs

April 2019

Mitigating the Effects of Trauma among Young Children of Immigrants and Refugees: The Role of Early Childhood Programs

The first years of a child’s life are a time of immense growth, and exposure to trauma—if left unaddressed—can have significant, lifelong effects. This issue brief examines how young children of refugees and other immigrants may be affected by trauma, and what early childhood education and care programs, health-care providers, and others can do to mitigate its adverse effects.

Commentaries

March 2019

More Than a DREAM (Act), Less Than a Promise

The first bill introduced in the 116th Congress to offer a path to legal status to DREAMers, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, could legalize nearly 2.7 million unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children, as well as those eligible for Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Enforced Departure, as this commentary explains.

Reports

November 2018

Minnesota’s Superdiverse and Growing Dual Language Learner Child Population

Dual Language Learners (DLLs) are a growing segment of the Minnesota young child population, and a particularly "superdiverse" one with myriad origins, cultures, and languages—a new reality other states and communities will face. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and service providers, as well as analysis of census data, this report examines what this incredible diversity means for the state’s early childhood policies and programs.

Video, Audio

November 20, 2018

Building Bridges Not Walls: Key Lessons from the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report on Migration and Displacement

Marking the U.S. release of the 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, this discussion looks at different ways education policymakers, teachers, and civil society have responded to the educational needs of migrants and how to address the challenges that sometimes inhibit children from participating meaningfully and equally in education programs.

Video, Audio, Webinars

September 24, 2018

Addressing the Intergenerational Mental Health Needs of Refugee Families with Young Children

Experts on this webinar discuss efforts being undertaken in Maryland to serve refugee families with young children through tailored, trauma-informed approaches that address their specific mental health needs.

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