National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy

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.

Fact Sheets

October 2022

Dual Language Learners: Key Characteristics and Considerations for Early Childhood Programs

A group of preschoolers listen to a story

Allison Shelley/EDUimages

How many Dual Language Learner (DLL) children live in your state, and what share do they comprise of all children under age 5? What languages are most commonly spoken in their households? Answers to these and other questions that are critical to the design and implementation of early childhood programs that reach all children equitably are presented in a series of state-level data fact sheets.

Policy Briefs

October 2022

Overlooked but Essential: Language Access in Early Childhood Programs

A mother and toddler walking into a school

iStock.com/Fly View Productions

Dual Language Learners (DLLs)—young children with a parent who speaks a language other than English at home—benefit greatly from early childhood programs, but they also enroll at lower rates than their peers. This policy brief looks at federal and state language access policies that aim to make such programs more accessible to DLLs’ families. It also examines persistent gaps in participation and ways to address them.

Commentaries

June 2022

How State Assessments Became and Remain a Driver for Equity for English Learners

Image of two students in a classroom, one with a laptop

Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

While the pandemic has given a boost to efforts to water down or limit end-of-year state assessments of students in K-12, this commentary notes the importance of testing to drive equity for the nation's 5 million English Learners and ensure that they are not overlooked or that resources and support services are misdirected from where they are needed.

Reports

May 2022

English Learner Testing during the Pandemic: An Early Readout and Look Ahead

Side view portrait of young man and two other students taking a test

iStock.com/SeventyFour

In addition to upending daily life in the classroom, the pandemic has affected how states administer annual assessments to their students—disrupting a key means of collecting data on new or growing learning gaps that demand attention. This report explores how states have approached testing English Learners during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what 2020-21 assessment data can and cannot tell us.

Policy Briefs

May 2022

Cultural Competency Secrets to Success with Immigrant and Refugee Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices

Parents and their young child at a naturalization service.

Kelsey Bell/U.S. National Archives

As the United States becomes more diverse, changes in the cultural makeup of communities can challenge longstanding practices in human services delivery. This brief explores strategies service providers can employ to build their understanding of and responsiveness to the cultures of the communities they serve, leading to better outcomes for immigrant and refugee families.

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

Fact Sheets August 2018 English Learners in Select States: Demographics, Outcomes, and State Accountability Policies By Julie Sugarman and Courtney Geary	Commentaries August 2018 Through the Back Door: Remaking the Immigration System via the Expected “Public-Charge” Rule By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Mark Greenberg
Reports August 2018 Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix	Multimedia June 27, 2018 K-12 Instructional Models for English Learners: What They Are and Why They Matter
Policy Briefs June 2018 A Matter of Design: English Learner Program Models in K-12 Education By Julie Sugarman	Multimedia June 12, 2018 Chilling Effects: The Expected Public-Charge Rule and Its Impact on Immigrant Families
Reports June 2018 Chilling Effects: The Expected Public Charge Rule and Its Impact on Legal Immigrant Families’ Public Benefits Use By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix and Mark Greenberg	Policy Briefs May 2018 A Guide to Finding and Understanding English Learner Data By Julie Sugarman

Pages

Fact Sheets June 2015 Top Languages Spoken by English Language Learners Nationally and by State By Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Sarah Hooker and Jeanne Batalova	Reports April 2015 Immigrant and Refugee Workers in the Early Childhood Field: Taking a Closer Look By Maki Park, Margie McHugh, Jeanne Batalova and Jie Zong
Reports March 2015 A Profile of Immigrants in Houston, the Nation's Most Diverse Metropolitan Area By Randy Capps, Michael Fix and Chiamaka Nwosu	Reports February 2015 Through an Immigrant Lens: PIAAC Assessment of the Competencies of Adults in the United States By Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
Reports January 2015 Lessons from the Local Level: DACA's Implementation and Impact on Education and Training Success By Sarah Hooker, Margie McHugh and Angelo Mathay	Reports September 2014 Diploma, Please: Promoting Educational Attainment for DACA- and Potential DREAM Act-Eligible Youth By Margie McHugh
Reports September 2014 Immigrant Civic Integration and Service Access Initiatives: City-Sized Solutions for City-Sized Needs By Margie McHugh	Policy Briefs September 2014 Executive Action for Unauthorized Immigrants: Estimates of the Populations that Could Receive Relief By Randy Capps and Marc R. Rosenblum

Pages

EVENTPH 2015.1.05 Lessons from DACA Flickr Educators Training Connie Ma

Video, Audio

January 7, 2015

Lessons from DACA’s Implementation and its Impact on Education and Training

A webinar examining the outreach and initiatives by educational institutions and other community stakeholders seeking to support the education and training success of grantees of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

EVENTPH 2014.12.3 Executive Action Webinar Flickr The Speaker flickr com photos thespeakernews 15660310918

Video, Audio

December 3, 2014

Digging Deeper Into Executive Action: A Further Examination of the Impacts

A discussion with MPI experts of the less-examined aspects of President Obama's executive actions on immigration, with respect to immigration enforcement, legal immigration, and immigrant integration.

EVENTPH 2014.10.21 11th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conf. USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez

Video, Audio

October 21, 2014

11th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference

This conference, keynoted by USCIS Director León Rodríguez, featured panels on local immigrant integration policies; expected executive action on immigration; the treatment of unaccompanied children from Central America; and innovations in government-funded legal counsel and accelerated court cases.

EVENTPH 2014.9.18 Unpacking the Links between Segregation, Community Cohesion, and Opportunity (YouTube)

Video

September 18, 2014

Unpacking the Links between Segregation, Community Cohesion, and Opportunity: A Transatlantic Discussion

In this webinar, experts and policymakers from Europe and the United States discuss the relationship between immigration, residential segregation, community relations, and economic opportunities.

EVENTPH 2014.9.16 DACA DREAM ED REQ. WEBINAR (USDOEDSC_0079 (1))

Audio

September 16, 2014

Realizing the DACA and DREAM Promise: Actions to Support Educational Attainment of Potentially Eligible Immigrant Youth

A discussion and report release on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, how its educational requirements may be impacting application rates, and recommendations for overcoming the education-success challenges that key subgroups of DACA-DREAM youth face.

Recent Activity

Fact Sheets

August 2018

English Learners in Select States: Demographics, Outcomes, and State Accountability Policies

States are in the midst of designing new policies to hold schools accountable for the education of English Learner (EL) students, as mandated by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This series of fact sheets sketches the characteristics of immigrant and EL students in 25 states, the gaps between their educational outcomes and those of their peers, and the accountability policies each state is developing.

Commentaries

August 2018

Through the Back Door: Remaking the Immigration System via the Expected “Public-Charge” Rule

A Trump administration “public-charge” rule expected to be unveiled soon could create the potential to significantly reshape family-based legal immigration to the United States—and reduce arrivals from Asia, Latin America, and Africa—by imposing a de facto financial test that 40 percent of the U.S. born themselves would fail, as this commentary explains.

Reports

August 2018

Tapping the Talents of Highly Skilled Immigrants in the United States: Takeaways from Experts Summit

Economists project a shortage of 5 million U.S. workers with postsecondary education and training by 2020. Yet 2 million immigrant college graduates in the United States are either unemployed or work in jobs that require no more than a high school degree. How can this skill underutilization, known as "brain waste," be remedied? MPI asked the experts, and this report summarizes their discussion and recommendations.

Video, Audio, Webinars

June 27, 2018

K-12 Instructional Models for English Learners: What They Are and Why They Matter

Marking the release of an MPI brief, experts on this webinar examine the key features of English Learner (EL) instructional models and discuss state- and district-level approaches to supporting schools in implementing effective EL program models, with a particular focus on what is being done in New York and Madison Wisconsin.

Policy Briefs

June 2018

A Matter of Design: English Learner Program Models in K-12 Education

The programs U.S. schools use to support English Learners (EL) take many shapes and forms. At a time when parents and community members are encouraged to work with educators to close achievement gaps, this guide aims to help them understand the differences between EL program models, as well as why schools make different choices about which to use.

Video, Audio, Webinars

June 12, 2018

Chilling Effects: The Expected Public-Charge Rule and Its Impact on Immigrant Families

This webinar highlights findings from an MPI report examining the potential impacts of expected changes to the public charge rule by the Trump administration. Leaked draft versions suggest the rule could sharply expand the number of legally present noncitizens facing difficulty getting a green card or extending a visa as a result of their family's use of public benefits. The rule likely would discourage millions from accessing health, nutrition, and social services for which they or their U.S.-citizen dependents are eligible.

Reports

June 2018

Chilling Effects: The Expected Public Charge Rule and Its Impact on Legal Immigrant Families’ Public Benefits Use

According to leaked drafts, the Trump administration is considering a rule that could have sweeping effects on both legal immigration to the United States and the use of public benefits by legal immigrants and their families. This report examines the potential scale of the expected rule’s impact, including at national and state levels and among children, as well as Hispanic and Asian American/Pacific Islander immigrants.

Policy Briefs

May 2018

A Guide to Finding and Understanding English Learner Data

As states make more data about student outcomes and schools available online, it can be difficult to decide where to turn for information about English Learners (ELs). This guide breaks down common questions about finding and using student (and specifically EL) data. It also explores some common challenges data users may face.

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