Newcomer Support Services
This short video provides a powerful introduction for the innovative teaching and learning that can take place in newcomer classrooms.
Newcomers – immigrant students in their first years of U.S. schools – are among the most resilient and vulnerable groups of students in California’s K-12 system. Newcomer students typically arrive in the US with limited English proficiency and face the additional challenge of acculturating to a new country and new learning environment. Many have experienced significant trauma and economic hardship, which can create additional barriers to learning. Our state collectively struggles to meet newcomers’ distinct academic and social-emotional needs. These challenges contribute to disproportionately high dropout rates, low graduation rates, and low college/career readiness among newcomer students.
We are proud to offer tailored services to help schools and districts address the unique needs of newcomer students.
Professional Development for Newcomer Teachers
We provide targeted professional development to support newcomer teachers to grow and thrive in their instruction. Sample topics for professional learning sessions or workshops include:
The social context of newcomer students locally and nationally
Affirming the unique linguistic and cultural assets of newcomers
Creating powerful, safe, and trauma-sensitive classrooms
Building relationships with multilingual families
Leveraging district and community resources to serve students’ whole selves
Creative instructional practices–incorporating art, culture, storytelling, and other strength-based practices into the classroom.
Strategic Planning and Coaching for District Staff
We partner with your program team to design/refine a theory of action reflective of your community’s unique values and goals. We will help you assess your needs, assets, resources, and systems within a quality newcomer program framework, plan scale-up efforts, and offer coaching and strategies to strengthen or expand your newcomer supports, all within a whole-child, whole-community framework.
Evaluation and Continuous Improvement
We support your team to identify and capture relevant data to assess student and program success. This includes strengthening your existing student information systems to be responsive to and reflective of newcomers, as well as conducting qualitative and quantitative assessments to support ongoing learning and improvement.