Immigrant Education. IDRA Focus.

Overview & Synopsis

This newsletter includes five articles on immigrant education that focus on successful school programs and educational policy issues. In "Immigrant Education from the Administrators' Perspective" (Pam McCollum, Juanita Garcia), three principals of south Texas secondary schools with successful immigrant programs discuss their views on the adequacy of their college course work, student registration, student records, assessment and placement, appropriate counseling services, and referral for social services. "Creative Collaboratives: Empowering Immigrant Students and Families through Education" (Josie Danini Supik, Albert Cortez) describes programs in El Paso and Houston that link secondary schools and universities in efforts to improve immigrant education. Project findings point to the importance of teacher training and administrative support for the implementation of change strategies. "Immigrant Education Policy: Why Attempt To Fix What's Not Broken?" (Albert Cortez) presents facts about immigration and its impact on educational costs that counter misconceptions underlying efforts to deny public education to undocumented immigrant children. "CHIME (Clearinghouse for Immigrant Education): Service Provides Access to Information on the Education of Immigrant Students" (Aurelio M. Montemayor) describes CHIME's services and collection of resources on immigrant education. "Dispelling Myths about Immigrant Students" (Abel Carmona) examines common misconceptions about the impacts of immigrants on the U.S. economy, employment of native-born workers, welfare services, and schools, and about immigrants' education level and work skills. (SV)