ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving

Graduation Outcomes for Migrant

Students. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Development Team

www.eric.ed.gov

Table of Contents

If you're viewing this document online, you can click any of the topics below to link directly to that section.

Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC Digest..... 1

BACKGROUND OF STUDY.................................................. 2

THE SCHOOL AND STUDENTS............................................ 3

FACTORS SUPPORTING STUDENT SUCCESS........................ 3

CONCLUSION.................................................................. 5

REFERENCES.................................................................. 6

ERIC Identifier: ED478061

Publication Date: 2003-07-00

Author: Gibson, Margaret A.

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools Charleston WV.

Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant

Students. ERIC Digest.

THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT

ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC

This Digest explores several key factors that contribute to the academic persistence and

achievement of high-school-aged migrant youth. The discussion draws from research in

ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.

Page 1 of 8
one California high school and from the broader literature on promoting educational

success for working-class minority youth.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

As of July 2002, there were 819,000 migrant children nationwide. [1] These children are

among the most disadvantaged in the United States due to the combined effects of

poverty, poor nutrition and health care, and high absenteeism from school related to

work responsibilities and family mobility. To be eligible for migrant services, a child must

have moved from one school district to another within the past three years to obtain

temporary or seasonal work in agriculture or fishing, or to accompany a parent or

guardian seeking this kind of work. Secondary students who no longer migrate may

continue to be serviced through credit accrual programs until graduation.

Many migrant children fall behind academically as they progress through school. The

best and most recent national studies of school completion rates (now more than a

decade old) estimated that only about half received a high school diploma (State

University of New York [SUNY] Oneonta Migrant Programs, 1987; Vamos, 1992). By

contrast, 77% of the migrant students who entered the study school, Hillside High

School (HHS), in the fall of 1998 completed 12th grade 4 years later; another 8%

remained in school pursuing a GED. [2] In a comparison sample of nonmigrant

Mexican-descent students, only 39% graduated from high school on schedule.

Hillside High School is one of two public high schools in the Appleton Unified School

District. It serves students from two distinct communities: Appleton, a predominantly

Mexican and Mexican American working-class community, the economy of which is

based largely on agriculture; and Hillside, a mostly White, middle- to upper-middle-class

professional town.

Most of the migrant students in the focal sample lived in Appleton and were bused each

day to Hillside due to severe overcrowding at Appleton High School. Like their

counterparts nationwide, Appleton's migrant workers faced severe hardships that

impacted their children's schooling. Three fourths of the parents had attended school for

8 years or less, mostly in rural Mexico, and few of the parents spoke English with ease.

As a result, many of the parents were unable to assist their children with schoolwork,

particularly in the upper grades.

Furthermore, the average migrant laborer in Appleton earned just $9,000 picking and

packing fruits and vegetables during the 5-month agricultural season. Those with more

skilled and steady work (for example, tractor drivers or crew foremen) still earned less

than $20,000 annually. Given the very high cost of housing, almost all Appleton migrant

families lived in poverty. Nearly half left the area each December when unemployed,

many returning to Mexico. About 20% of their children missed at least some school

days during January.

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

Page 2 of 8 ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.
THE SCHOOL AND STUDENTS

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the author and her coresearchers

followed the school performance of all 160 HHS migrant students in the Class of 2002

from 9th through 12th grades. Sources of data included extensive participant

observation at the high school; student surveys; and interviews with students, teachers,

and Migrant Education Program staff. Also gathered were data on students' grades,

credits earned, college preparatory courses completed, and their ongoing enrollment

status in high school.

By the time they entered HHS, most migrant students were behind academically. Only

one third were placed directly into college prep English and math classes. Most also

coped with a sense of not belonging at HHS. As one migrant student explained, "You

feel that you don't fit in. Just . . . passing through the quad, they [White students] don't

even notice you. And it's like you don't belong there. It's weird." While White students

and teachers might have regretted the social divisions and tensions that existed

between student groups, few had any real comprehension of the lives of the migrant

students outside of school or the deep sense of exclusion they experienced in school

(Gibson & Bejinez, 2002).

FACTORS SUPPORTING STUDENT SUCCESS

Despite the many obstacles, most HHS migrant students graduated from high school.

Evidence from the study suggested that their success was due in large part to several

conditions created by the Migrant Education Program (MEP) staff, including the

provision of supplemental academic support, creation of a sense of belonging,

development of supportive relationships, and strengthening of home-school-community

links.

Providing institutional and academic support. The MEP staff provided a wide array of

supplemental academic support services, including:

* constant academic guidance to assure that students took all courses required for high

school graduation

* after-school tutoring

* summer school and supplemental course work for students who needed to make up

courses or credits

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.

Page 3 of 8
* computers, printers, and Internet access

* placements in paid after-school jobs

* college counseling and precollege transition support

* ongoing advocacy and mentoring

* connections to other school resources

Creating a sense of belonging and community. For many working-class minority

students, developing a caring relationship with a teacher or some other adult at school

is essential to creating a sense of school membership (Valenzuela, 1997). Moreover, a

feeling of belonging in school appears to be a precondition to academic motivation,

participation, and achievement (Gonzalez & Padilla, 1997; Goodenow & Grady, 1993;

Osterman, 2000). A sense of belonging may be especially important for migrant

students due to the status differences that exist between them and members of the

dominant society, their high rate of absenteeism, and the disconnect that they

experience between home and school culture.

The MEP office at HHS provided a place where migrant students felt comfortable

gathering for social as well as academic reasons. The walls were covered with symbols

of Mexican culture and pictures of former students and their college acceptance letters.

Students felt free to speak in Spanish or in English, and during lunch time the migrant

staff often played Spanish music. In many ways, the MEP office served as a social and

cultural "safe space" for students (Fine, Weis, & Powell, 1997), a location where they

could enjoy a positive and warm sense of community, often absent to them in the larger

school setting.

Migrant educators often served as surrogate parents, and they worked constantly to

build and maintain a sense of shared trust and friendship with the students. MEP

teachers routinely spoke with students about their futures and discussed alternatives to

a life working in the fields. Moreover, as one student commented, "They pay attention to

your problems and help you out." We found caring relationships between migrant staff

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

Page 4 of 8 ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.
and students to be at the very heart of the program's success (for more details, see

Gibson & Bejinez, 2002).

Developing supportive relationships. A sense of caring and community is necessary but

alone is insufficient to promote academic persistence and achievement among

economically marginalized migrant youth. Children raised in poverty often lack access

to the kinds of social relationships with teachers and college-bound schoolmates that

can provide them with resources needed for academic success. In such cases,

educational programs must themselves be structured in ways that provide these

in-school connections and support (Stanton-Salazar, Vasquez, & Mehan, 2000).

Like many of their counterparts nationwide (Perry, 1997), the migrant educators at HHS

had a deep understanding of the students' lives outside of school and their educational

needs--an understanding developed in many instances from staff members' own

backgrounds as former migrants. This helped them to connect with the students and to

develop relationships as trusted mentors, tutors, role models, counselors, and

advocates.

Linking home, school, and community. Students who believe they must conceal parts of

their identity at school, or who feel pressure to shed their home cultures, are likely to

experience a sense of alienation at school (Gibson, 1998). On the other hand, when

students feel their identities are affirmed, they are more likely to engage in the schooling

process.

Understanding this, the HHS migrant educators actively worked to validate the

important relationships that existed among students' home, community, and school

worlds. For example, they maintained close contact with parents through phone calls,

home visits, and special events designed to attract parent participation. Additionally,

they met individually with parents to review their children's academic progress. They

also encouraged students to become involved in school and community activities

through the work of the Migrant Student Association (MSA), a student-run club whose

mission was to promote higher education, organize school and community service

activities, and celebrate cultural differences. As students explained, "We feel wanted

and we feel part of the school by doing activities with MSA."

MSA was an important site for creating, sustaining, and asserting a positive Mexican

presence within the larger HHS school community. The club also served to promote

peer support and forge a bond among its members through members' shared linguistic

and ethnic backgrounds and the club's many activities. Through their participation in

MSA, students came to associate being Mexican with leadership and academic

achievement (Gibson, Bejinez, Hidalgo, & Rolon, in press).

CONCLUSION

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.

Page 5 of 8
MEP offered a space, both as a physical site and as a set of relationships, that served

to nurture migrant students' evolving identities and to provide them with access to the

kinds of institutional support required for school success. It created an academic and

social community that fostered school engagement and participation. MEP enabled

migrant students to maintain and develop their cultural roots and values while also

being successful in school. Students were encouraged to become proficient in English

as well as Spanish and to gain mastery of the dominant European American culture

while sustaining strong roots within their Mexican community.

MEP helped those most at risk of dropping out to both persist in school and prepare for

college, including students who never previously viewed this as a real possibility.

[1] F. Sabbah, Director, Migrant Education Region XI, personal communication, July 23,

2002.

[2] The research was made possible through generous grants from the U.S. Department

of Education/OERI (#R305T990174) and the Spencer Foundation (MG #199900129).

As a condition of conducting this study and gaining access to student records, the high

school and students were promised anonymity. Accordingly, all names are

pseudonyms.

REFERENCES

Fine, M., Weis, L., & Powell, L. C. (1997). Communities of difference: A critical look at

desegregated spaces created for and by youth. Harvard Educational Review, 67(2),

247-284.

Gibson, M. A. (1998). Promoting academic success among immigrant students: Is

acculturation the issue? Educational Policy, 12(6), 615-633.

Gibson, M. A., & Bejinez, L. F. (2002). Dropout prevention: How migrant education

supports Mexican youth. Journal of Latinos and Education, 1(3), 155-175.

Gibson, M., Bejinez, L., Hidalgo, N., & Rolon, C. (in press). Belonging and school

participation: Lessons from a Migrant student club. In M. A. Gibson, P. Gandara, & J. P.

Koyama (Eds.), Peers, schools, and the achievement of U.S. Mexican youth. New York:

Teachers College Press.

Gonzalez, R., & Padilla, A. M. (1997). The academic resilience of Mexican American

high school students. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 19(3), 301-317.

Goodenow, C., & Grady, K. E. (1993). The relationship of school belonging and friends'

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

Page 6 of 8 ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.
values to academic motivation among urban adolescent students. Journal of

Experimental Education, 62(1), 60-71.

Osterman, K. F. (2000). Students' need for belonging in the school community. Review

of Educational Research, 70(3), 323-367.

Perry, J. D. (1997). Migrant education: Thirty years of success, but challenges remain.

Providence, RI: New England Desegregation Assistance Center, Brown University.

(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED421313)

Stanton-Salazar, R. D., Vasquez, O. A., & Mehan, H. (2000). Re-engineering academic

success through institutional support. In S. T. Gregory (Ed.), The academic

achievement of minority students: Perspectives, practices, and prescriptions (pp.

213-305). Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc.

State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta Migrant Programs. (1987). Migrant

attrition project: Executive summary. Oneonta, NY: MAP Project.

Valenzuela, A. (1997). Mexican-American youth and the politics of caring. In E. Long

(Ed.), From sociology to cultural studies: New perspectives (pp. 322-350). Malden, MA:

Blackwell Publishers.

Vamos, Inc. (1992). National migrant student graduation rate formula. Prepared for the

National Program for Secondary Credit Exchange and Accrual. Geneseo, NY: BOCES

Geneseo Migrant Center.

-----

Margaret A. Gibson is Professor of Education and Anthropology at the University of

California, Santa Cruz, and Director of the Peers Research Project.

This publication was prepared with funding from the Institute of Education Sciences,

U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The opinions

expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of IES, the

Department, or AEL.

Title: Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC Digest.

Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs)

(071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);

Available From: For full text: http://www.ael.org/eric.

Descriptors: Disadvantaged, Dropout Prevention, Educational Environment, High Risk

Students, High School Students, High Schools, Mexican American Education, Mexican

Americans, Migrant Education, School Holding Power, Social Support Groups, Student

School Relationship

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.

Page 7 of 8
Identifiers: ERIC Digests, Migrant Education Program, Student Support Services

###

[Return to ERIC Digest Search Page]

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

Page 8 of 8 ED478061 2003-07-00 Improving Graduation Outcomes for Migrant Students. ERIC

Digest.