Newcomer Immigrant Program Evaluation, 2015-2016. Research Educational Program Report
Author: Houston Independent School District (HISD), Department of Research and Accountability
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Immigrants,English Language Learners,Program Evaluation,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Student Adjustment,High School Students,Middle School Students,School Orientation,Teacher Competencies,School Schedules,Curriculum,Student Personnel Services,Academic Support Services,Parent Education,Spanish Speaking,Professional Development,Language Proficiency,Academic Achievement,Attendance Patterns,Student Behavior

There are approximately 65,000 students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) labeled as &quot;English language learners&quot; (ELLs). Many of these students have the additional obstacle of being recent immigrants who have been in the United States for three years or less. In recent years, the number of immigrant ELLs in the district has increased dramatically, and the number of first year immigrant has increased by 117 percent since 2011-2012. Without proper instructional supports, these students are at risk of falling behind academically. In an attempt to address the needs of the most challenged of these recent immigrants, the district has implemented a Newcomer Program for immigrant ELLs in their first year in U.S. schools. This report summarizes data from this program for the 2015-2016 school year. The Newcomer Program in HISD is an English as a Second Language (ESL)-based program designed to accommodate and educate newly-arrived immigrant ELL students. The program assists new immigrant students to adapt to a new country, language, and school, and has been implemented in seven high schools and 14 middle schools. The newcomer program follows a &quot;school-within-a-school&quot; model, in which newcomer students are not segregated from the general student population in a separate facility, but receive a specialized instruction/schedule within an existing campus. The main components of the program involve: (1) providing orientation to the new school, community and society; (2) intensive English language development via ESL methodology; (3) staff who are trained to work with first year immigrant ELLS; (4) specialized curriculum and scheduling; (5) support services (e.g., counseling, tutoring, career education, transportation, health services); and (6) parent resources/education. Highlights of the report include: (1) A total of 1,397 newcomer students were enrolled at the 21 participating campuses (764 in high school and 633 in middle school); (2) More than half (55%) of these newcomer students came from just three countries: El Salvador (344), Honduras (234), and Guatemala (181). The majority of participating newcomers were economically disadvantaged (70%) and Spanish-speaking (77%); (3) Twenty-seven teachers and 10 administrators attended Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) training offered by the district; (4) Multilingual Programs Department staff provided additional support for the participating newcomer campuses, with staff logs showing that 344 teachers were served; (5) Newcomer students at participating campuses showed slightly lower English proficiency on Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) in comparison with newcomers from other campuses, and both groups were less proficient than ELLs as a group; (6) on the ReadingSmart end-of year (EOY) assessment, newcomer students at participating campuses showed smaller lexile gains than did other newcomers; (7) SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory) testing showed that very few newcomers were at the Basic level or better (only 3.4%), compared to 65.5% for non-newcomers and 1.9% for newcomers at nonparticipating campuses. The majority of newcomers (96.6%) were at the Below Basic level; and (8) attendance rates for newcomers did not differ from those of either other newcomers at nonparticipating campuses, or non-newcomer students in grades 6-12. Discipline date showed that newcomer students had lower rates of disciplinary incidents than did non-newcomers in the district.