This study investigated structural features of a newcomer program housed within a comprehensive high school and language practices among newcomer students and their teachers. Findings indicate efforts to provide newcomer students with "safe spaces," opportunities for language and literacy development in English and Spanish, and access to…

Many educators have created successful innovative models but have had difficulty sustaining, re-creating, and scaling these models. Classrooms and schools characterized by student-centered learning practices typically deviate from the norms of transmission teaching and the many structures and procedures that David Tyack and Larry Cuban called the…

One of the mysteries of education reform is how leaders and educators can successfully instantiate, sustain, and spread student-centered pedagogical practices from a few schools to many others. Advocates for "deeper learning" grapple with this mystery as they seek to transform teaching and learning to prepare students to meet the demands…

Using a liberatory discourse theoretical framework, this action research study investigated the experiences of students enrolled in basic skills English classes through a series of in-depth focus groups. The data were then analyzed in collaboration with students to draw conclusions. Student voices informed the data at every step of the inquiry…

This primer describes the comprehensive nature of the role of the public school teacher working directly with children from non-English-language backgrounds. Intended primarily for less experienced teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL), it may be useful to aides, tutors, administrators, counselors, health professionals, mainstream…