2010 - Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth

Attribution: Suàrez-Orozco, Carola, Gaytàn, Francisco X., Bang, Hee J., Pakes, Juliana, O'Connor, Erin, & Rhodes, Jean
Researchers: Carola Suàrez-OrozcoErin O'ConnorFrancisco X. GaytànHee J. BangJean RhodesJuliana Pakes
University Affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles; Northeastern Illinois University
Email: csorozco@ucla.edu
Research Question:
How do family characteristics, school characteristics, and individual characteristics associated with the academic trajectory of newcomer immigrant students affect their performance?
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Developmental Psychology
Journal Entry: Vol. 46, No. 3, Pp. 602-618
Year: 2010
Findings:

  1. Students who attended schools with higher rates of segregation were significantly more likely to be low achievers than either type of slow decliner.

  2. Students attending schools with greater proportions of low-income students were significantly more likely to be low achievers than improvers.
  3. Students attending high poverty schools were significantly more likely to be precipitous decliners than improvers.
  4. Being female was associated with a greater probability of being a high achiever than a low achiever.
  5. Similarly, being female was associated with being a high achiever than a precipitous decliner.
  6. High achievers, relative to the other groups, attended the schools that were the least segregated and had the fewest students qualifying for free lunch.
Keywords: Academic AchievementImmigrantsRegions: NationalMethodologies: MixedAnalysis Methods: Multinomial Logistic Regression Sampling Frame:Students from seven school districts in regions of San Francisco and Baltimore with high densities of newcomer immigrant students.
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: SchoolStudentData Types: Mixed
Data Description:

  • This study used data from the Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation (LISA) study. The LISA was a five-year longitudinal study that used mixed methods to document patterns of adaption among recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico.

  • The study recruited 407 people that were between the ages of 9-14 the first year and by the 5th year, 309 remained. The students came from over 50 schools in seven districts. By the end of the study, the students had dispersed to over 100 schools. To answer the research questions, the authors conducted multinominal logistic regression and latent class growth modeling.
  • DV: Academic trajectories
  • IV: School Characteristics (school segregation rate, school poverty rate, students’ perception of school violence); Family Characteristics (maternal education, paternal employment, and household structure);

    Individual Characteristics (academic English proficiency, psychological symptoms, gender, number of school transitions and being over-aged for the grade)

  • The researcher created five classifications of students as a reference group to predict trajectories.(high achievers, low achiever, improvers, slow decliners, and precipitous decliners)
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts