How can we help immigrant students excel in school? How can we take advantage of their strong motivation to succeed?

Promising Practices for Underschooled Immigrant Students:

1. A coherent, articulated sequence of courses which helps students move from English language and literacy, through academic concept and skills development, into sheltered and mainstream classes;

2. Additional instructional time provided by after-school tutoring and summer school, where individual attention can be given and educational gaps filled;

3. Peer and cross-age tutoring by more academically advanced or older students, preferably from the same countries and languages, who can receive community service credit and improve their own skills as they are helping others;

4. Content-area instruction from teachers who have developed a sensitivity to these students and acquired appropriate strategies for helping them "catch up" on many years of interrupted education; and

5. Parental outreach and family support through frequent communication by bilingual interpreters working with classroom teachers.

While all of these are important, perhaps the most critical is the provision of special courses focused on the development of academic language and literacy skills.

Source: JoAnn Crandall and Les Greenblatt, "Teaching Beyond the Middle: Meeting the Needs of Underschooled and High-Achieving Immigrant Students," in Excellence and Equity for Language Minority Students: Critical Issues and Promising Practices, soon to be published by the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium.