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Newcomer Organizations to Learn From

January 11th, 2024

We will begin at 3:32pm

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California Newcomer Education & Well-Being (CalNEW) Program

Purpose: To provide linguistically and culturally responsive support services to socioeconomically disadvantaged newcomer students & their families using school sites as the services hub. Program components include:

Connections for Basic Needs Support
Family Engagement and Empowerment
Youth Engagement and Development

Administered by the California Department of Social Services in partnership with the California Department of Education

Ongoing funding for grants to 21 Local Education Agencies to provide these support services.

Background

The California Department of Social Services’ Office of Immigrant Youth administers and oversees the state-funded California Newcomer Education and Well-Being (CalNEW) program to provide support services to newcomer students, English learners, and immigrant families. The goal of the CalNEW program is to provide linguistically and culturally responsive support services to socioeconomically disadvantaged newcomer students and their families using school sites as the services hub. The purpose of the CalNEW is to support the academic engagement and social and emotional well-being of newcomer students.

Program Components

Grantees hire linguistically and culturally responsive staff to support the following program components: connections for basic needs support, family engagement and empowerment, and youth engagement and development.��Connections for Basic Needs Support: connect families with resources and services to address critical basic needs, such as food, housing, and health care, to support family stability and well-being. Allowable activities include:

Resource mapping;
Partnerships with local organizations to assist in addressing basic needs including physical and mental health, housing, food, transportation, and childcare, etc.;
Partnerships and outreach to increase access to public benefits; and
Partnerships with legal immigration service providers to conduct on-site outreach for the CalNEW program.

Family Engagement and Empowerment: Integrate parents into the school community and equip them with the resources, information, and capacity to partner with schools in supporting their children’s education. Allowable services and activities include:

Individualized support to immigrant families;
School events focused on engaging, informing, and supporting immigrant families;
Parent workshops to introduce immigrant families to leadership opportunities and inform them of available feedback; and
Targeted parent education such as digital literacy, early literacy, English as a Second Language, and citizenship classes.

Youth Engagement and Development: Support the academic, linguistic, and socioemotional growth of students and build pathways to postsecondary success. Allowable activities include:

Academic enrichment, including out of school time and summer programs;
Civic engagement activities (i.e., newcomer leadership councils), leadership development, support groups, extracurriculars, and athletics; and
College and career counseling and preparation programs

Grantees

There are 20 school districts and one County Office of Education in the CalNEW community of care. See the table below for a list of grantees.

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Webinar #1: Resources & Lessons for Districts Serving Newcomers | October 5th, 2023, 3:30 - 4:30

Webinar #2: Instructional Paradigms & Strategies for Newcomers | November 2nd, 2023, 3:30 - 4:30

Webinar #3: Community Collaboration & Social Services for Newcomers | December 7th, 3:30-4:30

Webinar #4: Newcomer Organizations to Learn From | January 11th, 3:30-4:30

Webinar #5: Writing & Research on Newcomer Education | March 7th, 3:30-4:30

Register for the series:

bit.ly/calnewseries1

Recordings are hosted by the California Newcomer Network: www.calnew.net/calnewvideos

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Agenda

3:30	Welcome & Introduction
3:35	Fugees Family
3:55	Internationals Network
4:15	Q&A
4:28	Closing & Survey

Please feel free to submit questions for our speakers through the Zoom Q/A feature. We will be able to uplift a few questions at the end.

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Our Expert Speakers

Elisa Beth Brown

Chief of Staff

Leigh Anne Littlefield

Senior Program Director

Lara Evangelista

Executive Director

Linda Le

Director of Bay Area School Supports

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CalNEW

Jan 11, 2024

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How did we get here?

In 2004, a wrong turn while driving through the town of Clarkston, Georgia just outside Atlanta led to the formation of an all-refugee boys soccer team with players from war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Burma, Somalia, and Sudan. They called themselves the "Fugees" (slang for refugee).

The coach, Luma Mufleh – a Jordanian immigrant and daughter of Syrian refugees herself – soon discovered that many of her players were unable to read or write proficiently and lacked the support they needed in traditional public school.

In the years that followed, the soccer team grew into something much bigger – a tutoring program, a

summer camp, a support network, and most importantly, a school.

Today, Fugees Academy in Atlanta is a tuition free, community-based, public charter school serving almost 200 students from nearly 40 different countries in grades 6-12.

The education model is designed to meet the needs of refugee students through holistic English language acquisition, culturally relevant curriculum and wraparound supports, arts programming, and soccer participation.

Fugees Academy students achieve 2.5x faster academic growth than the national average for English learners within a year of enrollment. We are proud of our 92% high school graduation rate and 100% college acceptance rate, unparalleled results for this population.

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The U.S. education system is failing refugee and immigrant students.

Child survivors of war and displacement, like those attending Fugees Academy, suffer from very recent trauma and interrupted education that often leads to feeling isolated and afraid in the American K-12 school system.

Over five million English learners (ELs) are enrolled in schools nationwide

ELs will account for 25% of America’s public school population by 2025, yet only 10% of teachers in the U.S. are qualified to offer EL instruction.

Nationally, the dropout rate of ELs is 40%; they are five times more likely to be out of school than their English-speaking peers.

And the stakes are profound. For students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade, two-thirds will end up in prison or on welfare in their adulthood.

Over the past few years, and especially through the pandemic, we realized we wanted to make a bigger impact and decided that one of the ways we could do that is by partnering with school districts to implement our model.

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But there’s a solution…

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‘Teranga’ comes from the Senegalese word meaning hospitality, respect, community, and sharing.

Project Teranga is Fugees’ solution to the education crisis facing refugee and immigrant students in America.

We are on a mission to build upon our proven whole school model by partnering with public school districts and charter networks to design and support newcomer programs that get results.

Teranga academy is a full-day sheltered English immersion model, primarily intended for newcomers ages 11-17.

We teach foundational english language, reading, and math skills in a culturally responsive and trauma-informed setting, and use athletics, music, and the arts as educational tools.

Students transition to grade-appropriate mainstream classrooms once they are grade-level proficient after 1-3 years in the program.

In Bowling Green they’ve made a decision as a district which is a good guidance that newcomers refers to students who have been in the U.S. for 3 years or less, are ELs, and have had their formal education interrupted.
Bg’s superintendent, Gary Fields really bought into this idea that the way they’ve been doing it, the way most districts have been doing it, isn’t working. To expect these students to perform in their traditional classes is unjust when they do not have the foundational skills that their peers have.

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“There’s no shame in being a beginner.”

-Luma Mufleh

Founder, CEO

Fugees Family, Inc

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Academics

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Movement & The Arts

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Martial Arts & Yoga

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Music & Art

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Soccer

Value being part of a team on and off the field

Soccer is a core component of our model - our organization was created from a pickup soccer game so we have designed our programming around soccer themes and teamwork. The goal is not to develop professional athletes, but rather to provide a safe, and nurturing space for our refugee and immigrant students.

Soccer can be used an incentive and we’ve seen that it works - 20 years at Fugees Academy in Atlanta, and the past year and a half in Bowling Green - everyone has been blown away by the results we are seeing specifically how soccer has changed the lives of these young students.

Soccer is a common experience for all students regardless of their country of origin.

Students do not need to speak English to access a soccer game so it’s very inclusive and a safe space for these students to express language together

Soccer can help promote healing for victims of trauma.

Soccer teaches humility, accountability, and teamwork.

All students participate in daily soccer practice and play games on the weekend.

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English Immersion

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English is the common language

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Parent & Family Engagement

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Cultural Liaisons & Coaches

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Multicultural Celebrations & Potlucks

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Resources

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Leigh Anne Littlefield: LeighAnne@FugeesFamily.org

Elisa Beth Brown: Elisa.Brown@BGreen.KYSchools.US

Coach Luma’s Ted Talk:

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A whole-child,�deeper learning approach �to serving newcomer MLLs

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About Internationals

Network

for

Public

Schools

Internationals Network designs, develops, and supports schools and academies for recently-arrived, adolescent immigrant students.

Internationals Network has a national network of 3 regional hubs, 31 public district schools and academies with over 9,500 students from 130 countries and a broader network of partners who are learning from our schools.

Our work is grounded in over three decades of both practitioner experience and research.

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Internationals has a rich history and strong foundation from which we have developed a strong network of schools and educators

In 2023, Internationals Network reaches over 9K students nationwide, concentrated in 3 regional hubs

Our students are originally from 130+ countries, and speak 100+ different native languages.

A Brief History of

The Internationals Network Hubs

1985: The first International school opens in New York City.

2004: Non profit formed and supports the expansion of schools in NYC.

2007: Internationals expands to California, opening Oakland IHS.

2014: Internationals expands to DC Metro area, opening academy in Alexandria, VA

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Table of Contents

The Opportunity

The Strategy

The Resources

The Implementation Plan

Appendix

How is the Internationals approach different from traditional approaches to serving newcomers and MLLs?

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Traditional Internationals

Traditional	Internationals
ESL department alone is responsible for MLLs Focus: language acquisition Students often participate in credit bearing or more challenging coursework AFTER they become English proficient.	School-wide, shared responsibility for MLL learning Focus: language, content, and whole-child, social-emotional development Preparation for college and career from the start
Content teachers teach individual MLLs MLLs programmed by English proficiency and served through pull-out or ESL course	Interdisciplinary teams of teachers share cohorts of 75-150 ELLs MLLs are programmed in heterogeneous cohorts (L1, academic level, Engl, level)
Teachers learn in content teams Language acquisition via language domains Home language often not used	Teachers learn in interdisciplinary teams Language and content acquisition via experiential, collaborative, project-based learning (deeper learning practices) Home language used intentionally

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The Internationals Approach is additive, focused on the whole child and project-based

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The Internationals approach includes:

Daily access to language and content instruction from the first day of enrollment

Age-appropriate, standards-aligned content

Trauma-informed structures and programming

Support and development of home languages

Mixed levels of MLLs

Collaboration of all staff to support youth development academically and socio-emotionally

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Researchers have cited the�Internationals Model as an effective approach for adolescent MLLs

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Grounded in 5 Core Principles, multilingual students in the Internationals Network achieve accelerated results

Internationals Network students graduate and attend college at higher rates than their district peers.

Internationals Core Principles

Heterogeneity + Collaboration

Language + Content Integration

Localized Autonomy + Responsibility

Experiential Learning

One Learning Model for All

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How does the Internationals Network support schools and districts?

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H.

E.

L.

O.

Heterogeneity + Collaboration

Experiential�Learning

Language +

Content Integration

Localized Autonomy + Responsibility

One Learning Model for All

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Structures

Culture + Values

Governance

Pedagogy,

Curriculum �+ Professional Development

ESSENTIAL PRACTICES

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A continuum of support that combines key engagements, resources, and network access

*District and school partners may enter and exit at various points along the continuum.

** One cohort would be role-alike, the other would be cross-functional teams from a single district.

Implement the Model

Sustain the Model

Explore Possibilities

Build Foundations

Stage:

Key Engagements:

Internationals’ Immersive Experience

Whole School Support

Academy Support

Follow-up Supports

Internationals’ Change Agent Cohorts**

Resources:

Access to Public-Facing Resource Hub

Access to Schools-Only Online Resource Channel

Network

Access:

Schools Network

Internationals Network

Learning Network

Our continuum* of network support is designed to be intentionally flexible

to accommodate district needs, and include multiple entry points.

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The Internationals Network partners with school teams, leaders, and systems to improve education for multilingual students

Partner deeply with DISTRICT AND SCHOOL TEAMS implementing our model so that our network schools serve as proof points of what is possible for adolescent MLLs

Build the capacity of emerging and existing LEADERS to ensure they have the skills, tools, plans and network to facilitate learning for adolescent MLLs

Work with communities and coalitions to mobilize SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS to implement equitable policies and practices for MLLs that prioritize whole child development and deeper learning

All recent immigrant adolescent STUDENTS who are multilingual learners will have access to a equitable education that prepares them for college, career and beyond.

The Internationals’ approach combines interrelated work across multiple levels…

… to realize our vision.

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Educator Supports & Resources

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Levels of our work: Assets Based Collaboration

No one knows everything, but together we know a lot!

How do you as leaders enable the conditions for practitioners to learn from each other and have meaningful collaboration?

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Professional Development, Network Exchanges and Resource Hub

Classroom vetted strategies

Language and Content Integration
Rehearsing Language in our Project-based Units
Student-Centered Learning
Adapting Curriculum with the Internationals Approach

Network Exchanges led by Educators

Annual national PD conference & leadership retreat

Practitioner Developed Promising Practices

“I Am” Poems to prepare for personal statements
3D Printing and Trigonometry Project
Building Paper Bridges: Collaborative Project
Building Calmness from Within
Leveraging Student Choice & Cultural Identity in CS Project Design: Anti Racism Culture and Religion

Example Topics:

Literacy for Secondary MLLs
Purposeful PBL: Developing Products for an Authentic Audience
Best Practices for Work-based learning
Engaging SLIFE through Interactive Literacy Centers and Projects

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Resources for Teachers & Teams

Staff Collaboration Meetings - Protocols

PD & Coaching

Project Based Learning - example activity guides

Algebra, Science

Data Analysis

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Our Publications highlight best practices and impact

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We support leaders, school staff and districts in better serving adolescent newcomer MLLS

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Best Practices for Newcomer Classrooms - our newest resource!

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Thank you for connecting!

Please join our mailing list at https://www.internationalsnetwork.org/ �

and connect with us

Lara.Evangelista@internationalsnetwork.org

Linda.Le@internationalsnetwork.org �

Visit us at: www.internationalsnetwork.org

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Closing

Slides & recordings will be emailed out next week. These materials will also be hosted on the California Newcomer Network website.

Registration link for the series: bit.ly/calnewseries1.

Feedback survey: bit.ly/calnew4 or use the QR code:

Thank you so much for joining us!

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Resources from Presenters

Internationals Network Newcomer Resource Page