Illegal immigration is a divisive issue in the politically conservative East Texas community of Tyler, known by many locally as "The Rose Capital of America." Drawn by jobs in the rose fields and iron foundries, Mexican immigrants began settling here with their families in the 1970s. Hispanic children--citizens, legal residents, and…

A Bangladeshi girl who spends her out-of-school time translating documents for her parents' immigration hearings. A group of Chinese high school boys whose teachers can't figure out why they're so disengaged. A Vietnamese boy who speaks almost no English and is the only Asian student at his low-performing school. A Korean-American girl at the top…

Administrators in the Chicago public schools are seeking to strike the right balance between providing guidance and permitting flexibility as they put in place the nation's first state mandate for providing bilingual education to preschoolers. New rules approved by the Illinois state board of education in June flesh out a January 2009 change that…

A growing chorus of people are saying that some school districts are overzealous in categorizing students as English-language learners (ELLs) in the aim of complying with federal and state laws to ensure that children of immigrants get extra help with English. They contend that the information requested on the home-language survey that parents are…

This article discusses an open-door policy and innovative program of Thorncliffe Park Public School, located in the heart of the diverse immigrant community in Toronto, that greatly expands community use of public schools. Community use of schools is hardly a new concept in Canada or in the United States, where schools have traditionally been the…

As thousands of communities--especially in the South--became booming gateways for immigrant families during the 1990s and the early years of the new century, public schools struggled with the unfamiliar task of serving the large numbers of English-learners arriving in their classrooms. Instructional programs were built from scratch. Districts had…

In this article, the author discusses attempts by schools to navigate stepped-up federal efforts to curb illegal immigration, protection of student privacy, and the safety of students during enforcement operations. In Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, for example, school personnel are barred from putting information about a child's immigration…

Tens of thousands of Latino students helped fuel rallies across the country the week of April 10, 2006 against federal proposals to crack down on immigrants who are in the United States illegally. It was the third week of such rallies, which have put some school officials into politically delicate situations, such as having to decide whether to…