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Internationals Network for Public Schools is an educational nonprofit supporting International high schools and academies, serving newly arrived immigrants who are English language learners (ELLs), in New York, California, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Internationals Network also partners with other schools and districts across the country.
The mission of Internationals Network is to provide quality education for recently arrived immigrants by growing and sustaining a strong national network of innovative International High Schools, while broadening our impact by sharing proven best practices and influencing policy for English learners on a national scale.
Internationals Network’s history of academic success began in 1985 with the founding of the first high school on the campus of LaGuardia Community College, a collaborative effort between the New York City Department of Education and the City University of New York. In response to the many educational challenges faced by English language learners within district schools, The International High School at LaGuardia was designed specifically to provide quality education for these students. During the next nine years, two additional International High Schools were opened in Brooklyn and Manhattan. To facilitate interschool collaboration and learning, these schools joined together in 1995 to form the International Schools Partnership. In 2001, a fourth school was established in the Bronx. When the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiated educational reform through small school development for those students most underserved, they approached the Partnership to recreate its successful model to promote high school age English language learner achievement across the country. Born from the International Schools Partnership, Internationals Network for Public Schools was formalized as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2004 to support existing schools and create additional International High Schools nationwide. As an intermediary working closely with local education departments and community based organizations, Internationals now supports 19 International High Schools and Small Learning Communities in New York City, California’s Bay Area, Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
Based on Internationals core work – almost 30 years of staff and practitioner experience in developing, refining and adapting the Internationals’ Approach in its schools, Internationals now collaborates nationally with districts, schools and school development partners to bring its professional development services to support educators who teach English language learners across the nation. Additionally, Internationals engages with state and local departments of education to increase policy maker awareness of the regulatory issues that both inhibit and promote best practices in ELL education and immigrant family supports.
At International high schools, a badge of prestige replaces the “stigma” of immigrant status for students, families, and faculty. The Internationals Approach holds that near native fluency in English and proficiency in a second language are valuable resources when it comes to achieving professional and social success in the United States and the global economy and participating fully in democratic society. In International high schools and academies, every teacher is considered a language teacher as well as a teacher of academic content and skills. The educational process takes place in a heterogeneous, learner-centered, collaborative, and activity-based environment. Students are organized in diverse clusters that often work with the same team of teachers over 1–2 years. Classes are mixed according to age, grade, academic ability, prior schooling, native language, and linguistic proficiency. They are interdisciplinary and rigorous, and the curriculum includes literature, social studies, math, science, the arts, technology, and physical education.
The Internationals’ pedagogical approach to educating English language learners is based upon 5 Core Principles:
The Internationals Approach to teaching has been studied by researchers at Stanford University School Redesign Network and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Stanford study, led by Linda Darling-Hammond and her team of researchers, found "the Internationals Network for Public Schools (Internationals) is an important model that originated in New York City and has shown itself to be both successful and adaptable" in California. [1] Michelle Fine and a team of researchers from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found that students at the three oldest International schools outperformed both English Language Learners and Native English Speakers (in New York City) in graduation rates and college going rates. The International schools also maintained lower drop out rates than ELL students and English only students. [2]
In 2009 the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) announced the four winners of its inaugural E Pluribus Unum national awards for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives. Internationals Network for Public Schools was named for its work teaching late-entry immigrant students.
Today the network serves approximately 6,000 students annually from 90 countries. Over 90% of students receive free or reduced price lunch, and 86 percent of students come from low-income families. High percentages of students have had interrupted formal education due to political, social, or economic factors in their native countries. 70 percent of students have been separated from one or both parents during their family's immigration to the United States.
International Academy at Francis C Hammond Middle School
Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. It can mean any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling, encompassing basic literacy to personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner, and to ensure the fulfillment of an individual.
English as a second or foreign language refers to the use of English by individuals whose native language is different, commonly among students learning to speak and write English. Variably known as English as a foreign language (EFL), English as a second language (ESL), English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), or English as a new language (ENL), these terms denote the study of English in environments where it is not the dominant language. Programs such as ESL are designed as academic courses to instruct non-native speakers in English proficiency, encompassing both learning in English-speaking nations and abroad.
Alternative education encompasses educational philosophy differing from mainstream pedagogy and evidence-based education. Such alternative learning environments may be found within state, charter, and independent schools as well as home-based learning environments. Many educational alternatives emphasize small class sizes, close relationships between students and teachers and a sense of community.
Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together. Unlike individual learning, people engaged in collaborative learning capitalize on one another's resources and skills. More specifically, collaborative learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetric roles. Put differently, collaborative learning refers to methodologies and environments in which learners engage in a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other. These include both face-to-face conversations and computer discussions. Methods for examining collaborative learning processes include conversation analysis and statistical discourse analysis.
Sheltered instruction is an educational approach designed to make academic content more accessible to English language learners (ELLs) while promoting their language development. It involves modifying instruction to accommodate students' language proficiency levels and providing additional support to help comprehend and engage with material effectively.
Arizona Proposition 203, also known as English for the Children, is a ballot initiative that was passed by 63% of Arizona voters on November 7, 2000. It limited the type of instruction available to English language learner (ELL) students. Before Proposition 203, schools were free in terms of ELL instruction to use bilingual or immersion methods. According to a cover letter from the Arizona Department of Education Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan to the Arizona Legislature, it was impossible to make a correct analysis regarding how many students were learning through English as a second language programs, as opposed to bilingual education. The school districts had submitted "conflicting information," and 40% had not submitted any data, in spite of three deadline extensions.
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a pedagogical approach wherein learning takes place via social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of knowledge among participants using technology as their primary means of communication or as a common resource. CSCL can be implemented in online and classroom learning environments and can take place synchronously or asynchronously.
English-language learner is a term used in some English-speaking countries such as the United States and Canada to describe a person who is learning the English language and has a native language that is not English. Some educational advocates, especially in the United States, classify these students as non-native English speakers or emergent bilinguals. Various other terms are also used to refer to students who are not proficient in English, such as English as a second language (ESL), English as an additional language (EAL), limited English proficient (LEP), culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), non-native English speaker, bilingual students, heritage language, emergent bilingual, and language-minority students. The legal term that is used in federal legislation is 'limited English proficient'.
Dual language is a form of education in which students are taught literacy and content in two languages. Most dual language programs in the United States teach in English and Spanish, but programs increasingly use a partner language other than Spanish, such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, or Korean. Dual language programs use the partner language for at least half of the instructional day in the elementary years.
Multilingual education (MLE) typically refers to "first-language-first" education, that is, schooling which begins in the mother tongue, or first language, and transitions to additional languages. Typically, MLE programs are situated in developing countries where speakers of minority languages, i.e. non-dominant languages, tend to be disadvantaged in the mainstream education system. There are increasing calls to provide first-language-first education to immigrant children from immigrant parents who have moved to the developed world. Offering first-language-first education to immigrant children in developed countries has gained attention due to the unique challenges these students face. When students move to a new country, language and cultural barriers can affect their academic progress and well-being. Some suggest that providing instruction in their first language initially, as part of multilingual education (MLE) programs, could help ease their transition. By recognizing and respecting their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, these programs aim to create a supportive learning environment where students feel more comfortable and confident. While this approach may contribute to the preservation of heritage languages, implementing MLE programs present other potential benefits and challenges.
Flushing International High School is a New York City public high school that opened in September 2004 in Flushing, New York. Students come from over 30 countries and speak over twenty native languages. Flushing International is a NYC School Empowerment School in District 25.
Oakland International High School opened in August 2007 with the support of The Internationals Network for Public Schools, Oakland Unified School District, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The school targets a population of students, newly arrived immigrants, who have historically been under-served nationally, in California, and in Oakland.
A massive open online course or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums or social media discussions to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2008, that emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012, a year called the "Year of the MOOC".
Open educational practices (OEP) are part of the broader open education landscape, including the openness movement in general. It is a term with multiple layers and dimensions and is often used interchangeably with open pedagogy or open practices. OEP represent teaching and learning techniques that draw upon open and participatory technologies and high-quality open educational resources (OER) in order to facilitate collaborative and flexible learning. Because OEP emerged from the study of OER, there is a strong connection between the two concepts. OEP, for example, often, but not always, involve the application of OER to the teaching and learning process. Open educational practices aim to take the focus beyond building further access to OER and consider how in practice, such resources support education and promote quality and innovation in teaching and learning. The focus in OEP is on reproduction/understanding, connecting information, application, competence, and responsibility rather than the availability of good resources. OEP is a broad concept which can be characterised by a range of collaborative pedagogical practices that include the use, reuse, and creation of OER and that often employ social and participatory technologies for interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation and sharing, empowerment of learners, and open sharing of teaching practices.
Children of migrant workers struggle to achieve the same level of educational success as their peers. Relocation causes discontinuity in education, which causes migrant students to progress slowly through school and drop out at high rates. Additionally, relocation has negative social consequences on students: isolation from peers due to cultural differences and language barriers. Migrant children, defined as those who relocate because of involvement with agriculture-related industries or other seasonal work, are also at a disadvantage because the majority live in extreme poverty and must work with their parents to support their families. These barriers to equal educational attainment for children of migrant workers are present in countries all over the world. Although the inequality in education remains pronounced, government policies, non-governmental organizations, non-profits, and social movements are working to reverse its effects.
English immersion programs have students to be fully immersed in the American culture, which starts by learning its language — English. A number of those who enroll into English immersion programs are immigrant children. Due to the fact that more ambitious choices are made by immigrant students than nonimmigrant students regarding academic choices, secondary effects, such as these English immersion programs, create positive outcomes. Immigrant children is defined as children who have at least one foreign born parent. Some immigrant students show proficiency in English after being in the program for only 2–3 years while others take longer. There are not many other resources provided by schools that students can go to if they want to learn or improve their English. As a result, it can possibly affect immigrant students' proficiency in English.
Virtual exchange is an instructional approach or practice for language learning. It broadly refers to the "notion of 'connecting' language learners in pedagogically structured interaction and collaboration" through computer-mediated communication for the purpose of improving their language skills, intercultural communicative competence, and digital literacies. Although it proliferated with the advance of the internet and Web 2.0 technologies in the 1990s, its roots can be traced to learning networks pioneered by Célestin Freinet in 1920s and, according to Dooly, even earlier in Jardine's work with collaborative writing at the University of Glasgow at the end of the 17th to the early 18th century.
In bilingual education, students are taught content areas like math, science, and history in two languages. Numerous countries or regions have implemented different forms of bilingual education.
Newcomer education is the specialized teaching of refugees, migrants, asylees and immigrants who have resettled in a host country, with the goal of providing the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate into their country of refuge. Education is the primary way by which newcomers can adjust to the linguistic, social, and cultural environments of their new communities. Newcomer education aims to empower newcomers with a sense of self-efficacy and social integration, as well as giving them the skills to pursue employment or higher education. Newcomer education also aims to help address trauma, culture shock, and other negative effects of forced displacement. Education for newcomers can provide long-term prospects for stability of individuals, communities, countries and global society.
Okhee Lee is an American education scholar and professor of childhood education.