Newcomer students are English learner (EL) students who have recently immigrated to the United States. Because they often require extra support beyond what traditional classrooms typically offer, districts across the country have set up newcomer programs designed as temporary "shock absorbers" to ease these students' transition to mainstream schools. Houston ISD operates two schools serving this group: Las Americas Newcomer School (formerly known as Las Americas Middle School)1 for students in grades 4–8 who have been in the U.S. for less than 1 year, and Liberty High School for high school-aged and older, nontraditional students.
This series of briefs dives into the profiles of students likely to enroll in Las Americas and Liberty High School. The briefs also look at the characteristics of the schools that students later choose to enroll in and the impact of enrollment on academic performance, course-taking patterns and school engagement. For this study, the research team examined 12 cohorts of Houston ISD newcomer students from the 2007–2008 to 2018–2019 school years.
1 During the study period, Las Americas Newcomer School was named Las Americas Middle School. For consistency, the briefs refer to the school by its former name.
Key findings for Las Americas
Briefs 1, 4 and 6
- Newcomer students were more likely to enroll in Las Americas if they:
- were economically disadvantaged
- were from sub-Saharan Africa and Central America
- had lower levels of oral English proficiency
- lived closer to the school and in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of immigrants
- Las Americas students were more likely to enroll in high schools where they might have greater access to EL support and resources and similar peers with respect to racial/ethnic diversity as well as foreign-born status.
- Attending Las Americas increased newcomer students’ English end-of-course (EOC) exam scores, increased their probability of being reclassified as English proficient, and decreased students’ likelihood of receiving disciplinary actions. For other measures of academic performance, including GPA and PSAT scores, Las Americas students fared similarly to newcomer students who attended other HISD middle schools upon arrival, after accounting for student and neighborhood background characteristics.
Key findings for Liberty High School
Briefs 2, 3, and 5
- Newcomer students were more likely to enroll in Liberty High School if they:
- were economically disadvantaged
- were from Central America and Mexico
- lived closer to the school and in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of immigrants
- Liberty and non-Liberty newcomer students demonstrated similar academic performance. Liberty students were more likely to take art courses and less likely to take advanced courses, athletics, or CTE courses during their first year compared to newcomer students at other high schools.
- Attendance rates were lower for Liberty students compared to newcomer students at other high schools, but the difference narrowed after the addition of a day program alternative to its night program.
- Dropout rates were higher and graduation rates were lower for Liberty students compared to newcomer students attending other high schools.
