Amid a rising tide of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy, this study highlights how middle school teachers used multicultural citizenship education as a form of resistance. By affirming students' cultural identities, fostering critical awareness, and encouraging civic action, educators empowered immigrant-origin youth to see themselves as full members of a democratic society.

Newcomer students bring powerful cultural and linguistic assets into the classroom, yet too often instruction focuses narrowly on English acquisition. This piece offers six strategies to “teach up” to newcomers—centering inclusion, rigor, and relevance through culturally responsive teaching, translanguaging, and community-building practices that benefit all students.

How do children define what it means to be American in a time of growing diversity? This study explores fourth and fifth graders' views in a high-immigrant community. Despite the school's diversity and multicultural values, most students still saw “American” as white, U.S.-born, and English-speaking—though some offered a more inclusive vision. The findings highlight the need for schools to take a more active role in teaching a pluralist, inclusive model of Americanness.

Unlock the Hidden Strengths of Your Newcomer Students

Your students coming newly to the United States bring incredible knowledge, skills, and experiences to your classroom.

Grab this free teacher tool to help you identify their skillset in 11 easy to understand strategies that you can implement in your classroom today!

Discover how California's $4.1 billion community schools initiative aims to transform education by integrating academics with essential services, fostering equity, and supporting whole-child development.

Discover how Futuro Brillante provided hope and education to over 3,000 unaccompanied minors through trauma-informed practices and collaboration, offering valuable lessons for creating safe, inclusive spaces for vulnerable students.

Discover how Oakland Unified School District's centralized support and strategic partnerships have fostered successful community schools, offering valuable insights for education leaders aiming to implement whole child education.

Learn how California’s Community Schools Partnership Program leverages family-school partnerships to center multilingual families, foster cultural inclusivity, and create transformative educational outcomes for students and their communities.

From principals to family members, from community partners to teachers, this book illustrates how together, we all have a part to play in the development of successful community schools.

Explore the history of how Oakland's ambitious initiative transformed 86 schools into full-service community hubs, integrating academics with essential services to support every student's success.

This brief outlines the specific role districts must play to strengthen system-level supports and infrastructure to ensure sustainable resources, shared governance, robust and usable data systems, and organizational learning and improvement.

Videos can be powerful teaching tools. They can make complex concepts concrete, while also showing the human faces of an issue. That’s what I hope these community schools videos do for you. Enjoy this community schools video round-up!

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