Newly Arrived Immigrants

This article describes the response of one East Coast, urban high school district to the unexpected enrollment of large numbers of newly arrived immigrants who had not yet acquired basic literacy skills in any language. The analysis focuses on the district-level decision-making processes that led to the implementation of an alter-native school for these students and its abrupt closure a year later, examines the ways in which various participants experienced and interpreted the consequences of these decisions within the complex social system of the district, and explores the implications of these findings for policy and practice. In this article, I describe the life history of an alternative high school for newly arrived immigrants in a district, characterized by ambiguity about its goals and objectives for these students. My analysis focuses on the decision-making processes that led to the opening and closing of the school; examines the ways in which various participants experienced and interpreted the consequences of these decisions within the complex social system of a large, ur-ban district; and explores the implications of these findings for pol-icy and practice. For the purposes of confidentiality, pseudonyms are assigned to the school, the district, and each of the participants. AUTHOR’S NOTE: I would like to thank Hugh Cline, Luis Laosa, and Robert Stake for re-viewing earlier drafts of this article; their comments were helpful and greatly appreciated