Early School Transitions of Immigrants' Children

描述(由申请人提供)：最近美国移民人数的增长是继20世纪初大规模欧洲移民之后第二大国际移民流动。随着美国越来越多的儿童生活在移民家庭中，我们显然需要扩大我们对移民家庭与其子女所接触的关键社会机构之间的关系的理解。这所学校是孩子们自己遇到的第一个主要的正式组织，也是美国社会分层体系中的一个主要渠道。因此，学校成为观察移民家庭如何通过新家的社会机构的绝佳场所。移民家庭的孩子们会怎么样？一些人提出，这些儿童可能会发现自己处于美国种族/民族等级制度的不利地位，并在试图通过体制规定的渠道实现这一目标时变得气馁。来自历史上处于不利地位的群体的新移民的子女在美国面临许多可能的适应途径，可能会发现一些道路可能会被堵塞。这些孩子将不得不克服结构性障碍，才能取得与他们在美国出生的同龄人一样的学业成功。他们甚至可能会进一步落后。其他人则提出了更乐观的观点，认为移民父母试图通过在美国接受正规教育来促进子女的社会流动性。然后，研究人员面临的挑战变成了发现家庭和教育机构的哪些群体和哪些特征对来自不同背景的孩子来说是最鼓舞人心的，还是最令人沮丧的。这里提出的研究重点是使一些移民子女能够更成功地驾驭他们童年时期将遇到的最重要的社会制度的制度和家庭因素。这项研究使用具有全国代表性的纵向调查来评估来自移民家庭的幼儿(即在美国境外出生的儿童或至少有一名外国出生的父母在美国出生的儿童)从进入幼儿园到一年级结束的技能获得和适应情况。这项研究调查了两组广泛的因素：家庭资源和家庭外资源以及学校背景特征。这项拟议的研究是独一无二的，因为它不仅能够在具有全国代表性的年轻样本上提供家庭背景和学校特征相互作用的信息，而且数据也是纵向的，可以比较不同原籍国群体的移民家庭儿童的学习轨迹。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The recent growth of immigration in the United States represents the second largest flow of international migrants following the massive European migration of the early 20th Century. With an increasing proportion of children in the United States living in immigrant families, it is clear that we need to expand our understanding of how immigrant families relate to the key social institutions to which their children are exposed. The school is the first major formal organization the child encounters on his or her own and is a major conduit in the US stratification system. Thus, schools become an excellent venue to observe immigrant families make their way through the social institutions of their new home. What happens to the children in immigrant families? Some have suggested that these children may find themselves inserted into a disadvantaged position of the American racial/ethnic hierarchy and become discouraged at attempting to achieve through institutionally prescribed channels. Children of new immigrants from historically disadvantaged groups facing many possible pathways of adaptation in the United States may find some paths may blocked. These children will have to overcome structural obstacles in order to have the same academic success as their US born peers. They may even fall further behind. Others offer a more optimistic view suggesting immigrant parents seek to promote their children's social mobility through formal schooling in the United States. The challenge for researchers then becomes discovering just which groups and which characteristics of the family and the educational institutions are the most encouraging or discouraging to children from diverse backgrounds. The research proposed here focuses on the institutional and familial factors that enable some children of immigrants to more successfully navigate the most important social institution they will encounter in their childhoods. The study uses a nationally representative longitudinal survey to assess the skill acquisition and adaptation of young children from immigrant families (i.e. children who are either born outside of the United States or who were born in the United States to at least one foreign born parent) from their entrance into kindergarten through the end of first grade. The research investigates two broad sets of factors: familial and extra-familial resources and school contextual characteristics. The proposed research is unique because 'it will not only be able to provide information on the interaction of family background and school characteristics on a young, nationally representative sample but the data are also longitudinal allowing for a comparison of the academic trajectories of children from immigrant families across diverse country-of-origin groups.