Early School Transitions of Immigrants' Children

描述（由申请人提供）：美国最近的移民增长是继20世纪初欧洲大规模移民之后的第二大国际移民流。随着美国越来越多的儿童生活在移民家庭中，很明显，我们需要扩大我们对移民家庭与他们的孩子所接触的关键社会机构之间的关系的理解。学校是孩子们自己接触的第一个主要的正式组织，也是美国分层体系的一个主要渠道。因此，学校成为观察移民家庭如何适应新家园的社会制度的绝佳场所。移民家庭的孩子会怎么样？有些人认为，这些孩子可能会发现自己在美国种族/民族等级制度中处于不利地位，并且在试图通过体制规定的渠道取得成就时变得气馁。来自历史上弱势群体的新移民的子女在美国面临许多可能的适应途径，可能会发现一些途径可能会受阻。这些孩子必须克服结构性障碍，才能取得与美国出生的同龄人同样的学业成就。他们甚至可能进一步落后。其他人则持更为乐观的观点，认为移民父母试图通过在美国接受正规教育来提高孩子的社会流动性。研究人员面临的挑战就变成了发现哪些群体、家庭和教育机构的哪些特征对来自不同背景的孩子最具鼓励作用或最令人沮丧。这里提出的研究侧重于制度和家庭因素，这些因素使一些移民的孩子能够更成功地驾驭他们童年将遇到的最重要的社会制度。该研究采用了一项具有全国代表性的纵向调查来评估移民家庭（即出生在美国以外的孩子或至少有一位外国出生的父母出生在美国的孩子）的幼儿从进入幼儿园到一年级结束的技能习得和适应情况。该研究调查了两大类因素：家庭和家庭外资源以及学校背景特征。这项拟议中的研究是独一无二的，因为它不仅能够提供家庭背景和学校特征在年轻的、具有全国代表性的样本中的相互作用的信息，而且数据也是纵向的，可以比较来自不同原籍国的移民家庭的孩子的学业轨迹。

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.