When I walked into International High School at Lafayette one afternoon, the halls were already buzzing. You could hear soft conversations in Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish as students made their way to meetings called crews—small advisory groups that meet twice a week. At the doorway of one classroom, a student greeted her teacher in English, then turned to translate the teacher’s instructions into Mandarin for a classmate. It was a small, passing moment, but one that spoke volumes about how students support one another here.
That afternoon, the building felt calm but full of life. Teachers stood by their doors, greeting students by name. Posters in a dozen languages lined the walls, reminding students they belonged. There was an ease to it all, a rhythm that made it clear: this wasn’t just a school; it was a community.
Fighting a System That Fails Too Many Newcomers
In many schools across the country, newcomer students—those who have lived in the United States for less than four years—are isolated. They are placed in separate classrooms, left out of key conversations, or expected to catch up on their own without the academic, linguistic, or wraparound support they need to succeed. These challenges are especially acute for adolescents, who must navigate a new school system, learn a new language, and adjust to a different culture during a critical developmental period. For high school newcomers in particular, the pressure to adapt quickly, academically, socially, and emotionally can be overwhelming. This happens even with longstanding legal protections like Plyler v. Doe (1982), which guarantees all children access to free public education regardless of immigration status, and federal programs like Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which provides funding to support English learners (ELs). However, what is promised in policy too often disappears in practice.
The urgency to close these gaps has never been greater. Nationwide, state education systems are struggling to keep pace with a rapidly shifting student population. In some districts, the number of newcomer students has doubled in just five years. These students arrive with rich linguistic and cultural assets, but some also carry the layered challenges of migration, trauma, and interrupted schooling. And yet, in most states, there is no clear roadmap: no definition of who newcomers are, no guidance for educators, no targeted funding, and no consistent vision for how schools should meet their needs. Whether a newcomer student thrives, falls behind, or disappears from the system altogether often depends on something as arbitrary as the ZIP code to which they are assigned.
These schools do more than welcome newcomer students: they place them at the center of school life.
Yet at Pan American International High School at Monroe (PAIHS Monroe) and the International High School at Lafayette (IHS at Lafayette), the approach to serving newcomers contrasts sharply with typical practices nationwide. Rather than being pushed to the margins, newcomer students take the lead: they mentor younger peers, drive classroom discussions, and share their cultures and stories through research, poetry, and performance. These schools do more than welcome newcomer students: they place them at the center of school life.
Two Schools, One Shared Vision
PAIHS Monroe, located in the Bronx, New York, is part of the Internationals Network for Public Schools, a collaborative of nearly seventy schools and programs across sixteen districts and eight states which serve newly arrived immigrant students. At PAIHS Monroe, all 350 students in grades nine through twelve are ELs, and nearly half have experienced limited or interrupted formal education. The school uses a non-traditional bilingual model: all students speak Spanish and receive instruction in both Spanish and English, building academic content while maintaining and developing their home language.
Across New York City in Brooklyn, IHS at Lafayette is also part of the Internationals Network and similarly serves newcomers, but in a much more linguistically diverse setting. About 40 percent of the students speak Spanish, 20 percent speak Chinese, 10 percent speak Arabic, and others speak Bengali and Russian, among other languages. These schools operate in a uniquely linguistically diverse context: over 44 percent of students in New York City public schools speak a language other than English at home. This demographic landscape has made New York City an important setting for developing and sustaining school models that center multilingual immigrant students.
At both schools, the goal is not assimilation, but rather intentional inclusion. Students’ languages, cultures, and identities are not just acknowledged: they are part of the everyday life of the school. Newcomer students are not only supported: they are also trusted to lead, to share, and to shape the school alongside their peers.
The moment I experienced upon entering IHS at Lafayette—students helping each other across languages and cultures—is not unusual. I saw it happening across the campus during my visit. One student might read a math problem aloud in English; another might rephrase it in Spanish; a third might offer a word in Arabic. Teachers make space for this, often pausing instruction to ask, “Can someone translate that for your group?”
Instructional materials reflect this collaborative model. Handouts are multilingual, dictionaries sit on every table, and hallway posters appear in the languages students speak at home. Rather than enforcing an English-only rule, students are encouraged to use all of their language resources to deepen their learning. Teachers design materials and lesson routines that support rapid English acquisition by helping students leverage their full linguistic repertoire to access and engage with academic content.
Language as a Resource, Not a Barrier
At both PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette, language is not treated as a hurdle to overcome: rather, it’s seen as a powerful tool for learning. These schools operate on the belief that students’ home languages are assets, not obstacles, and they design instruction accordingly. Instead of sidelining students’ linguistic knowledge in pursuit of English fluency, they build on it, using language as a bridge.
In both schools, students are encouraged to draw on all of their language resources to make meaning, solve problems, and engage with rigorous, grade-level content, while continuing to build their English proficiency.
At PAIHS Monroe, students take Native Language Arts courses in Spanish to strengthen literacy in their home language. This allows them to deepen their understanding of how human languages work in general, which research suggests will help their acquisition of English. At IHS at Lafayette, a similar goal is achieved through translanguaging, where students move fluidly between languages to make sense of material and support one another. In both schools, students are encouraged to draw on all of their language resources to make meaning, solve problems, and engage with rigorous, grade-level content, while continuing to build their English proficiency.
These asset-based approaches extend to how students are assessed. Instead of relying only on multiple Regents exams—which often do not accommodate the linguistic and educational backgrounds of newly arrived immigrant students— students at both schools complete performance-based assessment tasks (PBATs), such as research papers, science experiments, and oral presentations. These assessments ask students not just to recall information, but also to apply what they’ve learned in creative, analytical, and personally relevant ways. As part of this system, students are also required to complete a project in their native language, a pedagogical strategy that elevates and honors their home languages and cultures as essential components of academic success.
Beyond Academics: Electives and Enrichment with Purpose
At both schools, campus support goes well beyond academic instruction. Both schools offer advisory programs, which meet twice a week and foster connection and guidance. At PAIHS Monroe, advisory groups use an adapted Restore 360 curriculum, which focuses on social-emotional learning, college, and career readiness skills. Students and teachers meet in restorative circles with community agreements and a pre-selected discussion topic to create a safe space for open dialogue. Advisory teachers mentor students, track their progress, and coordinate supports for them based on individual academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs. At IHS at Lafayette, students are placed in crews (small groups led by a faculty advisor) where they build relationships, reflect on challenges, and set academic goals. Students describe these spaces as essential. “Crew is the place where I can ask anything, school stuff or even things happening at home,” one student told me. “It makes a big difference.”
Creative expression is also deeply embedded in the school day. All seniors take a core Humanities course where they engage in a poetry project about migration, family, and hopes for the future, in collaboration with New York City arts nonprofit CityLore. Additionally, ninth and tenth graders can take a translanguaging enrichment course focused on advanced literacy through Chinese literature, highlighting the school’s commitment to students’ first languages and cultures.
Enrichment at IHS at Lafayette extends even further. Eleventh graders intern with local businesses and nonprofits, while others participate in photography, journalism, and art programs. A recent group of students helped design a float for the 2024 Coney Island Mermaid Parade and won third place in the Push and Pull Float category. PAIHS Monroe offers similar opportunities through an established partnership with Montefiore Hospital System via the Bronx STEAM Center, providing students with on-site experience and work-based learning.
Both schools offer dual enrollment options with local community colleges, enabling students to earn college credits toward graduation and smooth their transition to higher education. At IHS at Lafayette, students can earn up to a full year of college credits through partnerships with CUNY College Now and Ed Equity Lab. For many students, this is their first exposure to higher education, transforming how they envision their futures.
Teachers as Learners, Leaders, and Anchors
The staff at both schools play a huge role in creating a safe and inclusive learning environment. Teachers at Internationals Network schools receive specialized training to support multilingual learners, in addition to the preparation required by the NYC Public Schools system. According to the Internationals Network, the organization provides professional development, coaching, and feedback to more than 1,200 educators each year, totaling over 5,000 hours of direct support—including coaching, workshops, and collaborative communities of practice—designed to improve teaching practices and better serve newcomer students. Their approach centers on educator-led learning, where teachers participate in ongoing coaching cycles and network-wide convenings to continuously strengthen instruction for multilingual learners.
What’s especially unique about the Internationals Network is the clear path it creates for teacher growth. Many educators start in the classroom and advance into roles as mentors, instructional coaches, and school leaders. The network also has over ninety alumni working in various roles—from part-time positions during college to full-time teachers, social workers, and guidance counselors. This “grow your own” model is important because it helps students see themselves reflected in their educators and school leaders, fostering a deeper sense of belonging and possibility. Professional development isn’t a one-time training or a checkbox; it’s embedded in the culture. For example, at PAIHS Monroe, the assistant principal is a graduate who returned first as a teacher and later became a leader. His presence is not only supportive but deeply motivating. This kind of investment fosters stronger teacher retention, deeper student relationships, and a shared commitment to the school’s mission.
A Culture of Trust and Recognition
What stood out most from my visits wasn’t a specific program or curriculum feature: it was the sense of belonging. Many students had transferred from schools where they felt invisible or misunderstood. At PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette, the feeling was different. Students heard their home languages in the hallways. Teachers knew how they learned best. They felt seen.
“In my old school, I didn’t talk,” one student said. “I was afraid I’d say the wrong word or not understand. Here, I feel safe. I help other students now. I feel proud.”
Another described it this way: “At my last school, it felt like no one even knew my name. Here, I feel like I matter. I can speak my language, and people listen to me.”
These small, everyday moments—teachers greeting students in multiple languages, classmates stepping in to help without being asked—accumulate into something larger: a culture of trust and recognition. For newly arrived immigrant students, school can be either a place of exclusion or a source of strength. At these schools, students are never asked to leave parts of themselves at the door. Their languages, cultures, and lived experiences are part of the school’s foundation. The result is a place where students feel proud, supported, and prepared for what comes next.
A Roadmap for State Action
PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette show what’s possible when schools are intentionally designed with newcomer students at the center. Though they serve different linguistic and cultural communities, both schools follow a shared blueprint: strong relationships, rigorous academics, deep teacher investment, and culturally responsive pedagogy.
As districts across the country experience growing numbers of newcomer students, these schools offer more than inspiration: they offer a roadmap. They remind us that inclusion alone isn’t enough. When we center newcomer students—when we value their voices, their languages, and their goals—we don’t just help them succeed. We build better schools for everyone.
This work cannot be left to individual schools to figure out on their own: state and local education agencies must lead with vision, urgency, and resources to match.
Scaling a model like Internationals requires more than replicating the structure. It demands a fundamental shift in values and practice. At its core is a small, interdisciplinary team of teachers responsible for the same cohort of students, often looping with them for two years to build deep relationships and continuity. This approach is supported by four essential practices: intentional structures and programming; an asset-based community culture; staffing with ongoing professional learning; and the HELLO instructional model. Scaling this model means embracing multilingualism as a strength, ensuring that teacher preparation and licensure include real training for working with English learners, and funding schools in ways that meet the unique needs of newcomer populations. This work cannot be left to individual schools to figure out on their own: state and local education agencies must lead with vision, urgency, and resources to match.
As state and district leaders revisit their policies for newcomer students, schools like PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette offer clear direction: dedicate targeted funding for dual language and bilingual programs, grow your own teacher pathways, introduce performance-based assessments, and provide wraparound student supports. Invest in sustained, collaborative, and self-designed professional learning for educators, both school-specific and district-wide, guided by professional development committees. Above all, treat these schools not just as praiseworthy examples but as models for what every newcomer student deserves.
Tags: English as a second language, newcomer students, newcomer, English learners
Lessons on Designing for Newcomer Success from Two New York City Public Schools
When I walked into International High School at Lafayette one afternoon, the halls were already buzzing. You could hear soft conversations in Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish as students made their way to meetings called crews—small advisory groups that meet twice a week. At the doorway of one classroom, a student greeted her teacher in English, then turned to translate the teacher’s instructions into Mandarin for a classmate. It was a small, passing moment, but one that spoke volumes about how students support one another here.
That afternoon, the building felt calm but full of life. Teachers stood by their doors, greeting students by name. Posters in a dozen languages lined the walls, reminding students they belonged. There was an ease to it all, a rhythm that made it clear: this wasn’t just a school; it was a community.
Fighting a System That Fails Too Many Newcomers
In many schools across the country, newcomer students—those who have lived in the United States for less than four years—are isolated. They are placed in separate classrooms, left out of key conversations, or expected to catch up on their own without the academic, linguistic, or wraparound support they need to succeed. These challenges are especially acute for adolescents, who must navigate a new school system, learn a new language, and adjust to a different culture during a critical developmental period. For high school newcomers in particular, the pressure to adapt quickly, academically, socially, and emotionally can be overwhelming. This happens even with longstanding legal protections like Plyler v. Doe (1982), which guarantees all children access to free public education regardless of immigration status, and federal programs like Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which provides funding to support English learners (ELs).1 However, what is promised in policy too often disappears in practice.
The urgency to close these gaps has never been greater. Nationwide, state education systems are struggling to keep pace with a rapidly shifting student population. In some districts, the number of newcomer students has doubled in just five years. These students arrive with rich linguistic and cultural assets, but some also carry the layered challenges of migration, trauma, and interrupted schooling. And yet, in most states, there is no clear roadmap: no definition of who newcomers are, no guidance for educators, no targeted funding, and no consistent vision for how schools should meet their needs. Whether a newcomer student thrives, falls behind, or disappears from the system altogether often depends on something as arbitrary as the ZIP code to which they are assigned.
Yet at Pan American International High School at Monroe (PAIHS Monroe) and the International High School at Lafayette (IHS at Lafayette), the approach to serving newcomers contrasts sharply with typical practices nationwide. Rather than being pushed to the margins, newcomer students take the lead: they mentor younger peers, drive classroom discussions, and share their cultures and stories through research, poetry, and performance. These schools do more than welcome newcomer students: they place them at the center of school life.
Two Schools, One Shared Vision
PAIHS Monroe, located in the Bronx, New York, is part of the Internationals Network for Public Schools, a collaborative of nearly seventy schools and programs across sixteen districts and eight states which serve newly arrived immigrant students. At PAIHS Monroe, all 350 students in grades nine through twelve are ELs, and nearly half have experienced limited or interrupted formal education. The school uses a non-traditional bilingual model: all students speak Spanish2 and receive instruction in both Spanish and English, building academic content while maintaining and developing their home language.3
Across New York City in Brooklyn, IHS at Lafayette is also part of the Internationals Network and similarly serves newcomers, but in a much more linguistically diverse setting. About 40 percent of the students speak Spanish, 20 percent speak Chinese, 10 percent speak Arabic, and others speak Bengali and Russian, among other languages.4 These schools operate in a uniquely linguistically diverse context: over 44 percent of students in New York City public schools speak a language other than English at home. This demographic landscape has made New York City an important setting for developing and sustaining school models that center multilingual immigrant students.
At both schools, the goal is not assimilation, but rather intentional inclusion. Students’ languages, cultures, and identities are not just acknowledged: they are part of the everyday life of the school. Newcomer students are not only supported: they are also trusted to lead, to share, and to shape the school alongside their peers.
The moment I experienced upon entering IHS at Lafayette—students helping each other across languages and cultures—is not unusual. I saw it happening across the campus during my visit. One student might read a math problem aloud in English; another might rephrase it in Spanish; a third might offer a word in Arabic. Teachers make space for this, often pausing instruction to ask, “Can someone translate that for your group?”
Instructional materials reflect this collaborative model. Handouts are multilingual, dictionaries sit on every table, and hallway posters appear in the languages students speak at home. Rather than enforcing an English-only rule, students are encouraged to use all of their language resources to deepen their learning. Teachers design materials and lesson routines that support rapid English acquisition by helping students leverage their full linguistic repertoire to access and engage with academic content.
Language as a Resource, Not a Barrier
At both PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette, language is not treated as a hurdle to overcome: rather, it’s seen as a powerful tool for learning. These schools operate on the belief that students’ home languages are assets, not obstacles, and they design instruction accordingly. Instead of sidelining students’ linguistic knowledge in pursuit of English fluency, they build on it, using language as a bridge.
At PAIHS Monroe, students take Native Language Arts courses in Spanish to strengthen literacy in their home language. This allows them to deepen their understanding of how human languages work in general, which research suggests will help their acquisition of English. At IHS at Lafayette, a similar goal is achieved through translanguaging, where students move fluidly between languages to make sense of material and support one another. In both schools, students are encouraged to draw on all of their language resources to make meaning, solve problems, and engage with rigorous, grade-level content, while continuing to build their English proficiency.
These asset-based approaches extend to how students are assessed. Instead of relying only on multiple Regents exams5—which often do not accommodate the linguistic and educational backgrounds of newly arrived immigrant students— students at both schools complete performance-based assessment tasks (PBATs), such as research papers, science experiments, and oral presentations. These assessments ask students not just to recall information, but also to apply what they’ve learned in creative, analytical, and personally relevant ways. As part of this system, students are also required to complete a project in their native language, a pedagogical strategy that elevates and honors their home languages and cultures as essential components of academic success.
Beyond Academics: Electives and Enrichment with Purpose
At both schools, campus support goes well beyond academic instruction. Both schools offer advisory programs, which meet twice a week and foster connection and guidance. At PAIHS Monroe, advisory groups use an adapted Restore 360 curriculum, which focuses on social-emotional learning, college, and career readiness skills. Students and teachers meet in restorative circles with community agreements and a pre-selected discussion topic to create a safe space for open dialogue. Advisory teachers mentor students, track their progress, and coordinate supports for them based on individual academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs. At IHS at Lafayette, students are placed in crews (small groups led by a faculty advisor) where they build relationships, reflect on challenges, and set academic goals. Students describe these spaces as essential. “Crew is the place where I can ask anything, school stuff or even things happening at home,” one student told me. “It makes a big difference.”
Creative expression is also deeply embedded in the school day. All seniors take a core Humanities course where they engage in a poetry project about migration, family, and hopes for the future, in collaboration with New York City arts nonprofit CityLore. Additionally, ninth and tenth graders can take a translanguaging enrichment course focused on advanced literacy through Chinese literature, highlighting the school’s commitment to students’ first languages and cultures.
Enrichment at IHS at Lafayette extends even further. Eleventh graders intern with local businesses and nonprofits, while others participate in photography, journalism, and art programs. A recent group of students helped design a float for the 2024 Coney Island Mermaid Parade and won third place in the Push and Pull Float category. PAIHS Monroe offers similar opportunities through an established partnership with Montefiore Hospital System via the Bronx STEAM Center, providing students with on-site experience and work-based learning.
Both schools offer dual enrollment options with local community colleges, enabling students to earn college credits toward graduation and smooth their transition to higher education. At IHS at Lafayette, students can earn up to a full year of college credits through partnerships with CUNY College Now and Ed Equity Lab. For many students, this is their first exposure to higher education, transforming how they envision their futures.
Teachers as Learners, Leaders, and Anchors
The staff at both schools play a huge role in creating a safe and inclusive learning environment. Teachers at Internationals Network schools receive specialized training to support multilingual learners, in addition to the preparation required by the NYC Public Schools system. According to the Internationals Network, the organization provides professional development, coaching, and feedback to more than 1,200 educators each year, totaling over 5,000 hours of direct support—including coaching, workshops, and collaborative communities of practice—designed to improve teaching practices and better serve newcomer students. Their approach centers on educator-led learning, where teachers participate in ongoing coaching cycles and network-wide convenings to continuously strengthen instruction for multilingual learners.
What’s especially unique about the Internationals Network is the clear path it creates for teacher growth. Many educators start in the classroom and advance into roles as mentors, instructional coaches, and school leaders. The network also has over ninety alumni working in various roles—from part-time positions during college to full-time teachers, social workers, and guidance counselors. This “grow your own” model is important because it helps students see themselves reflected in their educators and school leaders, fostering a deeper sense of belonging and possibility. Professional development isn’t a one-time training or a checkbox; it’s embedded in the culture. For example, at PAIHS Monroe, the assistant principal is a graduate who returned first as a teacher and later became a leader. His presence is not only supportive but deeply motivating. This kind of investment fosters stronger teacher retention, deeper student relationships, and a shared commitment to the school’s mission.
A Culture of Trust and Recognition
What stood out most from my visits wasn’t a specific program or curriculum feature: it was the sense of belonging. Many students had transferred from schools where they felt invisible or misunderstood. At PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette, the feeling was different. Students heard their home languages in the hallways. Teachers knew how they learned best. They felt seen.
“In my old school, I didn’t talk,” one student said. “I was afraid I’d say the wrong word or not understand. Here, I feel safe. I help other students now. I feel proud.”
Another described it this way: “At my last school, it felt like no one even knew my name. Here, I feel like I matter. I can speak my language, and people listen to me.”
These small, everyday moments—teachers greeting students in multiple languages, classmates stepping in to help without being asked—accumulate into something larger: a culture of trust and recognition. For newly arrived immigrant students, school can be either a place of exclusion or a source of strength. At these schools, students are never asked to leave parts of themselves at the door. Their languages, cultures, and lived experiences are part of the school’s foundation. The result is a place where students feel proud, supported, and prepared for what comes next.
A Roadmap for State Action
PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette show what’s possible when schools are intentionally designed with newcomer students at the center. Though they serve different linguistic and cultural communities, both schools follow a shared blueprint: strong relationships, rigorous academics, deep teacher investment, and culturally responsive pedagogy.
As districts across the country experience growing numbers of newcomer students, these schools offer more than inspiration: they offer a roadmap. They remind us that inclusion alone isn’t enough. When we center newcomer students—when we value their voices, their languages, and their goals—we don’t just help them succeed. We build better schools for everyone.
Scaling a model like Internationals requires more than replicating the structure. It demands a fundamental shift in values and practice. At its core is a small, interdisciplinary team of teachers responsible for the same cohort of students, often looping with them for two years to build deep relationships and continuity. This approach is supported by four essential practices: intentional structures and programming; an asset-based community culture;6 staffing with ongoing professional learning; and the HELLO instructional model. Scaling this model means embracing multilingualism as a strength, ensuring that teacher preparation and licensure include real training for working with English learners, and funding schools in ways that meet the unique needs of newcomer populations. This work cannot be left to individual schools to figure out on their own: state and local education agencies must lead with vision, urgency, and resources to match.
As state and district leaders revisit their policies for newcomer students, schools like PAIHS Monroe and IHS at Lafayette offer clear direction: dedicate targeted funding for dual language and bilingual programs, grow your own teacher pathways, introduce performance-based assessments, and provide wraparound student supports. Invest in sustained, collaborative, and self-designed professional learning for educators, both school-specific and district-wide, guided by professional development committees. Above all, treat these schools not just as praiseworthy examples but as models for what every newcomer student deserves.
Notes
Tags: English as a second language, newcomer students, newcomer, English learners