Examining academic, non-academic, and college readiness outcomes of urban immigrant and refugee youth (IRY) in full-service community schools

Abstract

• A full service community school offers services to urban, (IRY) and their families. • IRY had higher GPA than students in the same district not in a community school. • IRY had higher attendance rates and lower behavior incidents than control students. • IRY also had higher college readiness outcomes than control students. • Non-IRY in the community school model performed better on nearly all benchmarks. Despite recent caps to refugees admitted to the US, some states and urban communities continue to support large populations of immigrant and refugee youth (IRY) and their families. IRY often experience academic and non-academic challenges while integrating into new societies. This study focusses on three middle schools in an urban community, one of which has adopted community school practices, meaning they provide wraparound academic, social, health, and immigration services for IRY and their families. This study examines the impact of community school (CS) and refugee center programming on CS middle school students broadly ( n = 1,045) compared to a sample of non-CS middle school students ( n = 2,381) from the same school district. Additionally, this study takes a more narrow look at CS programming impact on IRY student outcomes. Results reveal positive significant differences on academic outcomes variables (GPA, mathematics, science, English, and social studies grades) and non-academic outcome variables (attendance rate and behavior incidents) for students attending the community school, and CS students performed statistically better on all academic indicators of college readiness (overall 8th grade GPA, 8th grade course failures, attendance rate, and behavior incidence). This study contributes to an improved understanding of the pragmatic influence integrated student supports found in a community school setting can have on students, specifically IRY.