National Newcomer Network
Newcomer students sit in classrooms across the country. Each one contributes valuable knowledge to our school communities as they grow, learn, and dream alongside their peers. The National Newcomer Network is committed to ensuring a high-quality education for newcomer students in every classroom where they learn.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are about 1 million newly-arrived immigrant students in U.S. public schools. Many schools and districts that serve newcomers have taken great care to cultivate strong and welcoming communities and develop programming that both elevates newcomers’ strengths and aims to address their needs. Unfortunately, this approach isn’t standard. A newcomer student may enroll in one district and receive a very different education than a newcomer student enrolled in another district. This is an equity issue, and one that can have a lasting impact on students’ academic achievement, linguistic progress, social-emotional development, and future opportunities.
The National Newcomer Network (NNN) is a coalition of educators, researchers, community leaders, and advocates from across the country committed to promoting education policies that fulfill the promise of opportunity, equity, and justice for all immigrant-origin students when they arrive to our schools. We aim to provide a space for people who care about immigrant students and newcomers to build community, learn from one another, and push to create an education system that adequately meets the real needs of newcomers everywhere. Our collective work is rooted in the day-to-day experiences of students, educators, and community leaders who make up our membership. Alongside our students and communities, we envision a safe and welcoming public education system where all newcomer students can succeed and thrive academically, socially, and emotionally in every classroom where they learn.
We first convened in 2022, led by Next100 and Californians Together to advance systemic solutions for newcomer education. Together, we launched our formal coalition at The Century Foundation in 2023 with the publication of our policy platform. We are now housed at EdTrust.
Who are newcomers?
Newcomer students are a linguistically and culturally diverse group that encompasses recent immigrant youth, refugees, asylees, unaccompanied minors, undocumented students, migratory children, students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE), and more. Newcomers have varying levels of English proficiency—not all are identified as English learners—and add a rich, diverse heritage of multilingualism and culture to the classroom, imparting unique knowledge that strengthens the learning environment for all students.
The National Newcomer Network’s Policy Platform
UPHOLD CIVIL RIGHT & APPROPRIATE SERVICES
- Provide academic and wrap-around services for newcomer youth that are appropriately staffed, technically supported, and adequately funded in state and local budgets.
- Target, authorize, and guarantee funding to develop and expand effective, culturally responsive newcomer programs and support the federal, state, and local systems to do so.
- Develop master contracts at the state level with providers of language access resources that allow district and schools to benefit from lower prices negotiated on their behalf
- Foster accountability and transparency by bolstering federal funding to adequately support the Office for Civil Rights to follow through on complaints
GUARANTEE EFFECTIVE EDUCATOR PREPARATION & TRAINING
- Develop comprehensive program guidelines within the for school administrators
- Ensure funding is targeted towards the implementation of pre- and in-service teacher training
- Develop targeted United States Department of Education training on all aspects of newcomer student support
- Require the US Department of Education to monitor the implementation and improve accountability of programs and educator training
TRANSFORM FUNDING & ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS
- Amend federal and state funding formulae for multilingual learners to provide new funding that targets specific support to higher-need student populations
- Appropriate federal funds to assist states in incorporating disaggregated data into K-12 and P-20 data systems.
- Convene a working group led by the Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OLEA) to consider revision of the funding structure for Title III immigrant subgrants
National Newcomer Network Members
We are a coalition of nearly 600 members representing forty-six states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Members can join as individuals or as representatives of their respective organizations.
Join Our Movement
Fill out our new member survey or contact NNN co-founders Alejandra Vázquez Baur (avazquezbaur@edtrust.org) and Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez (xilonin@caltog.org).
National Newcomer Network Leadership Team
Alejandra Vázquez Baur
Co-Founder, NNN and Director of Immigrant Students Policy, Advocacy, and Partnerships, EdTrust
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Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez
Co-Founder, NNN and Deputy Director, Californians Together
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Lindsey Bird
Emergent Bilingual Change Agent Coach and Linguistic Equity Consultant, Teach Plus CA
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Lara Evangelista
Executive Director, Internationals Network for Public Schools
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Veronica Ibarra
Campaigns Project Manager, National Immigration Law Center
Lynn C. Jennings
National & State Partnerships SeniorDirector, EdTrust
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Brian A. Ortega
Assistant Director of Student and Program Development, James Madison University
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Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec
Policy Counsel, National Immigration Law Center
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Claire E. Sylvan
Founder and Senior Strategic Advisor, Internationals Network for Public Schools
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Carlene Thomas
CEO, Purposeful Parent Education
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