United States public schools are becoming increasingly diverse as more families
immigrate to the country. A variety of programs within the schools are offered to all
students, including English as a Second Language classes and classes to help struggling
students succeed. Although these programs are important for meeting the needs of
immigrant students, focusing solely on their needs often leads researchers, teachers,
parents, and students of diverse backgrounds to overlook other services available to
support students’ learning (Szymanski & Shaff, 2013). Such a gap is seen particularly in
connecting secondary immigrant students with advanced placement and gifted and
talented programs. This study examined one reason previous research had found may
contribute to this underrepresentation: parents’ lack of ability to advocate for their child
due to a lack of ability to read, understand, and act on home-school communications.
Findings suggest several ways educators and schools can communicate more effectively
to immigrant parents through home-school communications to help these parents become
more involved in the education of their child(ren) and better help immigrant students
succeed.