THE SIFE EQUITY PROJECT

advocates for equity

MISSION

We partner with educators to create equitable and empowering learning opportunities for under-schooled immigrant adolescents.

Who are under-schooled

immigrants?

The range and diversity among immigrant students are vast. There is a subset of under-schooled immigrant students in middle and high school classrooms across the U.S. often referred to as Students with Interrupted or Limited formal Education (SIFE or SLIFE). SIFE have often had limited access to formal education in their home countries due to poverty, violence, or war.

SIFE are resilient and bring rich life experiences to classrooms but little background in formal science, math, or history concepts. SIFE are motivated to learn but may not have foundational literacy in their home language, or may not have been taught to use text as a resource to build new knowledge. SIFE struggle to participate meaningfully in our schools.

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Why SIFE?

1 in 10

English Learners (ELs) who immigrated to the United States are SIFE.

(Browder, 2014)

do not adequately equip teachers with the skills and strategies to teach SIFE.

Limited pathways

exist in schools and serving SIFE requires altering programming, curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Graduation rates

for SIFE are extremely low, with only 30% graduating from high school.

(Fry, 2005)

Teacher programs

Who We Are

We founded The SIFE Equity Project to join forces with the growing community of SIFE researchers and educators around the country. We are interested in building collective knowledge in order to impact the quality of education for SIFE across the United States.

What We Do

We support schools to reflect on the ways they integrate content, language, and literacy instruction and support educators to establish pathways to meaningful participation for all students.