1      ÒTHEY CANÕT BE PATIENT. THEY CANÕT WAIT. THEY HAVE TO FIGHT.Ó HOW MIGRANT YOUTH EXPERIENCE IDENTITY, POLICY, AND LEARNING AT A MICHIGAN SUMMER MIGRANT PROGRAM  By  Kristina A. Crandall                  A DISSERTATION  Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of   Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher EducationÑDoctor of Philosophy  2016    2 ABSTRACT  ÒTHEY CANÕT BE PATIENT. THEY CANÕT WAIT. THEY HAVE TO FIGHT.Ó HOW MIGRANT YOUTH EXPERIENCE IDENTITY, POLICY, AND LEARNING AT A MICHIGAN SUMMER MIGRANT PROGRAM  By  Kristina A. Crandall    The children of migrant farmworkers are a population of young people with very unique lived experiences. They travel with their families multiple times a year in search of agricultural or fishing work opportunities. This consistent uprooting often causes interrupted educational experiences as their moving patterns do not necessarily align with the academic calendars of schools. The lack of curricular consistency between states, districts, and even schools often translates into a disjointed education causing migrant youth to fall behind academically from their non-migrant peers. Without the assistance of supplementary support systems, it is no surprise that migrant youth are one of the most educationally deprived populations and has one of the highest high school drop out/push out rates in the United States. Due to their extreme marginalization from dominant society living in the campos and working in the fields for tremendously low wages, migrant farmworkers and their children often live in poverty and have high rates of malnutrition. Furthermore, a large percentage of migrant farmworkers are undocumented immigrants, leaving them in very vulnerable positions when it comes to work, education, and even access to health care. Migrant farmworkers are hard workers and dedicated people, and with the help of additional support systems, such as summer migrant programs, are able to provide their children with an aptitude for resiliency. This study explores how migrant youth make sense of their identity as Mexican and indigenous migrants in U.S. schools and  3 society. Furthermore, the study addresses how Migrant Educational Policy is structured at the Federal level, interpreted and implemented at the State and local levels, and then how such policy is experienced by migrant youth in a summer migrant program called Van Buren Intermediate School DistrictÕs Project NOMAD in Michigan. It is a case study of emergent bilingual migrant youth as they experience and engage in education in a summer migrant program, how they experience policy as it reaches them at the local level, and how they identify themselves and understand their unique experiences as migrant youth. Based on findings from this study, I come to several conclusions: (1) migrant youth are unique individuals with unique needs and an incredible amount of strength and resilience; (2) migrant youth deserve powerful, excellent, and humanizing educational opportunities that help them not only overcome any academic gaps but also help them grow to be the critical thinking leaders they are capable of becoming; (3) programs like Project NOMAD provide a range of invaluable support for and empower migrant youth and their families; and (4) programs for migrants and educators of migrant youth must continue to reflect on how they can provide humanizing educational experiences within the constraints of educational policy.    4            Copyright by  KRISTINA A. CRANDALL 2016 iv                     Dedicated to the amazing and talented young people at Project NOMAD, their families, and the individuals who spend their summers working to show these young people that there is nothing shameful in being a migrant, but that it is not the only road. DonÕt be patient. DonÕt wait. Keep fighting.    v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS    First and foremost, I would like to thank the seven students who allowed me to learn with them during the summer of 2015, and also Project NOMAD for welcoming this important and me research into their space. Each of the participantsÑstudents, teachers, administrators, and other individuals shared a part of themselves and their work with me, and without that, this study would not have been possible.   I would also like to thank my mentor and Dissertation Chair, Dr. Django Paris, for his unconditional support throughout this process but also for providing me with inspiration to continue this work ever since Spring 2012 when I took his TE 945 courseÑan empowering learning space that probably prevented me from leaving the program. I would also like to thank my other mentor, Dr. Jeff Bale, who has provided me with the professional and emotional support needed to complete my doctorate. A special thanks to Dr. Estrella Torrez who introduced me to this migrant world, and for constantly being on my mind these last few years of the program to remind myself that motherhood has only made me more efficient as a scholar and human being. Thank you, also, to Dr. Maria Teresa Tatto, who has contributed so much to my research and teaching, and supported me throughout these last two years.   Many thanks must go out to my colleagues and fellow doctoral students. I cannot express how grateful I am for my cohort who not only learned with me but also made me laugh, smile, and think more critically over the past five years. Thanks to Hannah Franklin Grisham not just for her incredible positivity and intelligence but also her talent for editing. I must thank Sara Leo for her support throughout these five years as well. It has been so special to experience Ph.D. life and motherhood together with you. And I cannot be more grateful also to my students and interns all over the world. The individuals with whom I have been honored to work with in the  vi MSU College of Education, and the conversations we have had, not only inspired me as an individual and an educator, but also inspired a lot of the work that came out of this study.   I would like to thank my family. To Mom and DadÑI am so grateful for everything you have done for me. You have literally given me the world, and I would not be who I am or where I am today without your unconditional support. Thank you for teaching me very early on that I can achieve anything as long as I work hard at it, and thank you, Baba, for giving me the time and space to complete this work. Thanks to my brother, John, for always pushing me to be and do my best. Thank you, to my nephew, Tristan, for being such a good person and cousin to my girls. It has been so amazing watching you grow up into such a bright, kind, and handsome young man. And to Deana and Uncle Don, for showing me what true friendship means. Much™simas gracias a mi familia en EspaŒa. Me habe™s dado un montŠn de apoyo y amor durante estos aŒos. Os quiero con todo mi corazŠn.  Most importantly, I need to thank my husband and life partner, Javier. You have been my rock not just during this process but for the last eight years, and I cannot imagine my life without you. Gracias por tu ayuda, tu apoyo, tu amor, y especialmente tu risaÑque no podr™a vivir sin ella.   Lastly, thank you to my children. Francesca, you are the light of my life, and you inspire me every single day. And to Emilia, who was with me throughout this whole time. It was thanks to your presence and your beautiful movements inside of me and the loving and calming energy you have brought into this world that I was able to complete this project. You both have such bright futures ahead of you, and I am honored to be your mother. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but I am so lucky to be yours.    vii TABLE OF CONTENTS   LIST OF FIGURES   x  INTRODUCTION    1  CHAPTER ONE A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE   8  Migrant Farmworkers    8  Migrant Educational Policy  14  Migrant Education  17  Bilingual Education and Language Policy 21  Language and Identity  26  English Language Learners and Emergent Bilinguals 28  Bilingualism and Biliteracy  36  Beyond School Literacy Programs  39  CHAPTER TWO GETTING TO PROJECT NOMAD: FRAMEWORKS, DESIGN, AND METHODS  42  Theoretical Frameworks  42   Research Questions 50  Design & Methods: Gaining Access to Project NOMAD  51  The Youth  53  Research Design 59  Methods  61  Participant Observation 62  Field Notes  64  Interviews  65  Collection of Student Documents, Work, and Program Details 66  Data Analysis  66  Significance  67  Positionality  68  Limitations  71  VIGNETTE ÒTHAT PIECE OF PAPER WAS WORTHLESSÑIN THAT WORLD.Ó  73  CHAPTER THREE THE TRENCHES: WHO IS IN AND WHO IS OUT? AN EXPLORATION OF MIGRANT EDUCATIONAL POLICY AT THE FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS 79  An Exploration of Current Migrant Educational Policy: The Federal Level  82  Interpreting Policy at the State Level  92  Addressing the Unique Needs of Migrant Youth: A Local Interpretation of   Policy at Project NOMAD  96   viii VIGNETTE PROUD OF BEING LATINO. PROUD OF BEING MIGRANT.  109  CHAPTER FOUR ÒI JUST FEEL MORE MEXICAN.Ó: INTERSECTIONS OF LANGUAGE, RACE, BELONGING, AND IDENTITY EXPERIENCED BY MIGRANT YOUTH 114  Language and Identity  115  Language As Both Strength And Metaphorical Barrier 117  ÒItÕs me that is resisting.Ó: Migrant Students And A Sense Of  (Not) Belonging 129  VIGNETTE SHOE BOXES: ÒTHESE ARE THE ONLY PAIR I OWN.Ó  145  CHAPTER FIVE ÒTHAT DOESNÕT MAKE YOU AN EXPERTÓ: POLICY IN PRACTICE:   MIGRANT YOUTH EXPERIENCES OF TESTING AND MATH AT PROJECT  NOMAD  149  Measurable Outcomes: Implementing and Experiencing Testing at NOMAD  157  Curricular Experiences of Mathematics at Project NOMAD 166  VIGNETTE ÒFOUR WHO GREW DESPITE CONCRETE. FOUR WHO REACH AND DO NOT  FORGET TO REACH. FOUR WHOSE ONLY REASON IS TO BE AND BE.Ó 172  CHAPTER SIX ÒTHEY CANÕT BE PATIENT. THEY CANÕT WAIT. THEY HAVE TO FIGHT.Ó  POLICY IN PRACTICE: MIGRANT YOUTH EXPERIENCES OF LITERACY  AT PROJECT NOMAD  179  Literacy Instruction at Project NOMAD  180  Curricular Experiences of Writing  181  Curricular Experiences of Reading  193  Co-Teaching the Activist Project  199  CONCLUSION Humanizing Education for Migrant Youth 211  APPENDICES 216  Appendix A: Assent Form for Students (English) 217  Appendix B: Assent Form for Students (Spanish)  219  Appendix C: Informed Consent Form for Parents (English)  221  Appendix D: Informed Consent Form for Parents (Spanish)  223  Appendix E: Informed Consent Form for Teachers  225  Appendix F: Interview Protocol (English)  227  Appendix G: Interview Protocol (Spanish)  229  Appendix H: Interest Survey  231  ix  Appendix I: Researching Activists Lesson Plan  233  Appendix J: Activist Jigsaw Graphic Organizer  234  REFERENCES 235    x LIST OF FIGURES   Figure 1. MiMEP Measureable Program Outcomes, SDP, 2013  94  Figure 2. RobertoÕs cultural portfolio    98   Figure 3. EduardoÕs cultural portfolio  98  Figure 4. Example of Meal Menu at Project NOMAD  99  Figure 5. 8th-12th grade students in front of Sparty at MSU  104  Figure 6. 8th-12th grade students in front of Spartan Stadium at MSU  104  Figure 7. Tour of dorms at MSU for residency CAMP scholars  105  Figure 8. Collection of books for youth   106  Figure 9. More books for youth   106  Figure 10. CristobalÕs graphic organizer  170  Figure 11. Example of persuasive essay graphic organizer  181  Figure 12. Luc™aÕs Persuasive Essay  184  Figure 13. AntonioÕs graphic organizer  186  Figure 14. DIN #10  190      Figure 15. Chicken DIN  190  Figure 16. Lu™sÕs written response to Chicken DIN  190  Figure 17. Student drawing Sojourner Truth  202  Figure 18. MartaÕs group poster on Cesar Chavez and another poster for MLK, Jr.  202  Figure 19. A poster on MLK, Jr., and an artistic display of Sojourner Truth  203  Figure 20. Campaign poster for Nelson Mandela and ÒI Have a DreamÓ inspired poster on  MLK, Jr.  203    1 INTRODUCTION    Although migrant farm workers have been a part of the national fabric of the United States for well over the past century, they and their children have been labeled as the invisible minority within our country due to their extreme marginalization and lack of education (Gouwens, 2001; Vocke, 2007). Even though I grew up in Michigan, I was completely unaware of the existence of migrant farmworkers, and I had no idea that all of the produce that made it to market and my kitchen table were touched by migrant hands at some point. As a White woman, a former teacher, bilingual in Spanish and English, having spent years dedicated to educational equity for students of color for whom English is an additional language, and a graduate student involved in Michigan State UniversityÕs College of Education, I am saddened to see how nonchalantly teacher educators overlook this population of workers and students in our preparation of future educators. Even with a major focus on social justice in my Ph.D. coursework as well as Teacher Education courses I have taught, only one included literature on the educational and life experiences of migrant students. Gouwens (2001) noted that migrant youth are Òthe most educationally disadvantagedÓ in our nation, and they are Òthe most undereducated and the least likely to complete high school and go on to postsecondary educationÉrank[ing] among the highest in the United States in rates of poverty and malnutrition and hav[ing] the least access to health careÓ (p. 2). Despite this awareness, the Federal government, States, schools, and even teacher education programs still fail to see the urgency in directly addressing the needs of migrant youth.   Many factors undermine efforts to ameliorate the educational experiences and, in turn, opportunities of migrant students. First, there is difficulty in defining migrant students. The term migrant child refers to a child whose parent is a migrant agricultural workerÑan Òindividual who  2 migrates from one locale to another to earn a living in agricultureÓ (MagaŒa & Hovey, 2003, p. 75). However, legislation for migrant youth is very vague and therefore can be interpreted differently by local educational agencies making it easy for migrant youth to fall through the cracks of the system. The lack of consistency in defining a migrant farmworker makes it all the more difficult to address the population in policyÑnot only in terms of education, but also in terms of health care as well as labor and human rights. Secondly, as Gouwens (2001) noted, Òmigrant children may move several times and attend several schools during each school yearÓ (p.13). The regular mobility of migrant students and their families makes it difficult for schools and States to have up-to-date information on their educational histories thereby resulting in disjointed learning opportunities. Furthermore, studentsÕ mobility combined with the lack of curricular unification within states, let alone the country, creates uneven educational experiences for migrant children. These setbacksÑwhich have the largest impact among many setbacksÑhave made it difficult for this population of students to receive the educational support that they so desperately need and deserve.  As migrant children move from school to school, these interruptions not only have the potential to negatively impact their education but how they view themselves as students and as individuals as well. McCollum (1999) noted that Òworking class childrenÉlearn from their school experiences not to expect success, experience leveled aspirations, and exhibit negative group attitudes regarding their futureÓ (p. 114). Many migrant childrenÑparticularly those who speak a language other than English in their householdÑare classified as English Language Learners (ELLs), and thus have an even more difficult time trying to keep up in a nation whose schools put what Pappamihiel (2004) called an Òemphasis on English acquisition above native language maintenanceÓ (p. 26). Discussion around language and language barriers is crucial to  3 this study since such a large portion of migrant farmworkers and their families speak a language other than English as their native tongue.  According to the National Agricultural Workers Survey (FY2011Ð2012), 81% of farmworkers speak Spanish and nearly 60% of foreign-born farmworkers cannot read or speak English; only 35% responded as being able to speak some English. This means that migrant youth who are also emergent bilinguals experience difficulty as they try to learn a new language and content in that new language, while simultaneously missing out on opportunities to develop linguistic and literacy skills in their family language as well. Oftentimes, schools institutionally isolate immigrant and migrant students by physically removing students from classrooms with dominant American native-English speaking students, thus preventing emergent bilinguals from interacting with their American counterparts both socially and academically (Olsen, 1997; Li, 2012). Therefore, the social isolation, interrupted living circumstances, and cultural and language barriers that many migrant youth experience make for quite the educational and social challenge.  Although migrant youth often have disjointed educational experiences, policy for migrant education has funded programs that provide supplemental and empowering educational programs, such as Van Buren Intermediate School DistrictÕs (VBISD) Project NOMADÑa summer migrant program in Midwestern Michigan dedicated to recruiting and working with hundreds of migrant youth during summers off from traditional school. While there has been research conducted on the discourses in which migrant youth engage in both in school and at home (Lopez, 1999), little research has been conducted on how migrant youth engage in such specific programs dedicated to their supplemental educationÑsuch as a migrant summer education programÑand even less comparing and contrasting those experiences with traditional  4 school settings, and how such spaces contribute to the identities and life experiences of migrant youth.  This study explores how migrant youth experience identity formation, learning, and educational policy at a summer migrant program in Michigan. I was able to see how educational policy written for migrant youth is being lived out through these programs and schools and how these young people are thus experiencing policy at an individual level. Working with these youth afforded me the opportunity to see how language plays an enormous role in the identity formation of these young people. This time at Project NOMAD also played a role in debunking my own assumptionsÑsome of which were based on the limited research that exists on migrant youthÑabout the studentsÕ linguistic repertoires. Having read statistics reported on migrant farmworkers and not necessarily migrant youth, I was unsure about studentsÕ linguistic skills in English or Spanish. I was able to learn that it was the younger, early elementary students who required assistance with developing English language skills, and many of the older youthÑin particular, those who participated in this studyÑwere emerging bilinguals or multilinguals, able to speak, read, and write in English, and able to speak and listen in Spanish or an indigenous language native to their familiesÕ home in Mexico. I also intended to further the scholarship done on the education of migrant children and, in particular, how policy is enacted in educational settings and how language plays an impacting role in educational experiences of migrant youth. This certainly became clear throughout my work, and thus this study took the form of a descriptive case study to illuminate how these young people are experiencing education, living out policy written for them, and how students tie language and race to their identities as a mode of navigating their lives in this space beyond the traditional school setting. By shedding light on these educational experiences of migrant youth, I saw how these young peopleÑdespite their  5 often disjointed educational experiencesÑreceive and participate in educational opportunities that provide them with the academic, linguistic and social support they need and deserve, but also to put a spotlight on the ways migrant educational policy is or is not ameliorating the interrupted schooling of migrant youth.   Project NOMAD welcomed me and this study with open arms. I worked closely with some individuals who were a part of the administrative and teaching team: the lead-teacher, Rosa1; administrative assistant and teacher, Samuel; the 6th grade teacher, Mr. Garc™a; the 7th and 8th grade reading and writing teacher, Ms. Stevenson; and I was able to speak every so often with the program director, Mr. Mart™nez. I regularly sat in on four different class periods, and seven students between the ages of 12 and 14 agreed to participate in my study. Marta and Luc™a were both 12 years old, and in Mr. Garc™aÕs class. Marta was born in Guanajuato, Mexico, and she came with her family to the U.S. at age 3. Luc™a was born in the state of Georgia, and she was the only participant who held U.S. citizenship. Eduardo, Roberto, and Adolfo were also in Mr. Garc™aÕs 6th grade class. Eduardo was 13 years old, and his family came to the U.S. before Eduardo was born in Veracruz, Mexico. Although he was born here, Eduardo said he was not a U.S. citizen for reasons unknown. Roberto, also 13, came to the U.S. at age 2 from the Oaxaca state of Mexico. Adolfo, 12, and Lu™s, a 13 year old 7th grader, both came to the U.S. at age 3 from MexicoÑalthough both were unsure from what region or city. Jos” was an 8th grader about to go into high school. Unlike the others who first came or were born in the southern U.S., Jos” came straight to Michigan at age 3 from Guanajuato, Mexico. Every one of these young people                                                 1 Project NOMAD and Michigan State UniversityÕs CAMP both gave me permission to use the actual names of their programs and the names of their directors. However, I used pseudonyms to protect the identities of students, teachers, and other program participants. I gave students opportunities to choose their own names, but they were indifferent and allowed me to choose their names.  6 was fluent in English, and spoke at least one other language. All admitted they were either trying or wanted to learn the indigenous languages of their families or become literate in Spanish.   Migrant youth face many unique challenges, and the pitfalls of the American educational system have allowed these young people to fall through the cracks. However, programs like Project NOMAD provide migrant youth with positive and empowering educational opportunities during summer break from traditional K-12 schools. Such programs not only offer supplemental education during the summer with the help of bilingual teachers, but they also give workshops on employment opportunities, health, financial advice, and heritage celebrations. Additionally, these programs look to parents for help in planning the activities and regularly create events where parents can participate as a community. Unfortunately, not all summer or regular school programs afford migrant youth with such support, and this lack of engagement needs to be addressed. In order to succeed educationally and socially, migrant students need not only supplemental forms of education to help support their educational growth, but the roots of the issueÑwhat causes migrant farmworkers to move so often for minimal wagesÑneed to be addressed. This is so that migrant children can start off not just on the right foot, but not on their hands and knees as so many already do in the fields. By having a part of my focus on such a program as NOMAD, this study highlights positive and successful methods of interaction and instruction that advocates, educators, and families are providing with and for migrant youth in order to experience productive educational opportunities and positive life experiences. Rose (1995) and I agree that focusing on such positive work our intention is not to Òignore the obvious misery in our schools nor the limitations of too many of those who teach in and manage themÓ but to provide a type of critical analysis that   7 does not minimize the inadequacies of curriculum and instruction, the rigidity of school structure, or the Ôsavage inequalitiesÕ of funding, but that simultaneously opens discursive space for inspires teaching, for courage, for achievement against odds, for successful struggle, for the insight and connection that occur continually inÉclassrooms around the country. (p. 4) Thus, this research explores the experiences of migrant youth to highlight both the successes taking place in spaces like Project NOMAD in hopes of improving the other aspects of their lives that remain in need of immediate improvement to ensure that, as educators and advocates, these young people are provided with life opportunities that they deserve. This study also considers where there is room for reflection and creating opportunities to empower these incredible strong and talented young people.        8 CHAPTER ONE A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE  Migrant Farmworkers Migrant farmworkers are individuals who migrate within or between states to earn a living as an agricultural laborer. Such workers are essentially forced to displace themselves often several times a year in search of work depending on harvest and planting seasons, which may vary from region to region. Agricultural labor is not limited to just the harvesting and planting of crops as it can include the following: tending to tree nurseries; seed and lawn production; meat, poultry and dairy production; ranching; packaging of farm products; and fishing and aquaculture. Seasonal farmworkers differ from migrant farmworkers in that they remain in one place throughout the year but work on farms when seasonally appropriate and find other work during the off-season. Although these groups of laborers may seem similar, their needs are not identical. Despite their differences, the two are often grouped together in policy such as the Migrant Education Program or the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Protection Act of 1983. While it is not a purposeful intention to ignore the specific needs of seasonal farmworkers, this dissertation utilizes the term migrant farmworkers as its focus is on those individuals who leave their home bases in search of work in other counties, states and regions of the country.  The migrant farmworker population comprises laborers with a unique history in this country. Due to extreme working conditions and low wages, migrant and seasonal farmworkers have typically been a vulnerable group of laborers including impoverished individuals, immigrants and racial minorities (Public Broadcasting Service [PBS], 2004). Foreign-born migrant farmworkers have played a major part in U.S. agriculture since before this country was founded. The origins of farm labor date back hundreds of years when African slaves were forced into such labor against their will (National Farm Worker Ministry [NFWM], n.d.). Indentured  9 servants from Europe also came to the U.S. colonies to work in the fields. After the Mexican-American War in 1848,Òtens of thousands of migrant workers from Mexico began arriving in the U.SÉ[and] freely moved across the border for temporary jobs and then returned homeÓ (NFWM], n.d., Timeline of Agricultural Labor, para. 4). After slavery was abolished, institutionalized segregation and unjust treatment of African Americans meant that many former slaves and their families remained on as farmworkers for lack of opportunities elsewhere. Some free African Americans did, however, begin to enter other sectors of the economy. White farmers began hiring Asian populations from China, Japan and the Philippines to work on the farms. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 terminated employment of Chinese laborers and was what was known as the Òfirst major attempt to restrict the flow of workers coming to the U.S.Ó (para. 8). During and after the First World War, the U.S. saw a sharp decline in European immigration, indentured servitude died out, and farmers began bringing in Mexican laborers to fill the voidÑwhich would happen again during and after World War II. However, the Great Depression caused Mexicans to be seen as threats to U.S. jobs Ña perception which still remains today. In 1924, the U.S. established a formal Border Patrol program (Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC], 2013). This not only made it more difficult for Mexican workers to enter and leave the country freely, but some 500,000 people, including some U.S. citizens, were deported. In 1942, an agreement between Mexico and the U.S. known as the Bracero Program was approved. This program attempted to help farmers and landowners in the U.S. by providing them with laborers to help with harvesting crops in California. What started as a small project eventually turned into the fulfillment of nearly 4.5 million jobs by Mexican citizens (SPLC, 2013). The Bracero Program was abolished in 1964, but some of its provisions such as the H-2A worker visasÑalso know as the guest worker programÑremain today. In 1965, Congress introduced formal  10 limitations on the number of Mexican immigrantsÑan act that coincided with President JohnsonÕs War on Poverty.  Where the migrant farmworker population was made up of racially diverse individuals during and prior to the 1960s, the population has since become more homogenous and predominantly Latina/o (National Agricultural Workers Survey, FY 2011Ð2012). Reported numbers of migrant farmworkers in the U.S. vary depending on their legal status, the types of labor in which they participate, and even if farmworkers report or are reported by their employers at all. There are somewhere between one and three million migrant farmworkers in the country (NAWS, FY 2011Ð2012; National Center for Farmworker Health, 2012; U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2014). The U.S. Department of Labor has conducted an annual National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) since 1989, but only a limited amount of laborers actually participate; left out are laborers working with poultry, livestock and fishing. According to NAWS (FY 2011Ð2012), the population is Òpredominantly foreign born with 75% born in Mexico, 23% born in the U.S., [and] 2% born in Central American countriesÓ (NAWS, FY 2011Ð2012, Demographic Characteristics). The survey also found several other pertinent and factors: more than half of the population is under the age of 31; 79% are male; 58% are married but more than half are males who come here to work are away from their families; and, as mentioned before, 81% of farmworkers speak Spanish and nearly 60% of foreign born farmworkers cannot read or speak English. Only 35% responded as being able to speak some English. The government survey noted that while approximately 33% of the farmworker population are U.S. citizens, 48% are undocumented or lack legal work authorization. Depending on the source, the latter percentage can be as high as 70% (Serrano, 2012). However, undocumented farmworkers may fear participating in the NAWS and answering this question  11 honestly or at all could threaten their ability to stay and work in the U.S., and, thus, it should be no surprise that this number might vary from the true amount.  Working and living conditions are other pressing problems facing migrant farmworkers. According to Project NOMAD (2012), the work migrant farmworkers do translates to a $1.5 billion industry in Michigan alone. In terms of pay, NAWS reported that 83% of farmworkers are paid hourly and 11% by piece, meaning they are paid depending on how many baskets or items they can harvest in a day (ÒEarnings, Income and Public Assistance,Ó 2011Ð2012). Annually, individual farmworkers receive an annual total income of $10,000Ð12,499 while families earn approximately $15,000Ð17,499 annually. The federal poverty line in 2009 was just over $10,000 per individual and $22,000 respectively for families, meaning about 30% of migrant farmworkers live below the poverty line. Despite high levels of poverty, less than 43% of NAWS respondents reported receiving public assistance. In 2012, the National Center for Farmworker Health (NCFH) noted that Òalthough many farmworkers fit eligibility profiles for programs such as Medicaid and the Food Stamp program, very few were able to secure these benefits because of different state eligibility requirementsÓ (p. 2) like maintaining a permanent residence in one place for an extended period of time. Thus, the constant mobility of migrant farmworkers and the fear of self-reporting and being put in the system has created difficulty for this population to receive assistance from programs that would might otherwise benefit them and combat impoverished circumstances.  Beyond income and assistance, migrant farmworkers work strenuously long hours in extreme weather conditions, have little access to water and toilets in fields and are exposed to toxic pesticides (Hovey & MagaŒa, 2002; NAWS, FY 2011Ð2012). Sixteen percent of NAWS respondents reported that they had handled, mixed or distributed pesticides at some points during  12 the previous year (NAWS, FY 2011Ð2012, Pesticide Exposure and Pesticide Handling). A 2010 report from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2010) provided testimony from farmworkers describing the discrimination they faced to include: sex-based discrimination against women, sexual harassment, national origin discrimination and racial discrimination...reports of employers refusing jobs to U.S. citizens or to English-speakers, preferring instead to hire farmworkers who do not speak English and are thus believed to be less likely to know they have the right to be treated fairly or to complain about low wages or poor working conditions. (p.3)   In addition to such atrocities, migrant workers often live in employer-provided labor camps whose Òhousing and sanitation are often substandard and include one-room homes that lack water and toilet facilitiesÓ (Hovey & MagaŒa, p. 494). The MCRC (2010) noted terrible conditions in housing Òincluding structural defects, lack of clean running water, exposed wires, overcrowding, close proximity to fields (and pesticides) and poor sanitationÓ (p. 2Ð3). What is more troubling than these statistics is that child labor is common, and thus, children are exposed to these dangerous living and working conditions as well as their families. Although there are federal policies that attempt to prevent such living conditions, the report noted that such violations are not seen during inspections that usually occur during offseason.  Due to their mobile lives, health care for farmworkers and their families is lacking. P”rez-Escamilla, et. al. (2010) found that Òchildren of immigrant farm workers are at risk of the worst health outcomes and are more likely to be uninsuredÉ[and] are at even greater risk for not having access to health careÓ (p. 49). Due to their lack of health care access and exposure to  13 dangerous living and working conditions, the average life expectancy rate of a migrant farmworker is 49 years of age compared to the national average of 72 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Perhaps with increased educational opportunities and assistance with learning English, farmworkers might be able to gain more access to health care.  Lastly, and of extreme pertinence to this dissertation, is education. The NAWS results show on averageÑapproximately 40% of respondentsÑa seventh-grade education was the highest grade level completed by migrant farmworkers and only 28% completed high school. These results reflect current conditions of migrant farmworkers in the U.S., and it is evident that despite efforts from the government to assist migrant farmworkers and their children, there remains a dire need to improve living and working conditions for this population of people. As noted above, the results from NAWS show that there are several aspects of the migrant farmworker experience contributing to their current circumstances. Thus, this study confronts the question: what is the role of education policy in not only addressing but, more importantly, improving this collection of dire circumstances?  While there have been legislative attempts to protect migrant farmworkers regarding working and living conditions such as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act of 1983, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, present statistics show that these efforts have not come to fruition as living and working conditions remain dire as ever. This is in large part due to the low compensation farmers are paid for their products. The Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW, 2012)Ña human-rights based coalition founded by farmworkers in 1993Ñnoted that large corporations such as Publix, Kroger and even fast food chains such as Taco Bell who buy a large volume of produce Òleverag[e] [their] buying power to demand the lowest possible prices from its suppliers, in turn  14 exerting a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in these suppliersÕ operations (para. 5). Despite the fact that this dissertation focuses on policy as it relates specifically to migrant education, it is unrealistic to compartmentalize the lives of migrant farmworkers politically into subcategories such as health, housing, labor, income, education, amongst others, without seeing how they all play a role in a whole personÕs life. Although my focus in this study in on education, the statistics presented in this section highlight the need for holistic policy reform to address the multiple layers of injustice that face migrant farmworkers and their families.  Migrant Educational Policy  Migrant education legislation has remained to be an afterthought in the educational arena. This is still the case despite the fact that migrant students have been and remain the most underserved population of children in the U.S. educational community who live in poverty and suffer from interrupted educational experiences because of their parentsÕ need to move from one location to another in order to gain minimal wages and work and live in unsuitable and difficult conditions (Gouwens, 2001). Migrant children did not receive recognition until a year after the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) was passed, and for those whose native language was not English, they had to wait three additional years until they could possibly receive funding to aid in linguistic support through the Bilingual Education Act. Migrant students, and in particular emergent bilinguals, from the onset of educational policy were an afterthought in being provided with support needed to reach any standards set forth in education.          NCLB required that States create their own standards by which their students were to be measured. While this certainly follows the notion that states and local educational agencies should have control over schooling and curriculum, it does have its downfalls. Due to the  15 punitive aspects of NCLB, states who observed that their students were not living up to the educational state standards would lower the bar so that schools could make adequate yearly progress (AYP). This, in turn, meant that different states had extremely different standards from one another, therefore different curricula, different assessments and varying expectations of students and levels of support to help those who fell below the standard. For migrant students, this has created a range of problems. As Gouwens (2001) noted, these differences in curriculum and even the timeline of how material is presented result in Òmigrant children and youth often miss[ing] critical content and instructionÉleav[ing] gaps in schooling and can result in [their] failure to keep up with their age groups, andÉto accrue enough credits to graduateÓ (p. 14). Migrant students who move from state to state not only suffer from the disjointed education related to their mobility, but also see varying content within the same grade levels. They are possibly tested in one state despite learning material in another, and are expected to overcome these variations within the educational system with the disadvantages they enter schools with in the first place.          A shift has been taking place over the course of the last five years. In 2010, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) developed Common Core State Standards (CCSS). According to the CCSS Initiative, these standards are a Òstate-led effort that established a single set of standards for [K-12] in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adoptÉto ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enterÉtwo or four year college programs orÉthe workforce.Ó It is not clear yet how CCSS will affect the education of migrant students. On one hand, most of the nation has adopted these standards, thus creating consistency within what children are expected to have learned in school. However, there still has not been a curriculum to go with  16 those standards, and thus, differences between districts, schools and states still exist. Many claim that the standards laid out in CCSS are quite high-reaching. The rigor involved in CCSS to stress the development of higher-order thinking skills has potential benefits and drawbacks for migrant students. First, the fact that nearly all of the states have adopted these standards sets a new bar that could create some continuity of curricula between schools, districts, and states thus preventing the disjointed schooling that migrant students currently face. However, the robustness of the standards could put migrant students an even further step behind. Due to the already enormous gap that lies between migrant students and their more-privileged peers, one can only assume that without substantial support this gap will only grow exponentially. Furthermore, these CCSS standards are founded in English only. That is rather than providing emergent bilinguals with the tools needed to master the language, they are expected to learn through robust texts. Again, this detracts from the ability to practice and improve their native language as well as their English language skills. Migrant youthÑwho are already isolated from their peers both in terms of where they live and transitioning between schools throughout the yearÑthus have little opportunity to develop fluency and comprehension in English, are not provided with rationales or critical thinking skills to understand why they must develop such skills, and are denied any encouragement to maintain and develop linguistic skills in their home language. What is needed is to include a significant transitional period in CCSS to help students learn how to swim before throwing them in the deep end of the pool. Policy, as a cyclical process, addresses an issue, is implemented for a length of time, and then reviewed to determine its success. As seen with all past revisions of ESEA, the education of migrant youth never been put at the forefront despite this populationÕs unique needs and circumstances. If history teaches us anything, we will see within the next two years language coming from the CCSS organization  17 that specifically speaks to migrant students and how these standards can be used to best improve educational opportunities for migrant youth.   In conclusion, the needs of migrant students have been addressed by policy in retrospect. Thus, in order to put migrant students on equal footing with their non-transitional peers and with educational opportunities that are both rigorous and excellent, legislation must speak to several important aspects: migrant identification and recruitment, inter/intrastate record maintenance and upkeep, health, bilingual and English language support, and school-work credits. Furthermore, policymakers and migrant youth advocates must be in regular contact with one another to help foresee possible issues with upcoming policy changes or shifts in standards to include migrant youth in the conversation currently rather than as an afterthought. The next section will look specifically at the unique needs and circumstances of migrant youth to exemplify why such shifts in addressing policy is necessary.  Migrant Education  As previously mentioned, migrants are still one of the most overlooked populations in the United States. It was not until Thanksgiving evening in 1960 when Edward R. MurrowÕs documentary Harvest of Shame was aired that the public of the United States became aware of the circumstances under which migrants and their familiesÑthose who were responsible for furnishing their dining room tables with such bountiful foodsÑwere living. As a response to this national awareness, congress finally took action in the 1960s by implementing migrant health programs and educational reforms such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) in attempts to ameliorate the living and educational conditions of migrant farm workers and their families.   18  Specific legislation for migrant students came as an amendment to the ESEA in 1966 putting into place the Migrant Education ProgramÑa program that still exists. Under current reauthorizations of the ESEA, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NLCB), the law stated that it would help states design programs that assist migrant children Òovercome education disruption, cultural and language barriers, social isolationÉand other factors that inhibit the ability of such children to do well in school, and to prepare such children to make a successful transition to postsecondary education or employmentÓ (Vol. 20, Sec. 1301). Despite these education reforms, Wright (1995) noted that the national drop-outÑor better put, push-outÑrate of migrant students is about 50 percent (as cited in Pappamihiel, 2004, p. 23). Push-out is the more accurate term because as Toshalis (2015) noted, students undergo a Òlengthy process of being alienated, misunderstood, rejected, mislabeled, underserved, discriminated against, and stressed in schoolÓ and referring to this process as being pushed-out Òshifts the phenomenon from being a decision to being a progressionÓ (p. 165). This is particularly the case because migrant students can move anywhere from two to eight times within a given yearÑchanging schools or districts or even states with each move (personal communication, April 12, 2013). Pappamihiel (2004) noted that this mobility of migrant students Òmakes their educational needs uniquely national, preventing any one state from addressing these needs fullyÓ and Òproviding an adequate education for migrant students demands interdependence among states and education systems around the countryÓ (p. 14). Interdependence among states, however, does not exist, and thus, the mobility of migrant students juxtaposed with a lack of curriculum consistency between states let alone districts is bad news for migrant students. Green (2010) noted that Òmoving from place to place makes it difficult to attend school regularly, learn at grade level, accrue credits, and meet all graduate requirementsÓ (p. 51). Such mobility also makes it difficult to participate in social  19 events and Òcreate the social networks critical to social mobilityÉor receive the adult support most young people need academically, socially, psychologically, and emotionallyÓ (p. 51).  Researchers such as Cranston & Gringas (2003) have noted that such discrepancies cause teachers to view these youth as having learning deficits. Thus, they Òare often overlooked for special education services and fall behind their peers academically and sociallyÓ (as cited in Romanowski, 2003, p. 242).   A key aspect to educational success of all students is of course the educators  that interact with them. I use the word ÒinteractÓ rather than teach because, oftentimes, inspiration and growth can come from counselors or other teachers within the school atmosphere and not necessarily from those individuals working directly with students on a day-to-day basis. Tatto et.al. (2000) noted that the migrant students involved in their research study recalled that the most influential teachers   treated them as individuals, they asked questions more than just provided information, they modeled learning, encouraged them in their learning, paid attention to them while in the classroom, took the time to get to know them, made clear they had high expectations from them, gave each student individual attention, had or developed knowledge of Latino culture, understood their limitations and still pushed them to work hard and excel, and were culturally sensitive. These students made a strong plea Ôto be a part of the regular classroom and be treated fairly,Õ and they saw the teacher as responsible for establishing this climate. (p. 9)   20 Thus, a large part of the educational experiences of migrant youth, and particularly those who are Latino or speak more than one language, is largely dependent on the disposition of the teachers they encounter in the school atmosphere. Given that a super-majority of teachers in this country are white, middle-class womenÑreaching beyond 80% of the teaching populationÑit is likely that Latino, migrant youth will never come into contact with a teacher who has a mutual cultural understanding unless that teacher has gone out of her way to understand the cultural backgrounds of her students.   Research has been conducted about migrant education, its history and the need for implementing technology to assist in creating an information base to help keep migrant students on track (Branz-Spall & Wright, 2004). However, further research must be conducted to understand ways in which our schools can better assist migrant students as they move from place to place and not allow them to fall through the cracks. Considering that research has shown how migrant children are failing in public schools, I argue that more research should look at their educational lives in beyond school spaces. Thus, this study serves as an example of such research focusing on how a specific migrant program in Michigan has been productively serving the migrant population for thirty years. Such studies are  necessary for understanding how students learn and develop language and literacy in educational spaces beyond school considering that what they are learning in schools is interrupted, incomplete and happen in isolation. To better understand this isolation, I will later discuss the marginalization of a somewhat similar populationÑEnglish Language Learners (ELLs) or the term that I plan to use emergent bilingualÑwithin U.S. public schools. It must be noted that not all migrant children are emergent bilinguals, but for the purpose of this study, I looked at the way that all of my participantsÑwho were emergent bi- or multilingual individualsÑrelated their languages to  21 either feeling like they belonged or were marginalized from certain communities based on their language. Although many emergent bilinguals do not face the constant relocation of home bases as the children of migrant farm workers do, they do undergo similar experiences of getting used to a new school and place, cultural difference and social isolation. Mostly, they share with migrant youthÑspecifically those whose home language is not EnglishÑthe challenge of keeping up with school content and learning a second language and essentially way of life at the same time. Moreover, Latina/o and indigenous migrant youth and emergent bilinguals share common experiences of being racialized by dominant White society. Flores & Rosa (2015) developed this notional of raciolinguistic ideologies in that they Òproduce racialized speaking subjects who are constructed as linguistically deviant even when engaging in linguistic practices positioned as normative or innovative when produced by privileged white subjectsÓ (p. 150). Having skills in more than one languageÑwhich would be perceived as benevolent for White people of privilegeÑinstead are seen as deficiencies that allow for these students to be labeled as less than and require immediate reparative addressing. The next section will address how language and bilingualism has been understood in this nation by reviewing bilingual education and langauge policy.  Bilingual Education and Language Policy  Just as the legislation for educating migrant students was an afterthought to ESEA, so was bilingual education. Three years after ESEAÕs inception and two years after the starting of the MEP, the Bilingual Education Act (BEA) became a federal statute under Title VII of ESEA in 1968. The BEA was the first piece of federal legislation that supported bilingual education. Although the BEA did not define or require bilingual education, the act did offer funding to local school districts to encourage providing education for limited English proficiency (LEP) students  22 in their native languages. The funding came in the form of competitive grants and was to be used for the purchase of resources and materials as well as development of enriching bilingual programs. According to Leibowitz (1980), the BEA spurred the creation of dozens of bilingual programs to assist LEP education in local communities.    Since its induction in 1968, Congress over the years has made several amendments to the policy. The first amendment after becoming a federal statute was in 1974 in response to Supreme Court cases Lau v. Nichols and CasteŒeda v. Pickard. In the first case, although the BEA did not require bilingual education, the Supreme Court unanimously voted in favor of Lau in that the English-only curriculum of the district was unconstitutional and in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the Equal Educational Opportunities Act which prohibited discriminationÑincluding segregationÑagainst faculty, staff and students. As a result, the 1974 amendments changed the definition to students with limited English proficiency stating that all LEP students must have equal access to schooling and increased funding for Bilingual Education programs. CasteŒeda helped establish a Òlegal standard for meeting the needs of students whose first language was not EnglishÓ (Gouwens, 2001, p. 27). As Leibowitz (1980) noted, the 1974 and 1978 amendments Òexpanded the training component of the existing legislation requiring a fifteen percent set-aside of local bilingual education funding for in-service training,Ó (p. 31). Congress realized the need to eliminate such assumptions about teacher preparation and explicitly added such details to ensure proper training. The Improving AmericaÕs Schools Act of 1994 changed bilingual educational policy as well. One major theme recurring in the discussion around bilingual education was the amount of time a LEP student would spend receiving remediation. The time period question also brought light to a very important debate: the goal of the BEA. Varying interest groups fought for the  23 development of both English and the native language of the LEP students, whereas Congress, in attempts to keep costs down, felt the overarching goal was to help students become proficient in English as to not fall behind in school. In 1988 and prior to the passage of the 1994 ESEA reauthorization, Congress added a three-year cap to bilingual education programs. Congress assumed that language skills could be developed in three years. However, the National Research Council found that: It typically takes bilingually schooled LEP students 4 to 7 years to achieve the same on-grade level performance in English reading as students whose first language is English. In contrast, LEP students schooled only in English typically take 7 to 10 years to achieve the same on-grade level in English reading as students whose first language is English. (as cited in Osorio-OÕDea, 2001, p. 12) In response, Congress removed this cap, stating the importance of continued education in oneÕs native language thus promoting both equal access to education and the preservation of diverse languages and cultures. Interestingly enough, it was also during 1994 when cuts were made to the MEP, where those receiving services were capped at 3 years rather than the previously allotted 6 years, and transferring of records became dismantled and the responsibility was handed over to local agencies. Leibowitz (1980) noted that the BEA also had aspirations in providing LEP students with economic opportunities for it Òrepresented the hope that the traditional avenue in American societyÑeducationÑwould open the door to the disadvantaged non-English-speaking group,Ó (p. 22). In essence, many felt hopeful that the BEA, if successful, would not only provide LEP students with both equitable education and a chance for social mobility since possessing a credential such as bilingualism provides anybody with a competitive edge necessary  24 for getting ahead. While bilingual education was a door opener for many emergent bilinguals, of the three million labeled as LEP students, the BEA only provided support for 12 percent of these individuals (House Report, 1978). Thus, the BEA, although it jump-started bilingual programs and research, did not at any point provide equal access to education for all LEP students. At best, I would argue that the BEA provided a stepping-stone for policy makers and education reformers to collect data and lead bilingual education down the path to equality, or at least that was the case until the Bush administration. No Child Left Behind also changed the landscape for bilingual education. NCLBÕs Title III English Language and Acquisition Act replaced the Bilingual Education Act. Where the BEA embraced bilingualism and English language acquisition as its goals, NCLB focused on English only. The act completely removed the word ÒbilingualÓ from the law thus reinforcing English as the only goal of NCLB. By removing native language from the curriculum, I argue that we are preventing LEP students as well as English proficient students from achieving social mobility. In an age where bilingualism and multilingualism have a competitive advantage, policy should support the use of dual-language curriculum. In an attempt to make English acquisition more equitable, NCLB did increase funding by 50 percent and replaced competitive grants with formula grants. Funding under NCLB is now administered to each state based on their enrollments of English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrant students. While the money is reaching more students than the BEA, it provides each student with a significantly less amount of federal funding. While funding according to NCLB appears more equal, I argue that it is less equitable in the sense that students will not receive adequate language instruction due to decreased funding per capita.  25      Another aspect of NCLB was that the law calls for the implementation of evidence-based instruction. The law specifically stated that it would create a more equal educational opportunity for disadvantaged students by Òpromoting schoolwide reform and ensuring the access of children to effective, scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic contentÓ (PL 107Ð110, 1440). Ultimately, this means that instruction is supposed to be based on instruction that has proven to work under the guidelines of the scientific method. However, the act does not define who decides what is Òscientific,Ó (Crawford, 2002). Experts in the area of bilingual education, for example, claim that native- and dual-language programs are more productive than English-only curriculum, yet NCLB denied this by reinstating a three-year cap on English acquisition programs and removing the term ÒbilingualÓ from the entirety of Title III.      Although not all reauthorizations of the ESEA have found migrant and bilingual education to be on equal territory, it is clear that they have always been trailing behind the rest of those titled disadvantaged. Despite the fact that migrant children and emergent bilinguals have serious barriers that affect their educational opportunitiesÑbarriers such as mobility, poverty and languageÑtheir needs have always come as an afterthought. When it comes to the most recent reauthorization, it seems as though these youth were completely left out in the cold. Academic achievement testing has done nothing but create inequitable and inadequate educational experiences for migrant children and emergent bilingualsÑwho have little chances of doing as well as their more privileged counterparts without significant support. Although NCLB increased funding to Title III, it also eliminated all language in the legislation that referred to bilingual educationÑessentially, creating the invisible throne for the English language in the United States school system.   26 Language and Identity  Central to migrant youth I learned with at NOMADÕs understanding of themselves was at the intersection of language and identity. Blackledge & Creese (2008) noted that Òa ÔlanguageÕ held powerful connotations in terms of their sense of belonging and selfhoodÓ (p. 535). Even though all of the participants are fluent speakers of English, their ÒdifferentÓ version of English due to their Spanish speaking home settings and Mexican heritage forced them to distinguish their English from that of their American counterparts. May (2005) discussed how Òparticular languages clearly areÉimportant and constitutive factor of their individual, and at times, collectives identitiesÓ (as cited in Blackledge & Creese, 2008, p. 535). In turn, this lack of belonging caused her to resist and not participate in the school culture. Grenfell (2012) discussed the argument of Bourdieu and social reproduction as it occurs in education noting that while anyone can enter the schooling system, Òimplicitly is it clear that only those with a certain education, prior experience, and training stand any chance of passing itÓ and that this selective system is Òmore effective when it operates in a covert manner than if privilege of birth were asserted at the outsetÓ (p. 55). Thus, school as a reproductive institution that claims to provide equitable opportunities for all, but that is merely in the aspect that all students can enter into the institution itself but only the few will succeed. In addition to social reproduction, research has followed what Duff (2015) calls the Òpersonal histories, trajectories, aspirations, and mobility of transnationals [as] central themes in identity research that focuses on immigrantsÓ (p. 59). By utilizing these conceptual frameworks of language and identity, this study analyzes how such personal stories and mobility of migrant youth affect the way they identify themselves, where they feel they belong, and where they do not.   27  According to Verschueren (2012), Òideology is associated with underlying patterns of meaning, frames of interpretation, world-views, or forms of everything thinking and explanationÓ (p. 7). Moreover, such ideology is not static but what the author calls a Òsociocultural-cognitive phenomenonÓ (p. 8) and treated as commonsensical and normative. That is, ideologies are taken as truth when in fact that are socially constructed and should and could be critiqued. Lastly, scholars have argued that ideologies and involve power relations and forms of dominance. Specifically, Verscheuren (2012) discusses how Òone of the most visible manifestations of ideology is language use or discourse, which may reflect, construct, and/or maintain ideological patternsÓ (p. 17). Thus, the types of language we use or the how we speak are products of and uphold ideologies present in society. This notion of language use as a manifestation of ideology is ever present in the English monolingualism normed in U.S. society, and, in turn, this ideology has affected the way that other language in the U.S. is viewed. Ricento (2013) argued that: even though Spanish pre-dates the arrival of English on the North American continent, it has typically be taught as a ÔforeignÕ language in schools and in recent decades, efforts (many successful) have been made to outlaw or restrict bilingual English/Spanish education, restrict or rescind bilingual voting ballots, and to reduce or eliminate bilingual services in the public sector. (p. 529) Discussion of these language ideologies is a crucial piece to understanding how students perceive their membership to certain communities and not to others despite the fact that they speak more than one language.   28 English Language Learners and Emergent Bilinguals  For quite some time, teachers, educational policymakers and researchers have referred to students who speak a language other than English as Limited English Proficient (LEP) or English Language Learners (ELL). As Garc™a (2009) notes, these titles possess incredibly detrimental frameworks in which to view such students. By saying they are not proficient or that they are in the process of learning English, this framework highlights the notion that these students are lacking or missing something important that they need in order to be considered whole students. Garc™a (2009) utilizes, instead, the term emergent bilingual to refer to these groups of students and learners.  From this perspective, emergent bilingual Òmakes reference to a positive characteristicÉ[their] potential in developing their bilingualism; it does not suggest a limitation or a problem in comparison to those who speak EnglishÓ (p. 322). This term became exceptionally clear after spending my first day at Project NOMAD. Students were moving fluidly between Spanish and English or speaking English the entire time. They were not ELLsÑthey were emergent bilinguals. Immigrant students, particularly those who are emergent bilinguals, enter American schools and are expected to adjust to a new society, learn what their American counterparts are learning, and develop English language skills all at the same time. Research has shown that most schools and teachers, unfortunately, are not properly equipped to assist emergent bilinguals in this transition (Cummins, 1986; Gee, 2008; Olsen, 1997; Vald”s, 2001). Rather than helping them feel welcome in their new environment, schools often isolate immigrant students by physically removing students from classrooms with dominant American English-speaking students thus preventing emergent bilinguals from interacting with their American counterparts both socially and academically. Although not all migrant farmworkers and their families are immigrants, the high number of foreign-born migrants necessitates  29 discussion on the experiences of immigrants and, for the purpose of bilingualism as a central theme to this study, primarily those who are emergent bilinguals.  This systemic marginalization of emergent bilinguals limits their opportunities for authentic language and literacy practices. Limitations of practices, however, do not exist only in school classrooms but stem from a macro-level of educational politics that surround the acquisition of the English language. Policies such as NCLB require states to test emergent bilinguals in English, math and traditional literacy skills, the results of which determine results for students and schools. . The educational success of these students is then determined by a test rather than individual personal achievement and understanding (Turkan & DaSilva Iddings, 2012). Such pressure can have catastrophic effects on how emergent bilinguals develop their identities as students, as English speakers, and, members of society. Olsen (1997) notes that testing pressures and schoolsÕ expectations of emergent bilinguals leads immigrant students to believe that being an English-speaker will lead to high academic achievement, social success and ultimately their becoming American. After developing English-speaking skills, immigrant students soon discover that English is not enough to be accepted into American culture. As Flores & Rosa (2015) noted, ÒpeopleÕs linguistic practices can be stigmatized regardless of extent to which they approximate or correspond to standard formsÓ (p. 152). That is, immigrant studentsÕ racial positions in society play more into the evaluation of their linguistic abilities than do objective linguistic abilities.  Immigrant students must adopt a new racial identity according to a social construct native to the United States that probably did not exist in their countries of origin. As Olsen (1997) points out, Ò[f]or most immigrants, Americanization means leaving behind their fuller national, cultural, and language identities, and abandoning hope that others will see and accept them in their full humannessÓ (p. 11). This process of identity loss and false  30 gain puts immigrant youth in a difficult position as they form their own identities as individuals between their old and new homes.   According to the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), the number of emergent bilinguals in U.S. public schools is well over 5 millionÑa number that has increased by over 50% in over the last decade (OELA, 2011). This is a large amount of students whose educational needs must be attended to. Emergent bilinguals do not U.S. public schools as a blank slate but rather with a knowledge baseÑhowever basic it may beÑof their native tongue and cultural ways of lifeÑor what Gee (2008) calls, their primary Discourse. According to Gee (2008), oneÕs primary Discourse involves several aspects of being, behaving, dressing, acting, talking, dancing and sets up oneÕs foundational language and identity. As we mature, ourprimary Discourses can Òchange, hybridize with other Discourses, and they can even dieÓ as we acquire secondary Discourses Òwithin institutions that are part and parcel of wider communitiesÓ (p. 157). Emergent bilinguals, then, are expected to join a secondary DiscourseÑone that holds the need to acquire English on a pedestal. Whatever the method may beÑbilingual education, English as a Second Language programs or English-only schoolsÑschools are expected to both teach English and through teaching English provide students with better access to the school curriculum so they may remain on a level playing field with dominant American students. However, in order to do so emergent bilinguals find themselves in a quandary between their multiple Discourses having to decide what parts of themselves they want to maintain or lose in order to become more ÒAmerican.Ó   The perceived correlation from immigrants between acquisition of English and becoming American is quite common among immigrant students. Su⁄rez-Orozco & Su⁄rez-Orozco (2001) note that among their ELL participants, 99% admitted that learning English was important, and  31 ÒassimilationÓ encompassed Òlearning English, getting a good job, and settling downÓ (p. 50).  When studying students in a California school, Olsen (1997) found a common thread among her participants: Ò[t]he journey [newcomers] perceive they need to make to become ÒAmerican,Ó is to cross over into the English-speaking world and by taking that path, they believe they will become AmericansÓ (p. 38). However, this is not the case for immigrantsÑno matter their age. Along this journey, immigrantsÑincluding immigrant youthÑrealize that they must adopt a place in the racialized society of the U.S., and because of their cultural and linguistic variation from that of the dominant part of U.S. society, Olsen (1997) argues that immigrants find themselves Òundergo[ing] a complex baptism of racialization into subordinated positionsÓ (p. 39). Many immigrants do not necessarily come from multiethnic nations, and oneÕs identity does not involve categorizing oneself in a racial group such as Hispanic, Caucasian, African American and the like. In fact, Olsen (1997) discusses how Ònewcomers face tremendous pressures to adopt racial identities that limit themÓ because the racial categories that belong to the United States often consist of a single story that determines how one is viewed by others (p. 11). U.S. schools for the most part are already participating in the reproduction of stereotypes and social stratification, and, as Olsen (1997) outlines, immigrant students enter an institution Òengaged in a major process that includes slotting [immigrants] and others into their ÔproperÕ positions in a racial hierarchyÓ (p. 39). In turn, immigrant students are placed, without any decision on their own part, somewhere on the racial continuumÑa position that most likely conflicts with that of their native cultures and primary discourses.   As immigrant students locate their position in their U.S. public schools, they quickly realize the discomfort of and unwillingness to be accepted in these dominant American spaces, thus leaving emergent bilinguals socially marginalized. This often begins if and when emergent  32 bilinguals are pulled out of dominant classrooms in order to develop their English. Some students spend multiple hours a day in a solitary classroom devoted to English as a Second Language (ESL). While being in an ESL program is necessary for students to develop the language skills to succeed in other classes such as Chemistry or World History, emergent bilinguals are often forced to stay in their ESL classrooms with other non-native English-speaking students for multiple hours a day in lieu of taking elective courses that might be more engaging such as Civics or Sociology (Vald”s, 2001).   The physical separation by pulling out of these students generates a common association for dominant students and teachers of emergent bilinguals as having a disabilityÑthat they need extra help because they cannot succeed on their own. Such exclusion and presumptions prevent emergent bilinguals from spending time with and forming positive and productive relationships with native English-speakers (Li, 2012). Olsen (1997) discusses that the Òsocial dynamics of the school include many English-speaking kids rejecting, putting down, and freezing newcomers out of social involvement with the English-speaking social worldÓ (p. 92). This social exclusion is detrimental to emergent bilinguals in their language development and self-confidence in that they are losing out on authentic opportunities to engage in conversations with native English-speakers (Olsen, 1997; Li, 2012). Li (2012) notes that although emergent bilinguals can develop basic language skills in English, Òthe social isolation within the segregated school culture makes it impossible for them to find American teenage friends who can converse with them or help them with the new languageÓ (p. 313). Instead, these students find comfort in spending time with their fellow ESL colleagues in classrooms, cafeterias and even buses (Li, 2012; Olsen, 1997). Thus, emergent bilinguals are not only segregated from their American counterparts physically to attend a supplementary course in the English language, but they are academically isolated in that  33 they cannot participate in the generative coursework in which their dominant counterparts do, nor can emergent bilinguals engage with native English-speaking students socially.   The underlying motive for legislation that pushes for ESL programs is to provide students with the necessary language foundations to keep them up to par with their non-migrant American counterparts. Due to extreme focus on language form and function, emergent bilinguals are often provided with limited opportunities to discuss or appreciate their home cultures. There is a need for Ladson-BillingsÕ (1995) culturally relevant pedagogy which posits Òeffective pedagogical practice...that not only addresses student achievement but also helps students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuateÓ (p. 469). Paris (2012) took this step further in his concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy which Òrequires that [educators] support young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competenceÓ (p. 95). As emergent bilinguals are developing linguistic skills in multiple languages, it is vital that they are provided with not only the relevance and maintenance of their home cultures and languages but also be provided with educational experiences that empower them as well.  Rather, Olsen (1997) notes that immigrant youth often feel they have to lose a part of themselves by Òtaking off [their] turbansÓ, or as Gee (2008) would sayÑa part of their primary DiscourseÑin order to become American.  Gee (1990, 2008) describes Discourse (with a capital ÔDÕ) as not only written and oral language but Òdistinctive ways of acting, interacting, valuing, feeling, dressing, thinking, believing, with other peopleÉso as to enact specific socially recognizable identities engaged in specific socially recognizable activitiesÓ (p. 155). As immigrant youth find themselves entering and re-entering different discourses and learning the ways of being that belong with certain  34 discourses, immigrant youth are also developing and shaping their own identities as individuals. By being placed in a bilingual/ESL program, immigrant students enter the school as outsiders who are overtly removed from elective courses and placed in classroom situations for multiple hours a day in order to learn the tools necessary for survival in a dominant American school. This marginalization in turn has to affect how one learns, particularly how one views him/herself as a language learner and where one places him/herself within or outside of the local community. For this reason, again it is obvious why emergent bilinguals stick to social groups that consist of fellow immigrants. Su⁄rez-Orozco & Su⁄rez-Orozco (2001) state that it is no surprise that immigrants Òturn to each other for jobs, information about the new culture, and to share news and reminisce about the old countryÓ (p. 53). Many times, students in ESL classrooms do not share a common language except for English (Su⁄rez-Orozco & Su⁄rez-Orozco, 2001), and so their communication and sharing with one another rests in their second or third language: English. Again, we see here that the social isolation of emergent bilinguals further marginalizes them from participating in authentic and productive conversations and learning communities that can progress their skills in English speaking. This is not to say that immigrants cannot help each other learn English. But when a group of students who are labeled in need of assistance to develop their English skills communicate in English together, they are not necessarily participating in a discourse that will further their development. Learning a language is a learning process different from other types of content. Language learning is not the same as learning equations in Physics. That is, you can be surrounded by equations physically, visually, and audibly, and you might never learn the meaning of F=ma unless all of the concepts of that equation are explicitly explained. However, being immersed in a language will generally help you to learn that language.   35 Language, although key to community membership, does not alone encompass discourse; rather it is who you are and not just how you talk. Furthermore, Gee (1990, 2008) notes that to understand discourse involves Òrecognizing the ÔdanceÕÓ (p. 155). Let us pretend that academic and social success in high school were a dance competition, and this would mean that emergent bilinguals are taught the technical moves of the dance in their ESL courses. If emergent bilinguals are taught the major steps of the dance but do not understand the artistic components (wardrobe, attitude, rhythm, entertaining the audience, etc.), then I must ask, how will ELLs fit within the dancing community? Will they ever really master the dance? Lave & Wenger (1991) argue that learning is situated, and a cycle occurs where newcomers are apprenticed into the field by old-timers, and with time these new-timers move from Òlegitimate peripheral participationÓ to full participants in a social practice. These young people are searching for ways to express themselves, and they are doing so in multiple languages with people who may come from varying backgrounds. However, more often than not, these students are not doing so with native English-speakers.   There remains a need for emergent bilinguals to be brought in from the sidelines in order to fully participate in schools. The current state of education for emergent bilinguals includes marginalization and separation from their dominant American counterparts. Furthermore, the politics around testing prohibits emergent bilinguals from engaging in authentic learning experiences that have meaning in their lives. The lack of fluency in English for emergent bilinguals being seen as a disability needs to be flipped on its head, and these students should be encouraged to bring all of their linguistic capabilities and cultural funds of knowledge (Moll, et.al., 1992) to the forefront to assist them in being seen as whole people and not empty containers needing to be filled. In order to change this current situation, cultural models need to  36 be changed, and the ideas surrounding emergent bilinguals need to be repainted. Teachers cannot go on thinking that English as a structure and a form is more important than developing ideas and understanding concepts. Pre-service teachers need to be coached in order to reach emergent bilinguals in ways that promote their academic and social success. Dominant American students need to learn to understand the other as something intriguing and positive rather than the typical stereotype that painfully divides this nation.  Even though schools are heavily focused on testing, funding, AYP and teaching to the test, emergent bilinguals find and create ways to engage with their first, second and third languages outside of school. By harnessing such practices and bringing them to the school environment, emergent bilinguals would develop self-confidence in themselves by being able to participate in school activities that they understand and can speak to. With professional development and action-based research, perhaps soon our schools will not be places where emergent bilinguals are marginalized and fail but where they thrive and succeed both in school and in society. The next section will review research conducted on bilingualism and biliteracy to present frames in which educators can prevent this marginalization of emergent bilinguals.  Bilingualism and Biliteracy  This study focuses on how language inextricably tied to the identities of the migrant youth that I learned with in the space of Project NOMAD. All of the students that participated were either emergent bilinguals or multilinguals in Spanish, English, or an indigenous language of Mexico. As noted by Su⁄rez-Orozco & by Su⁄rez-Orozco (2001), although superficially, Òlanguage is about communication, it is also a marker of identity and an instrument of powerÓ (p. 135). Thus, a large part of the focus of my interviews and observations relied on studentsÕ linguistic transience. To comprehend the bilingual practices of these young people, I used what  37 Grosjean (1982) calls a holistic view of bilingualism where bilinguals are considered unique and utilize knowledge from both languages to build something more than two different languages. In other words, rather than viewing bilinguals as two beings in one (i.e. a Spanish speaker at some moments and an English speaker at others), bilinguals are whole beings where knowledge of more than one language constantly comes into play within the individualsÕ construction of knowledge.   Being bilingual is certainly a very attractive attribute within our global society, although this is not the case for all types of bilinguals. In systems like the U.S. educational system in a setting where there is a dominant language and beyond that a dominant type of English, when minority students are learning two languages, historically they have been seen as possessing a deficiency. English-only initiatives have been placed on schools in various parts of the U.S. following a subtractive form of education where emergent bilinguals are expected to focus on English and place minimal value on and essentially dismiss their native language and, in turn, culture as a result. Such practices are what Flores & Rosa (2015) consider to be Òstigmatizing and contribute to the reproduction of educational inequalityÓ (p. 150). On the other end of the spectrum, with additive approaches to bilingual education, the goal is to Òvalorize studentsÕ linguistic repertoires by positioning their skills in languages other than Standard English as valuable classroom assets to be built on rather than handicaps to be overcomeÓ (p. 153). This study showed how studentsÑbased on their experiences in home, various school settings, and society in generalÑviewed their own bilingualism, whether as an asset, a deficiency or both, and, in turn, speak to ways in which our schools can improve their teachersÕ preparedness to work with and promote students with linguistic diversity.   38  Language and literacy are very much woven together, and thus this study will use literacy, or in the case of these migrant youthÑbiliteracyÑto further engage and understand their bilingual practices. Although this study did not focus on the biliterate practices of migrant youth, the studentsÕ understanding of their own bilingualism or multilingualism highlighted the need to look at biliteracy as not just the acquisition and learning of two different language and cultural systems but also looking at what Reyes (2012) called the Òcomplex social and cultural forces that give language meaning and a personal an identity as a speaker of one or more languagesÓ (p. 309). As will be seen in the various chapters and implications for this study, programs that help studentsÕ develop their biliteracy or at least promote it can only be beneficialÑespecially students for whom English is not their native language. Haneda (2010) notes that there is not one single method to being or becoming literate in a second language, and that focusing on English-only for emergent bilinguals can cause potential damage in that it leads to their loss of the native language literacy. Thus, special attention was paid to the use of both English, Spanish, and indigenous languages of Mexico as these young people speak, read and write in this summer educational setting.   HornbergerÕs (1989) concept of biliteracy and bilingualism as sets of different continua is very important to this study. The notion that one is located in a continua of space somewhere between monolingual and bilingual, illiterate and literate, or literate and biliterate helped me to see how one engages and develops however slowly or quickly his or her biliteracy and bilingualism. Research has shown that Òconnections among bilingualism, bilingual education and development of biliteracy are still poorly understoodÓ (Grosjean, 2010). Bilingualism and biliteracy were important themes to the identities of these migrant youth, and this study is able to shed light on how there remains a need for spaces of emergent bilinguals and multilinguals like  39 Project NOMAD that promote the importance to practice and develop each and every one of the languages present in lives of these youth.  Beyond School Literacy Practices  Although Project NOMAD appeared to be every bit of a traditional school setting, it technically is not. It is a summer program providing supplementary educational and social experiences that took place in a school with certified teachers where students participated in a school schedule. However, the notion of beyond literacy practices is relevant to this study as the program provides traditional literacy practices in an beyond school setting. Despite the lack of qualitative data pertaining to these beyond practices for migrant children, there is a considerable amount of research that has been conducted on how emergent bilinguals have engaged in literacy practices out of school. Williams and Gregory (2001), who looked at the literacy practices of young children in a London Bangladeshi community, discussed how these children spent vast amounts of time in formal classes to learn the official language of Bengali and maintain the language of the old country. These students also participated in their Mosque to learn standard Arabic in QurÕanic classes. These children spent nearly as much time participating in literacy practices outside of school nearly as much time as they spent in school. In another study, DaSilva Iddings (2010) developed a welcome center for recent immigrants to build off of Moll, et al.Õs concept of funds of knowledge. In this welcome center, DaSilva Iddings (2010) created a Òsocial and instructional space where recent immigrant families in the school would come to trade a variety of expertise, meet each otherÓ and for these families to Òbecome acquainted with the U.S. educational system and with what their children were learning in school and hopefully to become active agents in their learning trajectoriesÓ (p. 307).  Rather than parents feeling the need to push for their children to focus on English, parents were encouraged to help their kids develop their  40 native tongue in addition to a second language. Parents and children were brought together to share recipes, stories and issues from their cultural backgrounds. By having students Òdraw on the knowledge and experience gained in their home countries to contribute to their group activities in practical waysÉ[and] through their participation, students gradually learn how to talk about what they are doing togetherÓ (p. 298).  Although DaSilva IddingsÕ (2010) study did not focus on students alone, it provided insight into how parents play a large role in the literacy development of their children just as much if not more than teachers and schools.  As students develop their own interests and identities and young people, many engage in personal literacy practices such as journaling, song-writing or even engaging in social networks (Li, 2012; Lam, 2000). Li (2012) discussed the online literacy practices of a young Thai girl named Yina. Although her feelings of marginalization took over after her arrival in the U.S., Yina was introduced to manga, a genre of Japanese anime texts. Through Fan Fiction with manga, Li (2012) stated that Òreading manga books online and offline encourage[d] Yina to speak more English and Draw, [and] it also improved her writingÓ (p. 314). Yina began writing stories of her own that related to her cultural identity. The author noted that Òsecond language learning is a dynamic social process that involves complex social relationships that learners form with others as they engage in literacy activitiesÓ (p. 315). Not only does family influence oneÕs language and literacy development but so do minority peer and virtual social networks. In the conclusion of this study, I argue that programs such as Project NOMADÑwho have some curricular leeway when it comes to literacy instructionÑcould utilize some less traditional literacy instruction to provide students with opportunities to develop and encourage literacy practices outside of the traditional school setting. Guti”rrez (2008) provided an example of such an opportunity with a four-week summer program that provided youth who lived on the grounds  41 for the duration of the program with a Òrich curriculum, dense with learning activity organized around sociocultural views of learning and development, a situated sociocritical literacy, and the related theoretical concept of Third SpaceÓ (p. 148). In this Third Space, students do not just participate in rote learning of literacy, but it is a Òparticular social environment of development...in which students begin to reconceive who they are and what they might be able to accomplish academically and beyondÓ (p. 148). Thus, it is a locale where through application of critical thinking are able to make sense of their own selves in relation to the power dynamics that exist within society, and develop the confidence and pride in understanding that they can achieve just as much if not more than their dominant and privileged peers for the individuals that they are rather than seeing themselves as needing to conform to that dominant culture within society. In this vision of the Third Space, teachers and students can collaborate to work towards empowerment and social change rather than focusing on acquiring a certain skill set that belongs to the dominant privileged part of society and is viewÑby themÑas most valuable. Through this method of teaching and learning, migrant students would be provided with opportunities that are empowering in the programmatic, social, and academic spaces of Project NOMAD.    42 CHAPTER TWO GETTING TO PROJECT NOMAD FRAMEWORKS, DESIGN, & METHODS   The work and learning that took place at Project NOMAD is a case study using ethnographic methods for data collection. Furthermore, this study explores and interprets the learning that took place at Project NOMADÑboth by the students and me as a researcherÑat the intersection of several different theoretical frameworks. First, the study addresses how migrant educational policy is written, interpreted, and implemented at the Federal level, the State level in Michigan, and the local level in Van Buren Township using JohnsonÕs (2009) ethnography of language policy, Ladson-BillingsÕs (1995) culturally relevant pedagogy, ParisÕs (2012) culturally sustaining pedagogy , and Moll, et.al.Õs (1992) funds of knowledge. The study then looks at the participants and how they self-identify through Garc™aÕs (2009) heteroglossic language ideologies and Flores & RosaÕs (2015) raciolinguistic ideologies. Finally, the last parts of this study analyze the curricular experiences of migrant youth at Project NOMAD in the forms of testing, math instruction, and literacy instruction utilizing the frameworks of ParisÕs (2012) culturally sustaining pedagogy, and Moll, et.al.Õs (1992) funds of knowledge. In this chapter, I will describe how this study was framed, designed, and conducted through a variety of qualitative research methods.  Theoretical Frameworks   This study focuses largely on the educational experiences of migrant youth. In order to gauge the positivity of such educational settings like Project NOMADÑa summer program devoted to migrant youthÑand a traditional school setting as well, it is vital to see to what extent these programs are providing what ParisÕs (2012) culturally sustaining pedagogies, and Moll, et.al.Õs (1992) called funds of knowledge. With culturally sustaining pedagogies, Paris & Alim  43 (2014) determined that Òthe goal of teaching and learning with youth of color [as] not ultimately to see how closely students could perform with White middle-class norms but to explore, honor, extend and problematize their heritage and community practicesÓ (p. 86). Previous resource pedagogies attempted to provide teachers and educational researchers with methods that combat the traditionally used deficit approaches but failed to provide the lasting goals of culturally relevant and responsive teaching. As Paris (2012) notes, culturally sustaining pedagogies took those resource pedagogies a step further by explicitly laying out what such relevant and responsive teaching should help students attainÑÒto perpetuate and fosterÑto sustainÑlinguistic, literate, and cultural pluralismÓ (p. 94). It is not just enough to utilize cultural nuances in educating young people, nor is it enough to teach marginalized students how to survive in dominant American culture. Rather, both are required. Culturally sustaining pedagogies then Òrequire that [teachers] support young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competenceÉsupporting multilingualism and multiculturalism in practice and perspectiveÓ (p. 95). Funds of knowledge is another resource pedagogy that rests on the premise that students come to the classroom with a type of cultural capital unique to their households and communities. Based on a collaborative project in Tuscon, AZ., Moll, et. al. (1992) were able to Òdevelop innovations in teaching that draw upon the knowledge and skills found in local householdsÉcapitalizing onÉresources...[to] organize classroom instruction that far exceeds in quality the rote-like instruction these children commonly encounter in schoolsÓ (p. 132). This requires educators to leave the classroom space and get to know the families and communities of their students, and then utilize what they learn about those communities and family practices in the classroom. The concept of funds of knowledge aligns with what Freire (1970) noted to be  44 that students are viewed as empty vessels that schools and educators need to fill with proper information and skills. Rather students come to the classroom with a range of skills and knowledge bases that must be capitalized on not only to better relate to students pedagogically but also to sustain and perpetuate their own cultural capital in order to both survive and thrive in dominant American society. While funds of knowledge focuses on the notion that students enter the school setting with their own sets of skills and knowledge, the concept does nothing to provide educators with clear ways to incorporate those funds of knowledge into the classroomÑrather it is just the notion that teachers should reach beyond the classroom setting to see what their students bring into their learning spaces. Furthermore, the concept of funds of knowledge does nothing to address how marginalized students can thrive in dominant American schools and society. Thus, funds of knowledge should be incorporated into educational settings in collaboration with culturally sustaining pedagogies in order to first relate to and sustain the community and cultural traditions of marginalized students but also to provide them with real ways that they can survive and thrive in dominant American schools and society. The frameworks of culturally sustaining pedagogies working together with funds of knowledge means that schools and educators have numerous ways to reach their students in real-life ways that tie education to their vast pools of knowledge and also to empower and sustain migrant youth culture and heritage. One example of this was the curricular choices that Ms. Stevenson gave to her students for their reading block. She knew that she wanted to have two major readings in addition to their required reading lists, and she provided the students with the opportunity to choose those texts. The first text was to be a choice from a Latina/o author, and the second was a selection from a more broad range of literature and authors. In the end, the students chose House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and the other was The Fault in Our  45 Stars by John Greene. While still giving the students agency to choose the books they wanted to engage with, Ms. Stevenson specifically provided them with one option to read about the Latina/o experience. This aligns with culturally sustaining pedagogies in that students were often able to connect to various vignettes throughout the story as well as the main character, EsperanzaÕs, viewpoint and way of speaking. Reading this text also provided students with an opportunity to view the Latina/o experience as different from their own as migrant youthÑsomething Esperanza was not. Rather than using subtractive pedagogical strategies and making these youth feel as though they are lacking certain aspects of normative life and knowledge, culturally sustaining pedagogy and funds of knowledge utilizes their life experiences and placing high value on their culture, and if education for migrant youth could take these forms, their educational experiences could provide opportunities of empowerment and not to make them feel like cultural outsidersÑan unfortunate educational experience for many racialized youth in this country.   Policy and how students are living out or experiencing policy in varying aspects of their lives has been addressed by the research conducted in the ethnography of language policy (Hornberger & Johnson, 2011; Johnson, 2009; McCarty, 2011). It is through this frame that policy is not something separate and overarching but rather Òa situated sociocultural process: the complex of practices, ideologies, attitudes and formal and informal mechanism that influence peopleÕs language choices in profound and pervasive everyday waysÓ (McCarty, 2011, p. xii). This is to say that although policy may have a written law that outlines its goals and strategies, how it is enacted by varying agentsÑin this instance from State leaders to administrators to teacher and then parents and studentsÑcan take many different forms. Further, policy is proven to be a living thing through the process of policy-making and implementation. Although policy  46 may begin at a macro-level (i.e. federal legislation), policy is then interpreted and appropriated at various levels beyond that including state and local levels as well as in individual classrooms. Because policy can and is interpreted differently by various agents, ethnography provides an opportunity to investigate and study how educational policy is lived out in spaces beyond the literal text. As Johnson (2009) notes, Òthe ethnography of language policy should include both critical analyses of local, state, and national policy texts and discourses as well as data collection on how such policy texts and discourses are interpreted and appropriated by agents in a local contextÓ (p. 142). Policy such as ESEA was created to provide educational support systems that would help fight poverty in this nation; once realized that an entire population of people were being ignored, that policy was amended to include migrant youth and the cycle continues to this day constantly struggling between advocates, educators and policymakers to find ways to resolve any gaps that occur. Despite amendments at the macro-level, such policy was still being interpreted and implemented at micro-levels by local agents in different ways to address the needs of migrant youth. Thus, despite the macro-level installation of a literal text to address the needs, local agents were already making use of such text to provide or not provide migrant youth with equitable and quality educational experiences given their unique schooling opportunities. I argue that the work done on the ethnography of language policyÑthat it is a living thingÑis not isolated to language along but exists in relation to all policyÑmany of those that affect migrant youth including educational policy, health care, labor rights, and human rights in general. As Levinson, et. al. (2009) note, policy can be seen as a social practice of power. The authors use the term appropriation Òas a form of creative interpretive practice necessarily engaged in by different people involved in the policy processÓ (p. 769), and they also highlight how policy is also appropriated by others in addition to policymakers in the form of teachers, students, and  47 administrators who Òin effect [make] new policy in situated locales and communities of practiceÓ (p. 769. That is to say that these nonauthorized policy actors play as important a role if not more important than their policymaking and legislative counterparts because it is they who inevitably use, react to, and hopefully resist written policy that is too broad to truly fit the needs of those, as RosaÑthe lead teacher of NOMADÑclaimed to be Òin the trenches. Thus, while this study utilizes the framework of ethnography on language policy, it aims to look at migrant educational policyÑwhich is not isolated to languageÑin order to provide a more holistic view of the migrant experience as it relates to policy. By using ethnographic tools such as in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document collection and analysis, this dissertation explores how local agents such as Project NOMAD and the educators within this program interpret and appropriate migrant educational policy as a local level, and how such interpretation may vary not only between one educator and another but then how those interpretations may play out differently from one classroom to another within the same building. By starting at the federal level of migrant educational policy, moving to the State, and then not just to NOMAD but to its teachers, classrooms, and students, this dissertation studies how policy is put into place at the macro-level, then lived out by these local actors, and how it impacts the educational experiences of the migrant youth within NOMAD, and in turn how the students identify themselves.   This study uses language, race, belonging, and curricular experiences as frameworks to see how migrant youth are engaging in their educational experiences. Language differences can either create spaces for cultural appreciation and diversity or barriers between students and teachers or administrators, thus causing a lack of cohesion or feeling of belonging in such settings. On the other hand, language similarities and/or appreciation (meaning a teacher or  48 administrator tries to connect regardless of language difference) can enhance relationships and in turn experiences with content, peers and the school community as a whole. This study also followed what Garc™a (2009) calls heteroglossic language ideologies where the norm shifts from a single, hierarchical language such as English persists to be in this country to a multilingual perspective. As Flores & Rosa (2015) note, this framework Òchallenges the idealized monolingualism of constructs such as Ôfirst languageÕ and Ôsecond languageÕ and argues for more dynamic language constructs that resist monolingual populations and their linguistic practicesÓ (p. 154). As will be shown through this study, studentsÕ experience an overarching rule of monolingualism in U.S. school settings. However, one purpose of this study is to highlight that these young people to use their bilingualism to resist such monoglossic language ideologies and lay the groundwork for assisting this nation to not only accept but uphold and sustain heteroglossic language ideologies. Upon using this framework, it is important to note that I leave behind the term ÒEnglish Language Learner.Ó Using this term invokes from the onset that English is a dominant language, and I want to focus on the development of these young peopleÕs bilingual practices. However, the term ELL is a highly used one in educational research, and to lay out the rationale for why I chose to focus on youth whose native language is other than English, it was important to include how this population struggles when it comes to education to no fault of their own but a deficit in the resources schools provide for these young peopleÑincluding the lack of training we provide teachers in teacher education programs. Thus, as I move forward, I will not use the term English Language Learner but utilize a more encompassing term that aligns with Garc™aÕs (2009) framework of heteroglossic language ideology. Therefore, I will refer to my participants as Òemergent bilingualsÓÑwhom Garc™a, et.al. (2008) describe as individuals who become bilingual and are able to function both in their  49 home settings and home language in addition to the language used in schools. I do this in order to set my aim on the notion that these young people are developing and utilizing more than one language to navigate the multiple settings that make up their lives and not frame the language use of these individuals from a deficit perspective. Using heteroglossia and emergent bilingualism as frames is not only about respecting the fact that these young people use and live in more than one language. These lenses are an essential part of the notion that languages are divided into different worlds from the onset, and then they are further divided or segregated in educational settings. In other words, the theories of heteroglossia and emergent bilinguslism are not just about challenging the deficit perspectives present in education or giving a new descriptive name to a certain population of students, but moreover about challenging how languages have been forced into separate entities in the first place, and thus creating such divisive bodies within educational and societal systems. .    Finally, this study uses the curricular experiences as seen through collections of student work, classroom observations, and interviews with students, teachers, and administrators to understand how students are experiencing policy at the local and classroom levels. These experiences are then analyzed through the frameworks of ParisÕs (2012) culturally sustaining pedagogies and Moll, et.al.Õs (1992) funds of knowledge, to provide evidence as to how Project NOMAD is providing empowering experiences for these youth. These frameworks also help this study provide critique as to how Project NOMAD as well as other migrant educational programs can provide empowering, critical, and culturally sustaining social, programmatic, and curricular experiences for migrant youth.     50 Research Questions  Considering the limited amount of academic research on the educational experiences of migrant youth and how they engage in language in educational settings as well as their home spaces in migrant camps, this study took the form of a descriptive case study in order to address the following research questions: 1) How are Latino migrant youth living out Migrant Education Policy in their everyday lives educationally, socially and linguistically?  2) What have their prior and current educational experiences consisted of or how do they describe such experiences?  3) In what ways, if any, are the educational experiences of these youth consisted with or not of the policies put in place to meet their needs? 4) How do migrant youth navigate the educational and social experiences via language (English, Spanish, heritage language, multi-/bi-lingualism) in the summer or traditional school program? 5) What role does citizenship/national/racial/ethnic/linguistic identities play in the educational and life experiences of Latino migrant youth? 6) How do the educational and life experiences of Latino migrant youth play into how these young people identify? My research questions changed as the circumstances of the study changed. Realizing I was not going to be able to visit the camps or traditional school settings, I adapted my questions to meet what it was that I was seeing there in Project NOMAD. In this sense, and as I will further discuss, this study truly followed CharmazÕs (2004) grounded theory approach.    51 Design and Methods: Gaining Access to Project NOMAD Van Buren Intermediate School DistrictÕs (VBISD) Project NOMAD (Needs and Objectives for Migrant Advancement and Development), the largest summer program in Michigan for migrant youth, has been functioning since 1976. In summer 2015, there were nearly 500 students enrolled in Project NOMADÑby far the highest amount of students in the state, and for that reason, the program receives the largest amount of funding. In 2015, Project NOMAD received twice as much as the second largest summer program, surpassing $1,000,000 in summer and supplemental allocations alone. Although the average number of students has been around 500 annually, the program has seen numbers reaching 600-700 in the recent past. NOMAD typically begins in the end of June shortly after the traditional Michigan academic year ends and lasts through the second week of August. Van Buren Intermediate School District covers a range of public area schools in 12 connected villages and cities in Van Buren County, named for Martin Van Buren before he became President. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Van Buren County had a population of 76, 258. The county seat is located in Paw Paw, the village just next to Lawrence, where NOMAD is located. The most prevalent racial and ethnic groups of Van Buren County are White (82.7%), Hispanic or Latino (10.2%), and Black or African American (3.9%). The county is filled with farmland harvesting blueberries, cucumbers, and apples to name just a few of the crops. NOMAD students come from various parts of the county to the summer program, sometimes spending upwards of two hours each way on the bus as drivers make their ways to various camps to pick up students. The village of Lawrence where NOMAD is located, essentially the center of the county, and according to the 2010 U.S. Census, had a population of 996 people, with 27.2% of the population being Hispanic or LatinoÑup nearly 10% since 2010. I visited NOMAD for seven of the eight weeks during which the  52 program takes place. Being a two-hour drive from my home, I was not able to visit every day of the week. However, I visited three days a weekÑMondays, Tuesdays, and FridaysÑwhich allowed me to spend 21 days at NOMAD. I spent one day with a small group of students and teachers at Michigan State University when the high school students attended a field trip to the campus. By attending the program two days in a row, I was able to see the transitions that happen on a day-to-day basis. It also provided the students and teachers that I worked with some consistency of my presence. I then returned home for two days to reflect on my visits and evaluate the progression of the study and fine-tune my questions and goals for upcoming visits. Returning on Friday allowed me to address these questions and goals.  Although my intention was to visit the camps where the youth and their families lived, I was only able to gain access to one of the migrant camps and speak to one family. This was a result of multiple factors: first, the program was concerned for my safety as a female, and asked that I only visit camps with their recruiters; second, many of the parents and families worked very late into the evening or even during the graveyard shift picking or working in factories. I had also planned on attending the traditional school settings that students attended in the fall after Project NOMAD had culminated. Unfortunately, most of my participants left Michigan before the school year had begun, and for the remaining three, schools were not responsive when I asked to visit. I chose Project NOMAD as my site for investigation for a few reasons. With the large influx of Latino migrant farmworkers and their families during peak harvest Michigan seasons, Project NOMAD provided a potential to shed light on the experiences of Latino and migrant youth in such a heavily White-populated county, especially for those students who attend local schools in Van Buren County when NOMAD has ended and the traditional academic year has begun. Secondly, I chose NOMAD because it is the largest program in Michigan, and it  53 has been up and running for over 40 years. When studying how policy impacts and forms programs or curricula for such schooling centers, it was important for me to see how a program who had its roots already set in the ground see how they needed to adapt to the policies that fund them. I was interested in studying how policy was being interpreted and appropriated at the local level, and I thought that a school center with as much recognition and history of providing guidance and assistance to migrant you and families as Project NOMAD had that this was the place to conduct my research.  The Youth I became nervous at the beginning of the program because I asked students if they wanted to participate in this study. Many were eager to say yes, and asked for consent and assent forms to take home. However, time kept passing by and forms were not being returned. Slowly, some forms started to come in, and I was able to develop a group of participants. However, the slow turnover of forms prevented me from being able to conduct as many interviews as I would have liked, and it also denied me the opportunity to focus on certain individuals in the classroom over others as I was not sure those first couple of week who would participate. During my time without any student participants, I gathered as much information as I could about the program. I spoke regularly with Rosa, Samuel, Ms. Stevenson, and Mr. Garc™a. Mr. Garc™a and I also spent a small amount of time planning together for a project that I proposed, and we also spent some more informal time talking in general about teaching and the students during lunch breaks in the office. Although I learned much from many youth in the program and from their teachers, seven individual students participated in this studyÑfive young men and two young women. Two young women participated in my study, Marta and Luc™a, and both twelve years old and in the same 6th grade class in Project NOMAD. The two hardly ever interacted in the  54 classroom space despite the fact that they unknowingly had a lot in common. Marta was born in a mining town in central Mexico with a population around 150,000 inhabitants. She came to the U.S., and directly to Michigan, sometime around the age of 4 or 5 as her parents pursued work as migrant farm workers on blueberry farms and apple orchards. Marta spends her summers and falls in two different Michigan cities (moving when apple season comes), and then moves with her family to Florida for the jalapeŒo and blueberry season down south. She has been attending Project NOMAD since she was 5 years old, and since then, she usually spends the first 3-6 weeks of the school year in a Michigan school and then returns to Florida for the remainder of the academic year. Marta is the older of two girls in her family, and none of her family members are U.S. citizens despite having been here for over 7 years. Marta is bilingual in Spanish and English, and she has aspirations of going to cosmetology school but is also planning to work once she turns 14 in the fields with her parents to earn money for herself.   Luc™a, on the other hand, was born in the state of Georgia, and thus she and her younger brother are U.S. citizens. Luc™aÕs mother and father moved to the U.S. in search of farm work before she was born, leaving Luc™aÕs older brother and sister back in Mexico to live with their grandparents. Her parents have continuously sent money back to their family and are currently putting their two eldest children through university in Mexico. Despite Luc™aÕs and her brotherÕs citizenship status, their parents are not citizens, and they have not returned to Mexico since leaving before Luc™aÕs birth in fear of not being able to return to the U.S. and continue supporting their family in Mexico financially. This also means that Luc™a has never actually met her older siblings in person. Luc™a, like Marta, spends her summers in Michigan where her parents work picking blueberries. Before the school year starts, her family moves to Florida where she starts school on time. Most years, her family moves to North Carolina for farm work,  55 and Luc™a does not finish the school year in Florida. Although she sometimes attends a summer school in North Carolina since the N.C. academic year is over when she arrives, she admitted to me in an interview that sometimes she just doesnÕt go to school at all. She then returns to Michigan for the blueberry harvest just before the summer program begins. She loves history and reading. Luc™a, also bilingual in Spanish and English, has dreams becoming an engineer or an architect when she grows up, and she plans on working in the fields with her parents in two years in order to save up for college.  Eduardo and RobertoÕs families were related in some way. Both were 12 years old, and in Mr. Garc™aÕs 6th grade class. Both young men spend their time in two states every year: Florida and Michigan. Normally, Roberto would leave as soon as NOMAD ended to return to Florida and Eduardo would stayÑstarting his academic year in Michigan or sometimes just missing the first couple weeks of school altogether. However, after speaking with EduardoÕs mother, she told me that he would return to Florida with his uncle and brothersÑleaving his parents and baby sister in Michigan to continue workingÑbefore the beginning of the school year this year in order to not miss any class. Initially, Eduardo told me in a one-on-one interview that he was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. from Veracruz, Mexico when he was 5 years old. However, during a group interview with Roberto, he told me that he was born in the U.S. but was not a U.S. citizen. Roberto was born in the State of Oaxaca of Mexico, and came to the U.S. at age 3. His younger brother was born in the U.S., and thus an American citizen. However, Roberto told me that no one else in his familyÑincluding himselfÑwere U.S. citizens. Both young men are emergent bilinguals in Spanish and English, and both said they could read in Spanish but could not write. Eduardo told me that he was in the process of learning ZapotecoÑthe indigenous language that his mother could speakÑand Roberto wanted to learn MixtecoÑthe indigenous  56 language of his mother. They both told me that their parents, despite knowing Zapoteco or Mixteco, spoke only in Spanish at home. Eduardo also told me in confidence that he had a difficult time writing and reading in English and Spanish because he was dyslexic. Both young men were very talented and had extremely rich personalities. Roberto said that he wants to grow up to become an engineer, and he loves soccerÑespecially Real Madrid. Eduardo was a Bar“a fan, and wanted to become a doctorÑperhaps a surgeonÑwhen he grows up because he wants to help people.   Adolfo was the first student to bring back a signed form. Adolfo came to the U.S. from Mexico (specific locale unknown) at age 3, and he spends his time between two states: Florida and Michigan, and an emergent bilingual in Spanish and English. Adolfo and his family are not U.S. citizens. He was one of seven children, and all nine of his family members lived in a one-bedroom trailer in the camps. Adolfo told me that he usually slept on the floor with his brothers letting his motherÑwho he said was suffering from some sort of illnessÑto have the bed. He seemed eager to work with me, and he was constantly coming up to me in Mr. Garc™aÕs classroom to ask me questions or show me his work. However, when we went to interview, he became extremely quiet, and seemed resistant to answer questions. I tried various ways to get him to open upÑchanging rooms, tables, or chairs to switch up the environment or asking him very broad questions like ÒTell me about what school is like for you.Ó Finding out that he loved to draw, I offered him the opportunity to use drawing as a way to express his experiences. He always seemed excited to leave class to talk to me, but then would clam up the moment we were alone. I even tried to conduct more informal interviews in his classroom, but the moment I began asking questions, he became unresponsive. For this reason, Adolfo, although my time was him was lovely, does not show up often in the interview data that I present in this study. Adolfo loves  57 artwork of all kinds, reading mystery books, and he wants to grow up to be an engineer. At the end of our time together, I gave him a mystery book and a drawing and painting kit as a thank you. His response was ÒI love this already! How did you know I would like this?Ó It provided me with a very warm feeling, and I am grateful to have been able to know him regardless of how much he appears in this study.  Two students from Ms. StevensonÕs class also participatedÑone 7th grader named Lu™s, and one 8th grader named Jos”. Lu™s was also an extremely shy person both in and outside of the classroom. Ms. Stevenson told me that he had some of the most academic potential in her 7th grade class. He was 14 years old, came from Mexico when he was 3 years old, and is not a U.S. citizen. He spends his time between Florida and Michigan, and he was an emergent bilingual in Mixteco and English. He did not speak Spanish at all. Unsure of what he wanted to become when he grew up, he knew that collegeÑhopefully MSU as he saidÑwas where he wanted to end up. Lu™sÕs shyness made it very difficult to get information about his identity and schooling experiences. However, I was able to use some of his work in the classroom as important data in this study. Jos”, on the other hand, was anything but shy. A vibrant young man of 14, Jos” was the most outgoing of my participants even though he did not agree to become a part of the study until after we got to spend time together at lunch during our MSU visit. He is fluent in Spanish and English, and although most of our interviews were in English, he was the only other participant apart from Marta who spoke with me often in Spanish as well as English. Jos” started at NOMAD when he was 5 years oldÑtwo years after he first came to Michigan from Guanajuato, Mexico. He said that in second grade, he could not attend the program because he was no longer eligible since his family did not move. He told me that since then his family moves every couple of years to another state in search of work so that he can attend the program  58 and receive the benefits of being identified as a migrant youth. Jos” also told me that he was considered a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) student, and was consistently in fear of not being able to pursue his dreams of becoming a sound engineer or receiving funding for higher education at his dream collegeÑMSUÑbecause of this. Jos” plays the saxophone and spends some of his time DJing with his father.   I chose to work with middle school-aged students because there was a significant drop off of students from 6th to 7th or 8th grade. Students can work in the field and factories with their family members at age 14Ñusually when students are in 7th or 8th grade. Thus, out of desire to help their families with income or to make money of their own, students often opt to spend their time working in the fields rather than in a summer school program. Rosa and Samuel made this point very clear the first day that I attended the program, and this notion was also voiced by several students during my classroom observations. Comments were made regularly in the 6th grade classroom that they would be Òpicking blueberriesÓ the next year, and 7th or 8th grade students would talk about when they were going to be able to work or wishing that they could work already. Also, the majority of the research done with migrant youth has focused on high school/college aged children or early elementary (personal communication, 4/3/2013). Essentially, the drive and ability to work for these students seemed to be a cause of the sudden drop in attendance for middle school students, and I desired to know what their schooling experiences and how they identified themselves as individuals may have impacted. This supplemented with the need for research on middle school-aged students inspired me to work with this group of young people.    59 Research Design  This study drew upon qualitative research methodology for an embedded case study (Yin, 2003; Stake, 2004; Paris, 2011). A case study was the relevant approach for this study because I asked what Yin (2003) calls a series of ÒhowÓ questions to purposefully Òcover contextual conditionsÑbelieving that they are highly pertinent to [this] phenomenon of studyÓ (p. 13). This study is what Stake (2004) calls Òa specific, unique, bounded systemÓ (p. 445)Ña case of emergent bilingual migrant youth as they experience and engage in education in a summer migrant program, how they experience policy as it reaches them at the local level, and how they identify themselves and understand their unique experiences as migrant youth. A single case study was necessary because this was a unique case needed to determine the specific nature of this situation and to better understand the experiences of these seven migrant youth both as migrant youth in particular through their time at Project NOMAD (Yin, 2009, p. 49). At its core, this study is what Paris (2011) called humanizing research in that my questions and my case Òinvolve dialogic consciousness-raising and the building of relationships of care and dignity for both researchers and participantsÓ  (p. 140). It is especially important that this case study followed this humanizing approach since I was working with Latina/o and indigenous migrant youthÑÒcommunities who are oppressed and marginalized by systems of inequality based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, and other social and cultural categoriesÓ (p. 140). Although this is a case of migrant youth, it is important to note that as Rogoff (2003) states, Ò[a]n observerÕs relative focus on one or the other aspect can be changed, but they do not exist apart from each otherÓ (p. 58). Thus, while this is a case of migrant youth, this study cannot ignore the policies that have put programs like Project NOMAD into place, the adults and peers who interact with these youth in this setting as well as their traditional schools, and the experiences these youth as  60 migrant. As Thomas (2011) noted, the subject of oneÕs case must be comprised of a Òpractical, historical unity,Ó and here, that would be the migrant youth (p. 513). Secondly, Thomas notes that this case must also include an analytical frame, unit of analysis, or a phenomenon through which I view my subject, and here that object takes the form of oneÕs experience of education as it may occur in traditional or beyond traditional school settings as well as through their formation of identity as a tool to navigate their understanding of these varying spaces, their perception of the world around them, and dominant U.S. societyÕs perception of who they are as well. Thus, the unit of analysis for this study is the experiences that these students undergo in this specific summer school setting in Michigan.    A central goal of this project is to describe the educational settings in how these migrant youth participate in these unique educational settings for the extensive simple need to understand this engagement their engagement in such schools. My case was then what Stake (2004) considers an Òintrinsic case studyÓ in that its goal is to get a Òfirst and lastÉbetter understanding of this particular caseÓ or to get a clear picture of the dynamics specific to this bounded study (p. 445). Thus, this project took the form of a descriptive case study in which I gained insight into the types of opportunities these youth receive for promoting and developing their educational experiences, and how they make sense of their own selves as migrant youth. In turn, this case study led to insight into how educational policies can better attend to the needs of migrant farm workers and to provide equitable educational environments for migrant youth. Again, this study utilizes what Paris (2011) called humanizing research in that Òthe researcherÕs efforts must coincide with the studentsÕ to engage in critical thinking about the problems and issues of interest as both the researcher and participants seek mutual humanization through understandingÓ (p. 137). By including this specific space dedicated to migrant students, interviews with  61 advocates for migrant youth, and the use of language as a navigational tool and source of cultural capital, this study could lead to the need for more holistic changes to address the lives of migrant youth and migrant farmworkers to ensure that their human rights are not being violated as they historically have been.  Methods  For this study, I followed what Bloome and Green (1996) call Òusing ethnographic toolsÓ in that I utilized methods such as participant observation, open-ended interviews, student work, and field notes. This study followed in CharmazÕs (2004) grounded theory method to analyze data which Òstresses discovery and theory development rather than logical deductive reasoning which relies on prior theoretical frameworksÓ where Òdata collection and analysis proceed simultaneously...and shape their data collection from their analytic interpretations and discoveries, and therefore, sharpen their observationsÓ (p. 110). Due to the lack of scholarship on migrant youth and their experiences with identity and in summer migrant programs like NOMAD, this study added to the field in that the data collection and analysis happened at the same time, allowing me to discover areas of the research design and my analysis that deserved or needed more attention than others. For example, the proposal for this study initially aimed at focusing largely on student language, but as I was at the site itself, I realized that the focus needed to shift towards students experiences of the program and the policy in place that drove the program and its implementation of curricula. Thus, as I was knee deep in data, I was rediscovering where and how I needed to collect data. Project NOMAD took place over an eight-week period, although I was only there for seven of those weeks.    62 Participant Observation  I was a participant observer in that I was first, a volunteer assistant in any way possible for this program, and second, observing as a researcher. I spent the majority of my time in the classrooms of two teachersÑthe 6th grade teacher, Mr. Garc™a, and the 7th & 8th grade teacher, Ms. Stevenson. Each day that I was at NOMAD, I attended the 7th grade reading block, the 8th grade writing block, and the 6th grade reading and writing blocks. I also attended a couple of the culture classes that happened on Mondays. Unfortunately, this partially overlapped with the 8th grade writing block. In the end, I completed 87 classroom observations totaling almost 80 hours of observations in the classroom. Both teachers allowed me to participate in their classroom spaces, and Mr. Garc™a even allowed me to help with co-planning and co-teaching a project in his classroom. Mr. Garc™a is from a major U.S. Midwestern city, and his grandfather was a migrant farmworker. He spent several years as a teacher assistant at Project NOMAD while in the last years of high school and during college while studying to become a certified teacher. At the time we worked together, he had been a certified Spanish language teacher for a few years in a town not far from NOMAD. Mr. Garc™a identified himself as a Latino whose heritage was from Mexico. In addition to Mr. Garc™a, I worked with Ms. Stevenson. She identified as a Caucasian woman who had just finished her first year as a certified Spanish language and ESL teacher. Ms. Stevenson had been working as a Teacher Aide for NOMAD since summer 2011. She noted that she Òlove[s] working with migrant youth. They have so much to share from life experiences, are generally hard workers, and have high hopes for their futuresÓ (personal communication, 3/11/16). In Ms. StevensonÕs classroom, I began as an observer, and as the class felt more comfortable with my presence, I began to participate more often by contributing to discussions of reading and helping students with their definitions and writing. Those contributions were more  63 welcomed after several moments when I volunteered to read the current passage of the day out loud. Since there were usually 3-7 students in her classroom any given day, my ability to participate did not feel as needed or natural as it did in Mr. Garc™aÕs classroom where class size was regularly over 20 students, and I had more opportunities to help the teacher and the aides with providing support to students. I helped students in crafting arguments and writing for their persuasive essays, choosing readings or providing clarification when students were not sure of how to answer the questions to reading passages. I took full lead of two class sessions: the first day of the activist project (described below) and the mystery reading. Apart from that, I wanted to support Mr. Garc™a in his classroom and not confuse students as to who was running the class. Thus, the majority of my participant observation in his room took the form of working with one or two students at a time at their desks rather than a head of the classroom type of figure. I also think that this approach allowed the students to see me as an individual rather than see me as an authority figure which I believe truly allowed students to provide me with honest responses in interviews when talking about their experiences in his class and the program (Paris, 2011).   When I was not in the classrooms, I spent my time in the office either typing up field notes or volunteering as a reading assessment proctorÑgiving me even more time to observe other aspects of the program outside of the classroom space. These experiences included assessments, constant supervision or attendance to ensure safe travels of students to and from NOMAD from their camps on the buses, disciplinary action, and witness to and participation in many conversations about the program or education itself. While outside of the classrooms, I spent time with some of the program administratorsÑin particular, Rosa and Samuel. Siblings, the two were children of migrant farmworkers, and spent time in the fields themselves in their youth. Rosa and Samuel, in addition to their other siblings, were all students at one point at  64 Project NOMAD. Wanting to make the most of their future, they both admitted that they continued to assist the program as Teacher Aides after high school. Both pursued college degrees and teaching certificates. After becoming certified, they both worked as teachers not only in local traditional school settings but also at NOMAD. After several years of teaching the kindergarten level, Rosa became the lead teacher of NOMADÑessentially a lead administrator after the program director. Samuel also became an administrator focusing on student relations, testing, placements, and other administrative aspects of the program. As a participant observer, I spent time in the administrative office working directly and indirectly with these two along with their colleagues as they performed the work necessary to run the NOMAD program. Every day, Rosa would receive tallies from bus drivers to note how many students came with them, and then attendance would be taken in classrooms, and tallies again taken at the end of the day to ensure that all students were accounted for. This was especially important because many families and parents would be unreachable during school hours due to work, and thus the responsibility was left on NOMAD to be held accountable for all children and youth participating in the program. Administration was also accountable for providing teachers and students with necessary materials such as books, notebooks, writing utensils, amongst other items. A decent part of the administrationÕs time was spent mostly on accountability and testing but also on distributing necessary items to classrooms and students in order to meet their goals as a program.  Field Notes  I took copious field notes to provide Òthick descriptionÓ of my observations to Òdraw large conclusions from the small, but very densely textured facts; to support broad assertions about the role of culture in the construction of collective life by engaging them exactly with complex specificsÓ (Geertz, 1973, p. 28). Due to the young ages of the youth with whom I  65 worked, I was prepared for the chance that these interviews would take the form of more informal discussions as I worked with them. With the one family that I interviewed, I conducted an open-ended unstructured interviews with one family to create a more authentic and less formal discussion to develop the relationships necessary to really learn about the home life of these young people and their families.  Interviews  When conducting interviews, I kept in mind that in order to develop deep and meaningful relationships to understand the true experiences of these young people, it is vital that I remain open myselfÑnot keeping myself totally neutral and detached. This means that although I was observing as an outsider, I hope that these young people understood my motives for watching and talking to them, and, in turn, the results will be affected by my participation regardless of the way in which I interact with the subjects. Thus, in order to develop more wholesome and humanizing relationships with the subjects of this study and accompanying members such as teachers and families, it is vital for me to share my own self and history with these participants. Thus, as Paris (2011) notes, by Òthis sharing of self in dialogic processÉ[can lead] youth to share themselves in more genuine and honest waysÉ[leading] to richer and truer data than the model of the somewhat detached, neutral researcherÓ that previous qualitative research methods have beckoned in previous years (p. 139).  All interviews were conducted in English even after offering individuals the opportunity to choose between Spanish and English. I first interviewed the administrators and director of Project NOMAD teachers who participate in the summer school to understand exactly how teachers prepare to work with migrant students. These interviews helped me understand the curricular goals of the program and determine how I was able to participate in the program. I  66 spoke more informally with the two teachers on a regular basis. I had asked to do more formal interviews to which they both agreed. However, scheduling these meetings became very difficult. In the end, I conducted a formal interview with Ms. Stevenson via email, and Mr. Garc™a never responded to various emails I sent since.  I conducted at least two interviews with each of the students. I interviewed Marta and Luc™a three times each, and I conducted two interviews each with Roberto and Eduardo and then one joint interview. I also attempted to interview Adolfo three times but was never able to help him open up to me. This study then used data from 23 formal interviews with students and faculty. It should be noted that I also made several attempts to interview someone from the Michigan Migrant Education Program. Requests were for questions and my dissertation proposal, and after sending those along with several follow-up emails, the department did not respond to my questions or attempts.  Collection of Student Documents, Work, and Program Details  I also collected work from students by taking photographs of completed assignments to better understand the various types of curricular experiences taking place in this program. Furthermore, I was curious to understand how students were engaging with these assignments, so in addition to my observations and field notes, I took pictures of students as they worked of their body language, facial gestures, and vocal cues to help remind me. I also took several pictures on my phone of the classroom walls, white boards, and setup of materials to show the instantiated as well as the null curriculum students were experiencing in this space as well.  Data Analysis  Following Glaser & Strauss (1967), analysis commenced as soon as I began collecting data. To analyze my data, I utilized tools of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2004) to Òshape [my]  67 data collection from [my] analytic interpretations and discoveries, and therefore, sharpen [my] observationsÓ to Òstrengthen both the quality of data and the ideas developed from itÓ (p. 110). In an attempt to maintain organization throughout data collection, I maintained two notebooks and would go through these weekly to develop codes through what Corbin and Strauss (2008) call continual comparative analysisÑone for notes that fed into my field notes, and another notebook that helped streamline what I was seeing with existing research or remaining questions. Critical discourse analysis was utilized to analyze any data on language in that I took a particular interest in the power relations that involved what Hodges, et.al, (2008) refer to as examining Òtext and the social uses of language but also the study of the ways in which the very existence of specific institutions and of roles for individuals to play are made possible by ways of thinking and speakingÓ (p. 337). Thus, as I analyzed the data on language, I was not only looking at what individuals were saying or written text itself, but I was consistently interpreting those experiences to consider the larger social practices and institution that play a role in that language. By analyzing the pedagogical practices that the teachers were appropriating in their classrooms, the products students were creating, the way students then spoke about their educational experiences there and in other school settings, and finally using policy at multiple levels to make sense of how students were living out policy-impacted educational experiences, I outline how the experiences of these youth in school settingsÑin particular, this summer school settingÑimpacted their sense of selves, and how they experience education.  Significance  The limited amount of research conducted on the educational experiences of migrant studentsÑin Michigan particularlyÑallowed this study to shed light on the different ways in which one specific program, Project NOMAD, is providing migrant children with empowering  68 learning experiences. Considering that most of the research conducted focuses on in-school experiences, this project aims to illuminate what is or what could be happening beyond traditional educational spaces such as summer programs. Also, much of the public school teaching force is unaware of or does not understand the daily life experiences of migrant children (personal communication, April 12, 2013). Thus, the findings from this study might be able to provide teachers with insight into how they can work within policy constraints to create the curricular support that migrant students need in order to not just overcome academic achievement gaps but to empower them as well. Furthermore, moving from camp to camp is an entirely normal part of life for these children. Thus, part of my goal is to make sense as an educator and teacher educator who had never experienced what these children undergo as they move about the state, region or country about how we can make attempts to learn more about the experiences of these children and in turn create more equitable learning environments for the children of migrant farmworkers. By looking at how the educational and life experiences impact the way that migrant youth self-identify or how they envision that they are identified by dominant White America, this study also highlights the need for providing these youth with empowering educational and curricular experiences that hold up their unique identities and provide them with the space to think more critically about and challenge existing social inequities instead of only helping them catch up to their non-migrant privileged peers.  Positionality  As a White woman with many unearned privileges, I have had to keep my perceptions and analysis in check throughout this entire process. I have chosen to work with youth who are emergent bilinguals as I am bilingual myself. As a White U.S. citizen, being able to speak more than one language is viewed as a positive attribute and not something that needs to be fixed.  69 Being a member of a multilingual/multinational/multicultural family and having a daughter two years of age already developing her bilingualism and another child on the way, I am already seeing how FrancescaÕs ability to understand or speak more than one language is seen as something really powerful. Despite her fatherÕs darker attributes, Francesca has the same skin tone, hair color, and U.S. accent as I do, and her English will never be marked. My husband speaks, reads, and writes three languages fluently, yet has still experienced being othered because of his accent as a non-native English speaker. Although these young people understood that their bilingualism was powerful, they have come to view their English as not good enoughÑa message coming to them from many different angles whether it be teachers, policy, or people they encounter in their everyday lives because of the way that dominant American society racializes these young people for being Brown and migrant.  I am also aware that within the Spanish-speaking world, there are variations within the Spanish language as well as certain connotations that come with a certain accent or form of speaking. Although my formal education in the Spanish language involved learning how people from different parts of the world speakÑincluding Mexico, Central and South America or Spain, my practical experience and thus my vocabulary and accent are Castellano Spanish. Through personal experience working with South and Central Americans, I have come to learn that Castellano is a version of Spanish that carries a connotation of being more correct due to the fact that the origins of Spanish in fact come from Spain. So, I must remain aware that although my Spanish-speaking ability could help me gain access to children and familiesÕ experiences, my particular language skills could also serve as a barrier.  An additional layer to this study is my position as an outsider within this community that could serve as both negatively and positively to my study. My own experiences and  70 interpretations have led me to view the lived experiences of these children to be interrupted and not comparable to my own.  My lack of personal familiarity with the migrant experience certainly impacted the lens through which I approached the situation, but it allowed for me to better understand how I need to analyze the data. Because I was not a migrant myself, I was able to pick up on subtle nuances of the migrant experience that members of this community might understand as their own version of normal and not necessarily as unique to the migrant farmworker family. Furthermore, I was aware that my positionality as a White female and U.S. citizen potentially had its limitations in that I am an outsider trying to gain access into the lives of othersÑin this case, Latino migrant children. For example, had I not been a White woman, I might have been able to gain more access to the campos without the supervision of recruiters. However, I believe that with my experience as an elementary teacher and my Spanish language skills, I was able to bridge some of our cultural differences to gain access into the experiences of these young people as they experienced this summer migrant program. Again, although trying to keep my positionality in check, my lived experiences as a person of privilege affects the way that I interpret the experiences of these young people regardless of whether or not I was able to gain access to certain people or places.   Lastly, I spent three years living in southern Spain as a teacher of bilingual Arts and Science and English as a foreign language in two elementary schools. Almer™a, Spain has a large immigrant population coming from various parts of the world including Russia, China, Romania and northern African countries. During my time as an immigrant in this place, I experienced what it meant to be the ÒOther.Ó There was a consistent feeling of not belonging and being treated differently due to my fair skin and light hair. Although I said things correctly in Spanish, waiters and shop owners would immediately dismiss me for my accent. As time went by, I made  71 concerted efforts to submerse myself into Andaluc™an culture and developed strong relationships with community members. While I had gained a sort of access to the community with the help of my positionality as a teacher in the local public school and my partner, JavierÑa cultural insiderÑI still felt a sense of not belonging entirely as an accepted member of the local setting. My experiences to voluntarily move to Spain to gain some sort of linguistic and cultural education does not even come close to comparing the migration experiences of the Latino young people I learned with in my study. I chose to leave, where these young people not just moved once but move several times a year with their families involuntarily to financially survive. As well, they and their families were constantly racialized within a system that devalued them linguistically, culturally, and racially.  However, having some of the experiences as a cultural insider/outsider and understanding feelings of belonging and not belonging to a local community will provide me with a deeper sense of understanding of the migrant youthsÕ experiences as they interact in various settings within the community of Van Buren Township. Limitations  First, my personal understanding of migrant farm workers and their familiesÑalthough heightenedÑis still quite limited. There will never be anyway for me to understand fully what it means to be migrant, but I have come to accept this. I am not migrant. These students are, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. The migrant youth I worked with were proud of their families and proud of their heritage. Thus, while I was able to talk with these individuals and work with this for seven weeks, my study is limited to my own interpretations of their experiences as a woman with unearned privileges for the color of my skin which is why I attempt to remove myself and interpretations as much as possible from this study and let the studentsÕ experiences speak for themselves through the things they said or did. I was aware that through collecting data, I needed  72 to keep an open-mind in order to let the students and their experiences drive this study. Most of the adult individuals in this study asked me to use their real names and institutions to highlight what programs like Project NOMAD are doingÑbecause the work this study is putting forth deserves and needs recognition and not concealment. Thus, I do hope that what this study did find is significant in helping empower migrant youth in anyway possible.      73   VIGNETTE ÒTHAT PIECE OF PAPER WAS WORTHLESSÑIN THAT WORLD.Ó    I arrived at Wilson Hall a little early to stop in and say hello to some of the individuals I had met at the Interagency Migrant Services Committee Annual Meeting a few months before. The studentsÑwho were riding in a bus from Van Buren TownshipÑwere running a bit late, so I was able to stop and talk for a bit with the associate director of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) at Michigan State University, El™as. Once the students arrived, we all went to greet them downstairs in the very impressive Wilson Hall common area. Large screen TVs, a room with a pool table, new furniture, and modern d”cor. It was barely 9 A.M. but it was already a hot day, and the common area was quite warm on this July morning. Many of the students were slumped in their seats or resting their heads on tables. It had been a long morning for them alreadyÑriding the bus from their camps to Project NOMAD, and then another long bus ride from NOMAD to MSUÕs campus. Some, however, were looking around with their eyes wide openÑappearing impressed by their surroundings. El™as and a CAMP recruiter introduced themselves, and invited the students to a classroom. After a quick introduction, El™as began talking to the group.  El™as asked the students, What does the migrant program do for you? One student quietly said, It helps us. El™as continued: It helps you out. What kind of help do you get? Math, reading, academics. They help you with academics. Make sure you get caught up or so that you know what youÕre doingÑthe routines that you have to be in when youÕre in school. What else do they help you with? Quietly, another student responded: College. El™as repeated: College? Thinking about other opportunities, options, college, career-planning, getting ready for that next step  74 whatever that next step is going to be. For some of you, itÕll be a job. TheyÕll hire you in. YouÕll come and help out for the summer as a teacher aide or a volunteer. Whatever. That next phase. What else do they do for youÑduring the school year or during the summer? Unsure of himself, one student questioned his answer: Money loans? Learn how you can borrow money? El™as confirmed his response: If youÕre in a pinch, and youÕre having financial issues, they might point you to the right resource or maybe be able to provide you with a grant. I see other things, too. The food, the backpacks. So itÕs not just always money, but itÕs providing you with stuff to be able to compete with everybody else. To be in a better situation. What about that back row? What else does the migrant program do for us? Think about your own experiences, your friends, your family. What have they done for you? It might not be the migrant program you are in, but overallÑmigrant programs, advocacy groups, programs that exist out there to help you. Is there anything else that weÕre missing? Silence fell over the room. Are we out of ideas now? Jos” joined in: Networking.  Whether it was just too early or the heat or intimidation of being in this new space, students were hesitant to participate. El™as continued: At the end of the day, we can all agree that they help us to some degree. To be in a better situation. Right? ThatÕs what we are here. The only difference is that we are in a college setting. How many of you want to go to college someday? Most of the students raised their hands, but not all that highÑjust as the 6th graders had when Mr. Mart™nez came in to talk to them. Maybe not here, but at least somewhere. That is great. IÕm a bit biased because I have been an alumni at Michigan State twice, right? And now, I work here. So I am a proud Spartan. IÕm not a big basketball fan or football fan, but I watch the games because IÕm a Spartan. ThatÕs what I am and who I turned out to be.   75  I could not help but laugh because I was the same. I was working on my second degree through Michigan State. I was never a huge basketball or football fan either, but I always watched the MSU games. If MSU lost during March Madness, I stopped watching the tournament altogether because I only cared about my fellow Spartans. El™as continued: Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I wasnÕt really a good student. I grew up a migrant. IÕve been a migrant since the day I was born. I was a migrant. I didnÕt know anything else. To me, my whole world was migrants. I didnÕt know there were any other kinds of people. Where I lived, in Texas, my entire colonia where I grew upÑthey were all migrants! So, right around April, se iban todos, and I went, too. The goal was always Michigan. We didnÕt always make it to Michigan, but that was always the goal. Then, when we would make it to Michigan, guess where I lived? In a migrant camp. So, everybody around me was a migrant. I lived in this migrant bubble. I didnÕt know anybody else that wasnÕt a migrant. Even though I was really poor growing up, I didnÕt know that I was poor! Everybody else around me was poorÑestabamos igual de jodidos! There were always those folks that were worse off than we were. And there were of course others that I wanted to be like, right? Because they had the nicer car, a better house, better clothes, and we couldnÕt afford all that. We were right in the middle. I wasnÕt too jodido, but we were jodido, too, right? Laughs came from around the room. There would be times where we would go to the gas station, and my mom would say ÒEchale gasolina en el cocheÓ and she would give me a couple quarters. And I was too embarrassed, so I would wait until there was no one in the gas station, run in, and throw the quarters on the table, and say ÒHereÕs fifty cents. Thank you!Ó and run out. I knew the struggle. I knew that I would get a new pair of shoes once a year, and I had to make them last the whole year because if they ripped, I knew I wasnÕt getting another pair.  76 Students were nodding their heads. But then once I got a job? Then, my parents didnÕt have to buy those things for me anymore, but I had to work!   The conversation shifted to his educational experiences. I wasnÕt really a good student. We left in April to come to Michigan, and then we left in November, we went back to Texas. I would leave before school ended, and then come here before school had started, and then go back when school had already started again in Texas. So, I struggled! I struggled to write. I struggled with math. I was always lost. When I made it to senior year, I was supposed to graduate, and my advisor over there said, ÒYou are not going to be able to graduate, so you might want to find another alternative to finish your school. But we canÕt help you anymore here.Ó So I dropped out. I left. For me, it was kinda cool because I got to go work more, and my family needed the help. Let me tell you about my mom. When I got kicked out of schoolÑor pushed out of schoolÑI went home, and my mom said, ÒYouÕre going back!Ó Things didnÕt work out, and I kept working. We went back to Texas, and my mom said, ÒVamos a la escuelaÑwe have to get you back in school.Ó I told her ÒI am so behind in credits! I canÕt graduate!Ó I wasnÕt a big fan of school because school was tough for me. She thought I was trying to get out of school. I had a lot of friends, and we were always hanging out. And we could because our parents were never aroundÑthey were where? One student said right away: Working. El™as nodded. My mom is someone you donÕt argue with. We go again, and we are talking at the front desk there to the lady. My mom is saying Ò…l tiene que estar en escuela. Tiene que graduarse.Ó Y la mujer le dijo que no pod™a. As this was going on, a teacher came by, and asked ÒÀQue est⁄ pasando aqu™? ÀPor que est⁄s enjoada?Ó Ò…sta seŒora no quiere dejarle estar en escuela.Ó This lady says, ÒThatÕs not a problem. I will work with him so that he can make up some of these credits.Ó This lady was a Spanish teacher at that school. She had no business helping me out.  77 Something that day told her, ÒI need to help this kid out.Ó Seniors, I donÕt know how it is today, but some were working on getting their credits, others were doing co-op so they could work, and some of them just went home. I was stuck in school from the time school started until 8 or 9 oÕclock in the evening. This teacher taught me a lot of things. She was the first person to start talking to me about college. I had never heard the term college. I had never visited a college. One day I came in, and she said ÒYou know what? You donÕt know how smart you are. You are so intelligent, itÕs almost dangerous.Ó Nobody had ever told me that because all I knew was that I couldnÕt pass my classes. I would get CÕs on exams. I never got it. All of a sudden, here is this lady telling me that I am so smart. I couldnÕt believe it. I was like Ò…sta est⁄ loca! I donÕt know what grades sheÕs looking atÑI have a bunch of FÕs, I got a bunch of DÕs.Ó And one day, she walked in with a piece of paper and said, ÒBefore we do anything else today, youÕre gonna fill out some college applications.Ó I said, ÒMiss, sorry. But college is not for me. College is for smart people. I can barely pass my classes. IÕm barely gonna graduate, and you want me to apply for college?Ó You guys ever have teachers that get really mad? Everyone nods. She was one of those teachers. I said the WRONG things, and this lady flipped, and she said, as he raised his voice to impersonate her, ÒYou know what? If you canÕt even believe yourself, why am I wasting my time her with you every single day? IÕm not getting paid to help you. I know! I know that you have what it takes to be successful, but if you donÕt believe in yourself, thereÕs the door. WeÕre done!Ó She opened the door, and I said, ÒI need to graduate. I have nowhere to go!Ó I was in Texas by myself. My parents were working in Michigan. That conversation was not going to go well. I knew I had to graduate, but I wanted to graduate. I donÕt know about you all, but youÕve been in school for a really long time, right? How would it feel that your WHOLE life youÕve been in school and youÕre not gonna get anything out of it? ThatÕs not gonna happen. I  78 need to get something out of this. I filled them out, and I sent them out, and I graduated. That day in June, I walked across the stage, and I stayed there by myself, and I thought I was going to get my diploma, but I just got a rolled up piece of blank paper. Everyone laughs. When I opened it, I thought there is something wrong with mine! But thatÕs because I was the first one in my family to graduate! I thought maybe I didnÕt actually graduate. So I came back to Michigan to do what I did best. I was working in the fields. My parents always told me, ÒEchale ganas en la escuela porque no vas a trabajar en los campos como nosostros.Ó I know youÕve gotten that message, too! That phrase didnÕt mean anything to me until I went back, and I was working in the fields next to my parents, and I realized that I turned into the person that my parents didnÕt want me to be. There I was. This was my real job after high school, and I had just turned into my parents. That message stopped that day. I was always really good at what I did because my parents taught me how to work. I was always the best worker. The best thing that happened to me was that I got fired from that job. A lot of my friends were undocumented, and they were being treated horriblyÑcalling them maldiciŠnes, not giving them breaks, and I had to say something. I love to talk. Any of you get in trouble for talking too much in school? Nearly all the students raise their hands and start laughing. That was me! So I called them out to the supervisor, and they threw me out of there! YouÕre firing me? I have a high school diploma. IÕm bilingual. IÕm an asset to you! And then this guy said, ÒEverything that youÕre saying about high school diploma and all that? That means nothing around here. I have a line out the door of people waiting to take your job.Ó You know what that diploma cost me? I barely graduated, and now this guy was telling me that that piece of paper was worth nothing. I left that day thinking that piece of paper was worthlessÑin THAT world. That next day, IÕm sitting in the campo without a job, mad, and the recruiter from this program came to my door.   79 CHAPTER THREE THE TRENCHES: WHO IS IN AND WHO IS OUT? AN EXPLORATION OF MIGRANT EDUCATIONAL POLICY  AT THE FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL LEVELS  El™as provided those students with some powerful words proving to a group of high school students that there was nothing shameful in being a migrant but that it was not the only option. Each one of them could get carve their own futures, and for many who thought they would never be able to make it to college, El™asÕs story was an example of how everyoneÑregardless of how they experienced being a student in the U.S. public school systemÑhad an opportunity to continue their education beyond high school.   Despite the fact that educational policy is often viewed as top-down by both those who create policy and those affected by it, the reality is that there are many players involved not just in the writing of the actual policy text, but also in the ways that policy is interpreted and implemented. Thus, part of the purpose of this study is not only to understand the educational experiences of migrant youth, but also to see how policy written for a specific group of people with unique needs plays out as it filters through various levels from Federal to State to local but also how it is implemented by programs, teachers and then experienced by students. Such goals require what Hornberger & Johnson (2007) call ethnography of language policy. Although Title I, Part C is not a specific language policy, there is a clear connection for a large part of the migrant populationÑin particular the students who participated in this studyÑbetween language, identity, and educational experiences. Utilizing ethnographic methods for this case study, I was able to see how policy streamed through these various levels and made its way into classrooms and the educational experiences of these young people at Project NOMAD. Policy, as Johnson (2009) noted, Òis a dynamic process that stretches across time, and implementationÉis  80 not just what happens after policy is madeÑit is a link in the chain of policy process in which all actors potentially have inputÓ (p. 142). Thus, an in-depth look the ways that Project NOMAD, its administrators, and its teachers interpreted and appropriated Title I, Part C of ESEA/NCLB ethnographically is crucial to understanding how policyÑdespite the disconnect between the text and the needs of the people it is specifically written forÑis lived out and experienced by those intended to benefit from such legislation. The stance of this study assumes that education is a public good, and the overarching goals of it are to provide our youth, and in turn society, with equitable treatment and access to life opportunities, and to prepare our young people to become informed democratic citizens to participate in our political, economic, and social society. Since one cannot go back in time to the inception of American schooling in order to create equitable education for all young people regardless of difference, strides can be taken now to improve the educational system through policy. Therefore, the purpose of educational policy should be to first look at how education succeeds or fails at providing excellent educational opportunities for all young people in terms of equal access, equal treatment, and the preparation of informed participants in our democratic societyÐthe essential goals of education. Thus, legislators and educational advocates should determine where improvements must be made and develop policies that address those issues. Then, after a given set of time, the policyÕs success should be determined and then the policy cycle re-entered in order to address where continued interventions and improvements need to be made. Again, this should be the goal of such policy. However, as noted by Levinson, et.al.  (2009), policy is seen as a Òcomplex, ongoing social practice of normative cultural production constituted by diverse actors across diverse contextsÓ (p. 771). Thus, it is vital to understand how policy is constructed, and then interpreted and enacted at different levels. This chapter then  81 explains how the Federal level instantiated the policy, how the State of Michigan interpreted and then installed their version of the policy, and then how Project NOMADÑwith their knowledge and recognition of the students involved in their programÑthen made sense of those policy instructions and incorporated them into their program.   Unfortunately, there remains a lack of connection between the macro- and micro-levels of policy. Federal and State regulations on local schooling and the problems that arise from such distant management is not a novice aspect of the dialogue on education in this country. Lawmakers and educational department heads at the national and state levels lose touch with the children and their immediate needs that legislation attempts to address. The distance and lack of awareness state and national policy makers possess about school-aged children is particularly amiss to migrant youth. Migrant youth travel once, twice, even several times a year. This requires changing schools and in turn experiencing a variety of curricula, content, and even cultures of different schools and districts. Thus, in the case of migrant education, it seems vital that playmakers at the State and national level should allocate a lot of the decision making to local officials who are on the ground or, again, as Rosa, Project NOMADÕs lead teacher, said, Òin the trenchesÓ with these young people and their families. The Federal government consciously decides in which areas of society and life it can make the calls. For example, the President of the United States, although Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, is not making on-the-ground military decisions in Afghanistan. This is because the president understands that he is not in a position to make the most informed decision since he is not there. He does not know the situation, what the troops face on a day-to-day, what problems may arise in the short term, and thus, is aware that he cannot make the safest, in the moment decisions. Yet those in charge of important decisions about educational policy both at the State and Federal level  82 continue to place and enforce regulations on schools and teachers without entering ever stepping foot in some of these communities let alone school buildings.      This chapter seeks to analyze migrant educational policy at three levels: the Federal level, the State of MichiganÕs Migrant Education Program, and the local level at Project NOMAD. By using JohnsonÕs (2009) ethnography of language policy, this chapter highlights Òmacro-micro connections by comparing critical discourse analyses of language policy with ethnographic of language policy with ethnographic data collection in some local contextÓ (p. 139). When conducting this case study, I specifically chose to focus on what educators were doing in the program. Then, through interviews and observations, I learned from the students themselves how they were experiencing the policy-influenced pedagogical choices. Afterwards, I chose to ask the administrators and educators that I worked with how they read, worked within, and decided to utilize the policy mandates to best meet the needs of their students. Finally, I looked at the State of MichiganÕs Migrant Education Program to see how these actors used the Federal policy to determine the allocation funds to various programs and the creation restrictions or requirements for programs to receive such funds, among other measures. Although my study started at the ground level, this chapter will take start at the Federal level to see how migrant educational policy filters down to the State and then local levels. An Exploration of Current Migrant Educational Policy: The Federal Level  As mentioned in Chapter One, in 1966 the Federal government realized that migrant students required specific attention and funding due to the unique lived educational experiences of children this specific group of young people, and thus retroactively added a specific program to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) know as the Migrant Education Program (MEP). The MEP as set forth in Title I, Part C of the 2002 reauthorization of ESEAÑ 83 No Child Left Behind (NCLB)Ñhas been the current guiding piece of legislation in migrant education for the last fourteen years2. This law introduced what has become not just a major buzz-worthy phrase but structural guidelines among the national educational setting: accountability through academic achievement testing. In 2001, after forty years of reauthorizations of and amendments made to the ESEA, many experts and advocates within the educational field felt that giving away millions of dollars in funding to states and local educational agencies was not achieving the goals of previous policy writers. Students were still not coming to school ready to learn and graduation rates had not reached 90% as President H.W. Bush had hoped when he put forth America 2000Õs educational goals for the nation. Hess & Petrelli (2004) noted that the birth of NCLB came out of WashingtonÕs Òfrustration with the refusal of educators across the nation to accept responsibility for mediocre school performance or to accept the need to fundamentally retool schools that were massively failing black, Latino, and poor childrenÓ (p. 15). Furthermore, the authors noted that politicians on both sides of the aisle were upset with Òstate and local officials whoÉ[were] demanding more money, committed to explaining...why standards, testing, pay-for-performance and accountability systems were incredibly difficult to implementÓ (p. 15). That is to say the voluntary accountability measures of previous ESEA reauthorizations were not yielding the intended results. Therefore, schools, teachers, administrators and educational agencies needed to be held accountable for the measures they were taking in attempts to reach all students and, as explicitly stated in Title I, Òensure that                                                 2 At the time this study was conducted, NCLB was the most recent reauthorization of the ESEA of 1965. In December, 2015, NCLB was replaced with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Although this most recent reauthorization increased spending under Title I, funding for migrant education remains relatively the same as before. Some amendments include changing of terms. For example, the term Òspecial educational needsÓ has been replaced with  Òunique educational needs, and students who have not completed high school have also been included in the policy text.  84 all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality educationÓ (PL 107Ð110, 1439). It should be no surprise that equality was a driving force in the language of Title I since its inception as the ESEA was first passed during JohnsonÕs War on Poverty as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement. However, Flores (2016) argued that Òrather than breaking hegemonic Whiteness, policies that developed in response to the Civil Rights Movement ultimately reconfigured hegemonic Whiteness in ways that continued to perpetuate White supremacist, imperialist, and capitalist relations of powerÓ (p. 16). Thus, such policy as NCLB could possibly be acting as a divisive agent rather than one aimed at ameliorating the educational experiences for impoverished populations.           With NCLB in place, students marginalized by systemic inequalities are expected to Òreach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement assessmentsÓ (PL 107Ð110, 1439). Accountability through testing has had serious impacts on the education of migrant students. As Pappahimiel (2004) noted, the administering of tests is not consistent among states, and the mobility of migrant students could present a number of different scenarios for them in regards to testing. For example, some students might be tested more than once or students could receive substantial instruction in one state or district and be tested in another. States determine their own standards under NCLB, and Òmigrant students are sometimes held accountable for information they have not been taughtÓ (p. 19). Migrant students face extreme challenges under these conditions as Pappahimiel (2004) suggested that this Òinstructional deficit places unusual pressure on children as they sit down to demonstrate mastery of unfamiliar content and skillsÓ (p. 19). Weckstein (2003) noted that migrant studentsÕ mobility Òincreases the likelihood that they will not be in school or included when the assessments are conductedÓ and, in turn, NCLB holds schools and teachers accountable for Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), and  85 therefore these conditions can cause tension within schools, promote teachers to teach the test, and put extreme amounts of pressure on these young people. Past president of the National Academy of Education, Nel Noddings strongly attacked NCLB in a 2005 publication of Education Week, stating that ÒThe law employs a view of motivation that many of us in education find objectionable. As educators, we would not use threats, punishments, and pernicious comparisons to ÔmotivateÕ our students.Ó Noddings (2005) went on to say that the law was demoralizing students, teachers and administrators, hurting the curriculum, and further expanding of differences in academic achievement.  Furthermore, in 2011, the U.S. Department of Education reported that more than 35% of the students currently identified as migrant are considered Òlimited English proficiency,Ó (U.S. Department of Education). Without proper linguistic and cultural support in schools or supplementary programs to help these students become proficient, migrant students are even less likely to be able to meet or excel above the standards set for their native English speaking counterparts.   NCLBÕs promotion of accountability through testing has put strains on children in general, but even more so on migrant children. According to the National Research Council (2011),  analyses of National Assessment of Educational Progress test scoresÉshow that not only have test score gaps between White students and Students of color (particularly Blacks and Latinos) not closed, they have also increased since the implementation of NCLB and the federal mandate requiring the use of high-stakes, standardized testing. (as cited in Au, 2016, p. 51) Although Au is speaking more generally to students of color, this point runs salient to the  86 migrant student experience. Although he does not explicitly mention migrant youth, and although not all migrant youth are Latina/o, these devastating effects allow us to see the intersection between migrant youth and their non-migrant Black and Latino peers. While holding schools and teachers accountable is necessary to make sure that they are providing students with equitable, fair and excellent educational experiences, the pressure that NCLB has brought about has put blinders on educational agents and agencies, causing school to be about teaching the test and not the individual. As Au (2016) noted, ÒteachersÉhave increasingly resorted to less engaging, more teacher-centered, rote lecture to cover tested materialÓ (p. 51). Through this rote version of education, schools who are considered failing are not actually providing their young students with engaging and excellent learning opportunities that help them develop as individual human beings but rather to develop the skills necessary to pass a test written by and for dominant and hegemonic White society.           NCLB, however, did not only put into place accountability measure through academic achievement assessments. The bill also made some adjustments to how the Migrant Education Program (MEP) was to be run. NCLB specifically allocated $410 million to the MEP for 2002 and five years to follow if necessary. This sum was meant to fund programs that were supplemental to the regular schooling and designed to help migrant children and youth overcome any barriers that would prevent educational success. Under the law, states with migrant student populations were to send in applications describing the efforts they would undertake to identify and recruit migrant students, the programs which they would provide for migrant students, and how they planned to help this population to do as well as their peers on achievement assessments. In this policy, the MEP laid out written guidelines to ensure that migrant youth are  87 looked out for by the educational system. These purposes of the MEP are to help States accomplish the following: 1. Support high-quality and comprehensive educational programs for migratory children to help reduce the educational disruptions and other problems that result from repeated moves;  2. Ensure that migratory children who move among the States are not penalized in any manner by disparities among the States in curriculum, graduation requirements, and State academic content and student academic achievement standards;  3. Ensure that migratory children are provided with appropriate educational services (including support services) that address their special needs in a coordinated and efficient manner; 4. Ensure that migratory children receive full and appropriate opportunities to meet the same challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards that all children are expected to meet;  5. Design programs to help migratory children overcome educational disruption, cultural and language barriers, social isolation, various health-related problems, and other factors that inhibit the ability of such children to do well in school and to prepare such children to make a successful transition to postsecondary education and employment; and   88 6. Ensure that migratory children benefit from State and local systemic reforms.  (No Child Left Behind Act 20 ¤1301, 2002) In order to carry out these accommodations for migrant youth, the Secretary of Education is then responsible to allocate funding to States in the form of grants. Allocations are determined by formulas presented in the policy texts stating that based on the fiscal year 2002, States would receive a base amount that equaled: (A) the sum of the estimated number of migratory children aged 3 through 21 who reside in the State full time and the full-time equivalent of the estimated number of migratory children aged 3 through 21 who reside in the State part timeÉmultiplied by (B) 40 percent of the average per-pupil expenditure in the State (No Child Left Behind Act 20 ¤1303, 2002)  Every year following, if necessary funding exceeds this initial amount, States could ask for additional allocations based on: (i) the sum ofÑ (I) the number of identified eligible migratory children, aged 3 through 21, residing in the State during the previous year; and (II) the number of identified eligible migratory children, aged 3 through 21, who received services under this part in summer or intersession programs provided by the State during such year; multiplied by  89 (ii) 40 percent of the average per-pupil expenditure in the State.    (No Child Left Behind Act 20 ¤1303, 2002) For Michigan, the state where I conducted my study of NOMAD, this makes an enormous impact on funding due to the agricultural seasons and timing of planting and harvesting. Most of the agricultural business takes place between the seasons of spring and fall meaning that many migrant youth do not necessarily receive services during the regular academic year in Michigan but rather during the summer. For this reason, a majority of the funding that the State of Michigan receives for migrant education is applied towards summer and intersession educational programs, such as the Van Buren Intermediate School DistrictÕs Project NOMAD. In order for States to receive these funds, the policy lays out specific requirements and steps that the State agency has to go through in order to apply. The applications must be submitted every fiscal year, and they should include a delivery plan that addresses the following: (1) a description of how, in planning, implementing, and evaluating programs and projects assisted under this part, the State and its local operating agencies will ensure that the special educational needs of migratory children, including preschool migratory children, are identified and addressed throughÑ (A) the full range of services that are available for migratory children from appropriate local, State, and Federal educational programs;  (B) joint planning among local, State, and Federal educational programs serving migrant children, including  90 language instruction educational programs under part A or B of title III;  (C) the integration of services available under this part with services provided by those other programs; and  (D) measurable program goals and outcomes      (No Child Left Behind Act 20 ¤1304, 2002) Applications must also include how the States intend on helping migrant youth to meet the same standards and levels of achievement that all youth are expected to meet, how States will work to utilize funding to coordinate services within and among various states considering the regular migration of these youth, how States will prioritize their funds, budget information, and how States will provide and encourage family literacy programs to assist youth whose parents might need literacy assistance. The MEP also states that the funded programs should provide with advocacy and outreach for migrant youth and their families, professional development programs for educators and program personnel, the above mentioned family literacy programs, informational technology programs, and programs that assist migrant youth to transition from secondary school to postsecondary education or employmentÑsuch as Michigan State UniversityÕs High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP).   The policy also addresses to some extent how States and their programs will be assessed. Most importantly, the policy explicitly says that through local educational agencies, States are granted flexibility to figure out which educational activities are of most need for their migrant youth included any needs that were not addressed in the formal plans submitted by States with their applications for grants. Furthermore, the legislation also outlines the need for the Secretary  91 of Education to develop with States an information system that can provide electronic transfers of educational records of migrant youth within and among States.   The ideas behind NCLB were certainly important, as holding those in charge of educating our youth accountable is a valid method for ensuring that our children receive excellent educational opportunities and have the chance to overcome whatever disadvantages life may have thrown them. NCLB had some necessary additions for the MEP including a detailed definition of who was to be included and how states were to identify and recruit individuals to receive the MEP services. However, the bill also cut off services far too early for those who ceased to migrate, and the law also added an enormous amount of pressures to the already strained shoulders of migratory children and their educators. NCLB also had similar effects on bilingual education as it increased funding to Title III while eliminating all language in the legislation that referred to bilingual education specifically. Essentially, this move created an invisible throne for the English language in the United States school system. Similarly, the MEP appears to have taken into consideration the various and unique needs of migrant youth and the programs that assist them. However, another ingredient has been added to the mix: Common Core State Standards (CCSS).   According to the CCSS Initiative, these standards are a Òstate-led effort that established a single set of standards for [K-12] in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adoptÉto ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enterÉtwo or four year college programs orÉthe workforce.Ó Many claim that the standards laid out in CCSS are quite high-reaching. The rigor involved in CCSS stress the development of higher-order thinking skills, which has potential benefits and drawbacks for migrant students. First, the fact that nearly all of the states have adopted these standards sets a new bar that could create some continuity of  92 curricula between schools, districts, and states thus preventing the disjointed schooling that migrant students currently face. However, the robustness of the standards could put migrant students an even further step behind. Due to the already enormous gap that lies between migrant students and their more-privileged peers, one can only assume that without substantial support, this gap will only grow exponentially. Furthermore, CCSS stress that these standards are founded in English only. That is rather than providing ELLs with the tools needed to master the language, they are expected to learn through robust texts. This also again detracts from the ability to practice and improve their native language as well as their English language skills. Because CCSS differs on a state-to-state basis, this chapter will turn to the next level of interpretation: the State level.  Specifically, we will next see how the State of Michigan itself undertakes these responsibilities and its most recent intentions to best meet the unique needs of Latina/o and indigenous migrant youth.  Interpreting Policy at the State Level  Through several meetings over the course over eight months, the Michigan Migrant Education Program (MiMEP) determined the special needs of its migrant youth population, and with a committee of representatives from the Department of Human Services, the Michigan Department of Education, local district administrators, teachers, and parents, the State Delivery Plan (SDP) was created The plan considers its programÕs purposes to:  Òhelp migrant children and youth overcome the challenges of mobility, cultural, and language barriers, social isolation, and other difficulties associated with the migratory lifeÉlead our migrant students towards challenging and successful schooling as well as a successful life of college and/or careersÉ[and] seeks to reduce  93 barriers, empower migrant children and their families, and to provide guidance and resources for local and state MEP programming. (MiMEP State Delivery Plan, 2013, p. 8) The plan also addresses the programÕs recognition that the uniqueness of the migrant experience differs from that of other English language learners noting that 60% of the Michigan migrant student population needs thorough English language development services that Òtake into consideration the mobility and poverty issues faced by migrant familiesÓ (p. 8). The SDP includes performance targets and objectives, strategies at state and local levels to achieve such goals, and an evaluation plan to determine the effectiveness of such strategies. The performance targets included reading proficiency, mathematics achievement, school readiness, and graduation, and measurable outcomes for each of these targets to determine the planÕs success.   94 Figure 1. MiMEP Measureable Program Outcomes, SDP, 2013 In the implementation plan, the SDP lists service delivery broad strategies, service delivery detailed activities, implementation data measures, timelines for implementation, responsible parties and necessary resources. Many of the objectives are focused on being measured by a variety of high stakes standardized tests. For example, effectiveness of the SDP when it comes to reading achievement, growth will be determined successful or not based a decrease in the achievement gap in reading and writing at grade level between migrant youth and their non- 95 migrant peers on the Michigan standardized test, the MEAP/MME. Mathematics achievement is also to be determined effective or not based also on MEAP/MME scores and for English on the English Language Proficiency Assessment. Despite the purposes laid forth in the introduction of the SDP, the strategies and implementation of the plan focus heavily on academic achievement without addressing the unique needs of migrant youthÑsuch things as cultural barriers, language, and poverty. Thus, the MiMEP has imposed evaluations of programs and students academic abilities by utilizing measurable outcomes in several aspects of migrant education. Therefore, the State is essentially using policy measures that have historically increased academic achievement gaps between Whites and their Black and Latino peers which has a particularly serious impact on migrant youth who are already among the least educationally served. As Au (2016) stated, Òin the name of racial equality in education, race and culture in teaching and learning become anathema to the officially sanctioned, raceless, ÒcorrectÓ knowledge and pedagogy as defined by the testsÓ (p. 52), and this is exactly what the State has done to determine the success or failure of migrant educational programs. We will see this play out at the local level in the next chapter where because of these measureable outcomes, the State has forced specific testing and curricular requirements on summer migrant programs.   Tatto, et.al. (2001) noted that policy has been largely focused Òtowards compliance, mandates, and incentives, but little else in the direction of human resource developmentÓ (p. 15) which reinforces the notion that it is vital for policymakers to Ò[invest] in the education, professional development, and guided support of those individuals who work with this population.Ó Despite the Federal policyÕs intentions to include flexibility in meeting the needs of migrant youth, it is my understanding that the MiMEP focused largely on measureable outcomes and less on the needs of these individuals whose futures are at stake and ensuring that those who  96 work directly with this population receive proper guidance to look address those unique needs. That is, the MiMEPÕs SDP should focus less on the measurable outcome details that rely heavily on standardized testing dataÑwhich dehumanizes students to numbers. Instead, their focus should be more on giving local programs and teachers with flexibility to provide migrant youth with excellent educational opportunities where students can be motivated to make meaning of the world around them and not understand their learning as numbers and lines on a graph.  Addressing the Unique Needs of Migrant Youth: A Local Interpretation of Policy at Project NOMAD   Despite the stress that the State seems to put on measuring student outcomes, there remains some flexibility when it comes to how local agents structure their programs. As mentioned in Chapter Two, Van Buren Intermediate School DistrictÕs (VBISD) Project NOMAD, the largest summer program in Michigan for migrant youth has been providing services to migrant youth since 1976. In the summer of 2015, there were nearly 500 students enrolled in Project NomadÑby far the highest amount of students in the state, and for that reason, the program receives the largest amount of funding. In 2015, Project NOMAD received twice as much as the second largest summer program surpassing $1,000,000 in summer and supplemental allocations alone. Although 500 students has been the recent average number of enrolled students, the program has seen numbers reaching 600-700 in the recent past. Despite the large size of the program, I witnessed a collaborative effort of all individuals working at the program to work for these young people. Su⁄rez-Orozco & Su⁄rez-Orozco (2001) noted that effective schools for immigrant and migrant youth share several commonalities including: Òpositive leadership and high staff morale; high academic expectations for all students regardless of background; a high value placed on the studentsÕ cultures and languages; and a safe and orderly school environmentÓ (p. 132). Project NOMAD certainly displayed each of these  97 qualities in various ways, always placing the needs of their students at the center of their daily activities.   The program follows a philosophy of empowering families and students and promoting self-advocacy for migrants. Working closely with families, camps and recruiters, the program look at the challenges that migrants face in all aspects of lifeÑnot solely educationÑand attempts to find solution. This past summer, Project NOMAD contracted around 80 certified teachers and teacher aides, and there were also several recruiters who would regularly visit farms in the surrounding areas to meet with families and recruit students to the program. Of those teachers and aides, 16 were migrants themselves, and 37 were bilingual in Spanish and English. According to the program director, Project NOMAD is one of the only programs in Michigan that is actively involved in outreach. Recruiters along with program administrators regularly visit camps for parent meetings. The program also uses technology for distance learning to connect with the state of TexasÑwho the director believes to be on the cutting edge in terms of interstate collaboration. NOMAD also has an agreement with the Binational Migrant Education Program, and each year they have teachers who visit from Mexico to teach a class on culture once a week to each classroom. Last summer, a teacher from Oaxaca came to Michigan to work with the program. In the 6th grade classroom where I spent a large part of my time observing and participating, this teacher taught in Spanish, had students read and speak in Spanish, and she had the group create cultural portfolios. Focusing on their own interests, students drew images of foods, hobbies, and jobs and then labeled these images in MixtecoÑan indigenous language of the State of Oaxaca of MexicoÑand Spanish.   98              Figure 2. RobertoÕs cultural portfolio     Figure 3. EduardoÕs cultural portfolio The director admitted that such opportunities in addition to the programÕs goal as a whole help encourage a strong sense of cultural identity whether they identify as Tejanos, Mextazos, Floridians, Mexicanos, Oaxacans, or however else students self-identified. This is an example of how the program was providing culturally relevant and sustaining opportunities to place value on the cultural practices of these migrant youth. While I did not view this as noncompliance with policy, it was an example of an extra step that the program took to uphold the cultures and cultural practicesÑor the funds of knowledgeÑstudents brought to school. Essentially, the program was making clear to students that who their cultural identities are not only important but should not have to be left at home when they leave to enter a different or non-migrant setting.   The goal of empowering migrant youth and their families was a strong thread that ran throughout the program. In addition to the culture class, Project NOMAD provided each group of students with physical education. The program also gave students a STEM hour and other technological classes such as photography or robotics. Furthermore, each group had a nutrition class two-three times a week to promote healthy lifestylesÑsomething that many staff members  99 stressed was extremely important. Having a class about healthy living and providing the youth with breakfast, lunch and snack every day was a vital attribute of the program.   Figure 4. Example of Meal Menu at Project NOMAD Mr. Garc™a included  an article during a reading session that discussed how children living in poverty who do not go to summer school often gain weight from sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy meals. When I asked what motivated his choice of reading, he responded by saying that the kids know they have healthier meals at the program, and if they stay home, they might not even eat because their parents are working in the fields (personal communication, 7/7/15). Several of the youth I interviewed also noted this to be a highlight of the programÑanother example of a culturally sustaining aspect of the program. During a reading session, Mr. Garc™aÑthe 6th grade teacherÑalso spent his writing hour having students draft persuasive essays arguing for or against summer school, and many of those who supported having a summer program argued that being provided with extra-curricular classes such as nutrition and several meals per day were positive aspects. Rosa, the lead teacher, noted that the program used to end at 6:30 P.M., and they would feed dinner to all of the students as well. Considering students spend up to two hours on the bus to get home from Project NOMAD, they cut their hours back and let students out at 4:30 P.M. MartaÑone of my participantsÑadmitted that getting out at that time  100 was a very important aspect of the summer program for her because her parents worked late in the fields and factories:  Marta: This [school] is fun because I get to see my friends, and we get out at like 4:30 P.M. I eat before I leave school. And the [school] in Davis, I donÕt really like it. We get home too early, and I donÕt like getting out of school too early because I don't like being alone.      (personal communication, 7/10/15) Late working hours for parents and families meant that many young students had to take on additional responsibilities, and the program was able to alleviate some of those tasks by providing such accommodations for students.   Before conducting this study, I was aware that such programs often see a decline in middle and high school students. For this reason, I specifically chose to work more closely with 6th, 7th and 8th graders to get a better idea of what might be causing that drop off. Mr. Mart™nez, the program director, admitted to me that Project NOMAD really wanted to put a lot of emphasis on educating the middle and high school students to prevent them from choosing to work in the fields over attending the summer program. He seemed to feel strongly that this choice would be one that led in the direction of not finishing high school or moving on to postsecondary education. For that reason, the program provides 7th-12th graders with career information sessions, and they regularly took field trips with 8th-12th graders to local colleges and universities. However, the reality of the lives of these young people included the desire and often times also a need to begin working in the fields with their familiesÑwhich legally one can do at age 14 in Michigan. During my first visit to Mr. Garc™aÕs class, I expressed my desire to the class  101 that I wanted to see what summer programs like Project NOMAD can provide for young people. Mr. Garc™a responded by saying many of the kids in the class had been attending the program for several years and would continue through high school. Cristobal, one of the younger members of the class but one Mr. Garc™a considered to be at the top of his class, shouted out, ÒNo. We will be working in the fields picking blueberriesÓ (Observation, 7/7/15). The reality of being a migrant youth is perhaps the reason that Mr. Mart™nez and the teachers of this program view bringing up the topics of graduation and attending universities or jobs outside of the fields as such a top priorityÑespecially for the older students.   As mentioned in the previous chapter, students felt a sense of belonging in the fieldsÑit was where they grew up, where their parents and perhaps grandparents spent their lives working. Thus, the program stressed the importance of pushing students to see that they belonged in other spaces as well. The students needed to see that the strong work ethic that the participants associated with being Mexican and the respect that they had for their families working as hard as they did in the fields could be taken and translated into other futuresÑsuch as in college. Jos” admitted to me that his traditional school did not talk to him about college at all, and he knew that this was a highlight of Project NOMAD. He knew that his dream of becoming a sound engineer required him to go to college: Kristina: Do you like this program? Jos”: Yes, I enjoy it a lot. They help you out a lot. Give you that inspiration to go to college that other schools donÕt really give you. ThatÕs what I like the most. They push you on to go to college. My other school doesnÕt push us to go to college. They donÕt talk to us about it as much as they do here.   102 J: Because they want us to succeedÉthey want our satisfaction of getting an education. Without education there are no doors open for you.        (personal communication, 8/10/15) Many of these youth had no one in their immediate families who attended college, and they were hungry for information. Being from Michigan State University, the students I worked most closely with were asking me regularly about what college is like, their chances of getting in, how to pay for it, and were delighted to find out the amount of assistance they could receive as migrant youth. The 7th graders were not allowed on these field trips to postsecondary institutions, but Lu™s was determined to go even if his peers did not want to attend as well. Ms. Stevenson admitted to me that he was planning to work in the fields next summer with his family to save money instead of attending the program, and he had expressed his sadness that he would not be able to attend next yearÕs visit to MSU. I advised him to write a letter to the program director explaining why he should be able to attend. Although he did write a letter, his request was denied. I brought him some MSU souvenirs, and I encouraged him to attend the program next summer even if only so that he could attend the college and university visits.   I was able to meet the group when they visited MSUÕs campus, and it was one of the most thrilling days of my study. When I first walked into the lobby, I saw a group of young people aged 14-18 slouched in their seats with faces of boredom. Students were led into a classroom where they received an introductory motivational speech from the CAMP director, El™as, followed by a tour of the resident hall and inside look at a dorm room, a walk around campus including the football stadium and Sparty, and then lunch at one of the biggest and most impressive cafeterias on-site. As the day went on, students became more and more energetic,  103 eager to see what next MSU could possible offer themÑwhat their futures could hold. The exhilaration of the students was palpable, and it seemed to be one of the most inspirational moments I had seen in students that summer. I felt an excitement and something that could only be described as a virtual transformation in their eyes when they saw the opportunities that could await them. A couple weeks after the visit, I spoke with Jos” about the experience: Kristina: What about that visit to MSU? Jos”: Wow. The CAMP director left usÑwell at least meÑwithout any words. How he expressed his story. It got me thinking: why am I not pushing myself to my limitsÑor to overcome those limits. I have to start thinking about it now. I am going into 9th grade, and itÕs starting to matter now. You gotta do it. You gotta pass. Get your diploma, and you have to be prepared at the same time.       (personal communication, 8/10/15)     104  Figure 5. 8th-12th grade students in front of Sparty at MSU Figure 6. 8th-12th grade students in front of Spartan Stadium at MSU   105  Figure 7. Tour of dorms at MSU for residency CAMP scholars  In addition to the academic and career path opportunities, Project NOMAD provided several services for families as well with the assistance of external volunteer groups. Throughout the duration of the program, students were pulled from classes to have their hearing checked, a dental exam, and checks for lice. One group of volunteers from a Presbyterian Church in Ohio visited the program and several camps to help the young people and their families. Since many of the migrant farmworkers do not have access to Medicare or Medicaid, this group volunteered their time to provide screens for the kids and their families such as hearing, blood pressure, vision, dental, height and weight, as well as HIV and glucose tests for parents. Another group of young people from a Korean-American church donated clothes and free haircuts to the children. They also put on puppet shows for the younger children and held water games for all. Each of the individuals that I spoke to from these groups admitted that they come every year, and each time is a very humbling experience.   The large budget for Project NOMAD went to various needs including administration, instructional purposes, parent involvement, and recruiting. Every purchase that was made for the  106 program had to go through several stages: requests would be made by administrators and teachers, and those requests would then be submitted to the budgeting office, then to the program director and accounting, and then to the State before any requests could be fulfilled. In addition to the food, events, and health check-ups, the program provided a lot of material items for students. Teachers had a lot of books for students to choose from for their sustained silent reading time, and they also provided student supplies such as notebooks, writing utensils, and bags for their academic belongingsÑwhatever was necessary to afford students with a quality schooling experience. In the main office, there were several tables covered with small items and gifts such as pens, pencil grips, small toys, bright erasers, and other trinkets. Throughout the week, teachers would give students raffle tickets for various reasonsÑremaining on task, being respectful, completing an assignment, etc. Then, at the end of the week, the each class would walk down to the office, and students could choose items from the gift tables using the tickets they had collected during the week. Towards the end of the summer, the program was able to use some of the funds to purchase several boxes of books for all reading levels that students could take with them.        Figure 8. Collection of books for youth Figure 9. More books for youth  107 At the end of the program, a few students would be chosen to receive special prizes. Students who had shown the most growth in reading would receive some books, and students showing the most growth in math would receive a calculator. These prizes were presented the last day of the program at a celebratory water party where staff, families, and students could play with squirt guns and water balloons. Last summer, 88% of students had shown educational gain (personal communication, 3/2016). The ability for this program to show such growth and provide so much for these young people is a challenge that Project NOMAD possesses. Furthermore, each of the practices mentioned here is a clear example of how NOMAD takes into consideration that providing educational experiences is not the only way to meet the needs of these young people. These practices are humanizing the experiences of the migrant youth despite the State and Federal levels failure to do so. By addressing issues of health and providing them with gifts and prizes, this program is going above and beyond what MiMEPÕs SDP put forth in terms of goals: they are allowing these young people to be children.   In an analysis of migrant educational policy, Tatto et.al. (2000) put forth several proposals to improve migrant education and the policy that drives it. One of the most salient of the proposals was for the Michigan Department of Education, local districts, migrant education directors, and the teachers themselves pay attention in particular to Òissues specifically affecting teachers and the teaching of migrant students to improve the quality of education these students receiveÓ especially hiring individuals Òwho have the potential to understand and address the learning needs of migrant studentsÓ (p. i), and Project NOMADÑa program that has been operating for thirty yearsÑhas proven to possess that potential. Undoubtedly, people who commit their professional lives to improving the educational and life experiences of migrant youth should obtain some passion related to the issue. However, as we will see in upcoming  108 chapters, the goals outlined by migrant educational policy and the decisions made at the State levelÑspecifically the Michigan Department of EducationÑfor summer migrant programs do not always match up to provide migrant youth with the educational interventions that they both need and deserve. That is, decisions made at the macro levels might be implemented at a local or micro level that hinder rather than contribute to positive and productive learning opportunities for migrant youth. Despite the intentions of such policy at the State and Federal levels, those who Rosa referred to as Òin the trenchesÓ were able to use funding and time to provide these youth with opportunities to find ways to succeed not just in school but in life. Project NOMADÕs interpretation of the Migrant Education Program policy is a clear example of how the needs of migrant youth are put at the forefrontÑproviding these young people with humanizing, culturally relevant, and culturally sustaining experiences. Although measureable outcomes and performance targets are important to figuring out where students are and where they need to get in terms of academic achievement, there are so many more aspects of migrant life that need the attention of actors at all levels of policy. Furthermore, we will see that despite local agentsÕ passion and potential to provide these youth with ways to succeed, the task is challenging and may not always be experienced by migrant youth in powerful and engaging ways.           109 VIGNETTE PROUD OF BEING LATINO. PROUD OF BEING MIGRANT.   It was a very hot Monday afternoon, and the beginning of the fourth week of the summer program. The sun was scorching outside, and the group of sixth graders came in from recess, many with sweat on their brows and shirts. It was the norm to leave the lights off during this period just to give the group a few minutes to acclimate to the roomÕs environment and find respite from the heat. Normally, this hour was dedicated to writing, but unbeknownst to me today there was a special guest visiting the sixth grade groupÑthe program director, Mr. Martinez. Before he began to speak, I was unsure of why he came to visit. There had been an unspoken tension between a teaching assistant and Mr. Garc™aÑthe sixth grade teacherÑand she was no longer in his classroom. Perhaps it was my presence in the room that needed addressing.   Mr. Martinez, who has a commanding and respected presence in the program, began by revealing some of his own history as a migrant youth to the students: ÒI came up here as a migrant. I picked asparagus. How many have picked asparagus before? How many have picked blueberries? How many have picked cucumbers? How many have picked apples? How many have picked cherries? I picked six crops. How many have you guys picked? I enjoyed it, and you know what? I didnÕt want to be a migrant for the rest of my life. You know why? Because my parents were dirt poor. Anything that I earned was to buy my clothes for school. There were eight of us in the family. Even though it was a good experience, I enjoyed being a migrant, I am proud of being a migrant. But the important thing I want to share with you is that you should have a choice if you want to be a migrant or not.   How many want to be a migrant the rest of your lives?Ó Not one of the students raises his or her hand. ÒHow many of you want to be something different than a migrant?Ó All of the students raise their hands. ÒSo, 100% of you want to be something other than a migrant because  110 itÕs a hard life, isnÕt it? YouÕre looked at sometimes negatively. You know what I mean by negative?Ó Three to four students respond with sullen affirmationsÑYeah. Uh-huh. ÒWhat does that mean? When you are looked upon negatively?Ó   ÒUgly.Ó   ÒFeo.Ó  ÒSomeone might be rich and look down on you because youÕre poor.Ó  Marta, one of my participants in the study comes out with: ÒThey stare at you.Ó  Mr. Martinez repeats her statement: ÒThey stare at you, like you have some kind of contagious disease, right?Ó The students cannot help but laugh at this comment. The laughter quickly dies down in what I can only sense is a mass realization that these migrant youth and their peers have all felt like this at some point in their lives. Mr. Martinez continues: ÒYouÕre not a part of the community. YouÕre not a part of the schools. YouÕre gonna leave soon. I grew up in Holland, Michigan. How many of you know where Holland, Michigan is at?Ó  Several students chime in all at once laughing at the same time: ÒThe mall!Ó  Mr. Martinez smiles. ÒHolland, when I was in school thereÑwell first off, they didnÕt have a mallÑmyself, my two sisters and one brother were the only Latinos in that school. Then I went to junior high, and I met another group of Latinos and that made it 25 Latinos. Then I went to high school, and that went up to 35. I grew up among non-Latinos, and I felt like a minority. I was too different. I was migrant. I was Latino. I stood out like a sore thumb. It was a good community, a good upbringing. But you know what? I started thinking like a White person. White culture! Dutch. Protestant. ThatÕs where I grew up. ThereÕs nothing wrong with that, but I wish I grew up where you guys are at. But I accepted my condition.Ó   111  Mr. Martinez paused and let the words sink in for a moment. Then, he turned to the 6th grade teacher, Mr. Garc™a: ÒMr. Garc™a? How about you?Ó  Until this point, Mr. Garc™a had admitted to me that this had been one of the most challenging summers for him in terms of student attitude and lack of buy-in. I felt a nervousness in the air but also an opportunity for him to share and humanize himself and some of his life experiences with his class: ÒI grew up in Chicago, but most of my formative years, I was in a suburb of ChicagoÉthat was predominately Anglo, not Hispanic. WeÑmy older sister and younger sisterÑwere the only Hispanics in that whole school district. I came to Michigan and went to Haverford where 60% of the school district was Latino. It was very different, and I know where Mr. Martinez is coming from. Coming from an area that is prominently not Hispanic, not Latino, Anglo and then moving into an area kind of where youÕre at now where the majority is Hispanic was a culture shock. Not just coming from a city to a small town. But coming from a place where I was the only Mexican where in 6th grade I used to get chased off of the bus and had to find a new way home everyday because I was getting bullied to in 7th grade coming to Haverford, Michigan where people 60% are Latino; 60% speak the language I speak. All of a sudden there is more like me than not like me and I was more accepted. And now I have the confidence and the freedom and the comfort level of playing sports, be active in my community, and active in my school. There is a very different way that people look at you when you donÕt look like them. We want you to feel special. When I came into an environment that was more like myself where I felt like I belonged, where I identified with, things started to become easier. I became more vocal in my classes. I became more active in school groups. I played football. I was the captain of my cross-country team: things that I didnÕt feel comfortable with when I was in Chicago because itÕs a whole different demographic, a whole different mindset. I wasnÕt in  112 touch with who I am as a person because it was bad to be Latino. It was bad to speak Spanish. Where at home, all I would speak Spanish was with my parents, but then at school I am not supposed to.Ó  It was impossible not to notice the silence that crept over the classroom while their teacher spoke. Then, Mr. Martinez turned to me: ÒYour turn. YouÕre a professional. Mrs. Crandall is here to do some work with us in this program. Did you all know that?Ó  Many students nodded their heads but two students proudly stated: ÒYeah! I knew!!Ó They were participants in the study whom I had already interviewed.  I had not been expecting this, but I knew it was a good opportunity to share my experience as wellÑperhaps get more students to be willing to participate, but if for nothing else to create more truthful and humanizing relationships with everyone in the classÑeven Mr. Martinez and Mr. Garc™a: ÒI am a graduate student at Michigan State University. I come from Dearborn Heights which is just outside of Detroit. My grandparents were immigrants from Macedonia which is a country in Eastern Europe. But I grew up as one of the only White families in a predominantly Arabic and Lebanese neighborhood. My closest friends growing upÑtheir parents were from Lebanon, and they were Muslim. I started working cleaning my neighborÕs house when I was 9 years old, and I started working at a party store when I was 15 years old, and worked my way through high school and through college. I went to Michigan State. After I graduated, I moved to Spain. I fell in love with the Spanish language and Spanish culture, and I was able to teach at an elementary school there for a few years. I stood out like a sore thumb. Blond hair. Light skin. I was treated very differently based on the way that I looked and the way that I spoke. One of the classes I taughtÑthey put all of the immigrant children together in this one class. I was very lucky as the immigrant teacher to teach this group of  113 students. I developed a great relationship with these young people. I knew I wanted to continue in education and working with immigrant families which is why IÕm here right now3.Ó   Mr. Martinez chimed in: ÒKristina is here to bring awareness of the impact of what it means to be a migrant, and how that affects you as youÕre studying when you are moving from school to school. How many of you are proud of being Latino?Ó   All of the students raise their hands.   ÒHow many of you are not proud of being Latino?Ó   None of the students raise their hands.   ÒThe questions we ask about how many feel like you donÕt belong, itÕs because we wanna know why.Ó                                                   3 When describing my experiences growing up and working at an early age as a White person in the suburbs or as a voluntary immigrant in Spain, I was by no means intending to equate my experiences with that of these youth or any immigrant. Instead, my intention was to lay the groundwork for developing humanizing connections with the young people with whom I would be working. By sharing parts of me, I hoped that I would be viewed as approachable, compassionate, and empathetic.   114 CHAPTER FOUR ÒI JUST FEEL MORE MEXICANÓ INTERSECTIONS OF LANGUAGE, RACE, BELONGING, AND IDENTITY EXPERIENCED BY MIGRANT YOUTH   The experiences of Mr. Martinez and Mr. Garc™a are not exclusive to their generations. Instead, feelings of belongingÑor not belongingÑin certain contexts were feelings that were shared by almost all of the participants in this study as well as many of the students in the classrooms that I observed. Using interviews with the students and observations of classroom discussions, this chapter explores how migrant youth make sense of their identities as they relate to language and race, and how that identity is shaped by feelings of belonging and not belonging in varying contexts. This sense of belonging ran across a range of scalesÑfrom a small classroom to United States society as a whole, and at times these various scales included different elements that either caused these young people to feel like they belonged or did not belong. When discussing a sense of a belonging, I am referring to whether or not one feels welcome or accepted or able to participate in a certain social spaces or communities based on who they are as both individuals and members of specific cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or racial communities (Guti”rrez & Rogoff, 2003)Ñfor how they identify themselves and how others identify them as well. Identity in this sense will reference what Norton (2013) describes as Òhow a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the futureÓ (p. 45). That is, identity is socially constructed based on life experiences that help one make sense of who they think that they are, and they are also influenced by ways in which they are viewed by others. In their research with immigrant and migrant children and families, Suar”z-Orozco & Suar”z-Orozco (2001) refer to this as social mirroring where a personÕs identity is affected by the  115 Òreflections mirrored backÉby significant othersÉ nonparental relatives, adult caretakers, siblings, teachers, peers, employers, people on the street, and even the mediaÓ (p. 98). Because such external reflections of oneÕs self can be contradictoryÑpositive or negative depending on the social situation and the holder of the mirror, how oneÕs identity is constructed, as Block (2015) noted, can be Òpotentially and indeed often conflictive as opposed to harmonious, especially in situations involving movement across borders which are simultaneously geographical historical, cultural, and psychologicalÓ (p. 528). Many participants in my study expressed how they had difficulty relating to certain groups of people or in different school settings depending on the cultural atmosphere present in those sites. Furthermore, Duff (2015) put forth that identity formation is not stable or static but happens on a moment-to-moment basis, and thus those instances and variations need to be taken into consideration. In this chapter, we will see how such instances and variations of experience affect how Marta, Eduardo, Roberto and Jos” self-identify.   Language and Identity  The intersection of language and identity was central to the way participants spoke about who they were and who they were not. In certain schools, many of the students I worked with felt as though they did not belong to the school culture for numerous reasonsÑand this section will explore how language was one of those reasons. Blackledge & Creese (2008) noted that Òa ÔlanguageÕ held powerful connotations in terms of their sense of belonging and selfhoodÓ (p. 535). Even though all of the participants are fluent speakers of English, their ÒdifferentÓ version of English due to their Spanish-speaking home settings and Mexican heritage caused them to distinguish their English from that of their American counterparts. May (2005) discussed how Òparticular languages clearly areÉimportant and constitutive factor of their individual, and at  116 times, collectives identitiesÓ (as cited in Blackledge & Creese, 2008, p. 535). This lack of belonging caused her to resist and not participate in the school culture. Grenfell (2012) discussed the argument of Bourdieu and social reproduction as it occurs in education noting that while anyone can enter the schooling system, Òimplicitly it is clear that only those with a certain education, prior experience, and training stand any chance of passing itÓ and that this selective system is Òmore effective when it operates in a covert manner than if privilege of birth were asserted at the outsetÓ (p. 55). Thus, school is claimed to be a reproductive institution to provide equitable opportunities for all, but that is merely in the aspect that all students can enter into the institution itself but, in actuality, only the few will succeed.  In reality, schoolÑthrough educational policyÑis an exercised practice of power meant to promote and maintain dominant white and English-speaking American culture as the leading force in society. Thus, as a reproductive system, schools and the policies that they are supposed to abide by work as mechanisms to maintain current hegemonic power structures in U.S. society.  However, despite policies put in place and the structures within which schools are set, there are local agents who understand the need to negotiate, change, and implement pedagogical tools that not only empower students but resist dominant white American, English-speaking culture. In response to social reproduction, it is necessary to look at those local experiencesÑthrough what happens in programs, classrooms, curricula, and student experiences to better understand how schools possibly reproduce social inequalities, and whatÑif anyÑways in which administrators, teachers, and students are doing to resist that reproduction. Thus, this study looks at what Duff (2015) calls the Òpersonal histories, trajectories, aspirations, and mobility of transnationals [as] central themes in identity research that focuses on immigrantsÓ (p. 59). It is through these stories, experiences and histories that the young women and men I learned with my study orient  117 themselves to their pedagogical experiences, how they lived out and learned via policy at the local level, and learned and used languages as a form of identity expression and development and they understood where they felt they belonged and where they did not.   Inherent to the young peopleÕs sense of belonging were differences or similarities to language use, cultural familiarity, and educational experiences to that of dominant U.S. society. The students are adhering to certain language ideologies where they are taking existing worldviews or interpreting certain identities with certain types of language use. For example, the English monolingual ideology was something that students discussed regularly in our interviews. Next, I will look at how students expressed how their understanding of language, English, Spanish, and bi- and multilingualism as both constraining and benevolent forces in developing who they are as individuals and members within certain communities and not in others.   Language as Both Strength and Metaphorical Barrier   All of the students that participated in my study were at least bilingual in two different languages. One young man, Lu™s was bilingual in English and Mixteco, an indigenous language of Oaxaca, Mexico. Two others, Eduardo and Roberto said that their parents were bilingual in Spanish and an indigenous language. Thus, these young men also were learning a third language in their homesÑZapoteco and MixtecoÑnative languages of their parents and their indigenous ancestors. The remaining young people with whom I worked were bilingual in English and Spanish. Despite their comfort and confidence in English from the onset of this study, nearly all of my participants discussed having difficulties with their English in terms of vocabulary.  Kristina: Which would you consider your strongest language? Luc™a: English! WellÉsometimes I get more messed up with Spanish than I do with English because sometimes I have to  118 think a little bit more with the wordÑhow to say the wordÑhow to say the sentence in English.        (personal communication, 7/30/15) Despite the fact that Luc™a grew up in a Spanish speaking home and her parents do not speak English, she felt confident that English was her stronger language. Yet, immediately after showing that confidence, she backpedaled to admit her shortcomings. These shortcomings are not necessarily coming directly from her but from another hegemonic sourceÑperhaps the English monolingual ideology present in most of her educational settings. Regardless, this did not stop Luc™a from being proud of her bilingualism:  Kristina: How do you feel about being bilingual? Luc™a: ItÕs really good because you could talk to more people. Some people just donÕt know Spanish and you could talk to them, and then some other people who just know English, and if I only knew one language, I couldn't speak to both persons. So itÕs good because its like made me have more friends. K: Can you tell me what language is like for you on a daily basis? L: In the morning, I usually talk to my mom because. In school, I speak mostly English with the teacher. Then, when my mom comes I speak Spanish unless I go to play with my friends then I speak English.  K: What is that like for you to go from one language to another?  119 L: ItÕs cool. I mean itÕs good sometimes I get kind of messed up like I need to say something to my dad and instead of saying it in Spanish, I say it in English. And like, whoopsÑIÕm sorry. Because I have to like transfer languages. But most of the time when IÕm with my friends, if I feelÉIÕm not in my English timeÉI just try to speak to them in Spanish. Unless they donÕt speak Spanish, but most of them do.  K: Most of your friends are bilingual as well? L: Yes. K: Do you ever speak a mixture of the two languages with those who are bilingual? L: Yes (laughing). Yea, sometimes, like if I donÕt remember this word, I say it in Spanish.        (personal communication, 7/30/15) Flores & Rosa (2015) would note that Òwere she a privileged white student who was able to engage in the bilingual practices that she described, she might even be perceived as linguistically giftedÓ (p. 158). While the summer program believed strongly in the need for bilingual support systems, and had many teachers who were bilingual in Spanish and English, the program was mostly in an English setting. Teachers and administrators would regularly speak in Spanish with students and each other, but when it came to teaching, all was conducted in English. Although none of the participants spoke of teachers in the program commenting on their English or Spanish language abilities, they did note that their traditional school settings had made corrective or denunciative comments. Luc™a is at once demonstrating her English abilities and describing an  120 understanding of when it is appropriate for her to use Spanish, English, or both. Despite these abilities, Luc™a still was not entirely confident in her English or Spanish. The naturalness of translanguaging is an example of what Duff (2015) might call Luc™aÕs sense of double belonging. She feels comfortable going back and forth between languages to explain herself and her understanding of the world without fear because most of the people with whom she communicates are themselves bilingual in Spanish and English. Thus, when her lack of confidence appears, it is coming from a place where such bilingualism is not present or promoted. This seems to be the case for Marta as well when interacting with teachers who are or are not bilingual:  Kristina: Have you ever had a teacher that was Latino or bilingual? Marta: Yes, my orchestra teacher was Mexican.  K: Did you feel like you could connect with him? M: Yea. K: Why? Tell me what that is like for you? M: Maybe because I canÕt say long words in English, but I can say them in Spanish. ItÕs easier for me to explain more things in Spanish. And they can talk to me in Spanish, and that way I can learn a little bit more about some words that I donÕt know. And they can tell meÑa long word I donÕt understand in EnglishÑthey can tell me what it means in Spanish and they can show me.  K: What about teachers who arenÕt Latino?  121 M: I can connect with them, but sometimes I have trouble explaining things like long words in everything.       (personal communication, 7/30/15) Marta knew that she was strong in English, but the ability to communicate in Spanish was a source of comfort for her. What is troubling to me is that Marta has come to understand her discomfort with using long words in English as a deficiency and a barrier between her and non-Latino teachers. Somewhere along the line, Marta has been made to feel as though she lacks certain English skills rather than being praised for her bilingualism. Why does Marta feel she has a deficiency in English? Why does the ability to use or not use long words in English mark her own view of her competency in English? The question then becomes where are these messages coming from? As Flores and Rosa (2015) note, the notion of the Òlanguage gapÓ should not be Òbased on the empirical linguistic practices that emerge from the mouths of speaking subjects, in this case low-income, racialized communities, but rather from the racially and socioeconomically stigmatizing language ideologies that orient the ears of listening subjectsÓ (in Avineri, et.al, p. 78). Marta has internalized the messages she is receiving from non-Latino listening subjects and what Flores & Rosa (2015) refer to as the broader raciolinguistic ideologies they are embedded in and come to understand her language practices, which I experienced as rich and dexterous, as deficient.    As a White woman with many unearned privileges, the fact that I speak two languages has never been seen as deficient. Even as a novice in Spanish, I was always greeted with surprise and praise when anyoneÑin particular native Spanish speakersÑfound out that I could put together a couple of phrases in Spanish. Of course, the color of my skin has led native Spanish speakers to assume I do not speak Spanish, however any grammatical or vocabulary mistakes  122 that I have made were never used against me to feel as though my Spanish was deficient in any manner. Having been an immigrant myself in another country, I had experienced this feeling of being an outsider in a land not necessarily mine. In order to develop more wholesome and humanizing relationships with the participants of this study and accompanying members such as teachers and families, it was vital for me to share these experiences with the students. Thus, as Paris (2011) notes, by Òthis sharing of self in dialogic processÉ[can lead] youth to share themselves in more genuine and honest waysÉ[leading] to richer and truer data than the model of the somewhat detached, neutral researcherÓ (p. 139) that previous qualitative research methods have utilized in previous years. During a joint interview with Eduardo and Roberto, I shared an experience of my own experiences of being different: Kristina: K: Have you ever felt like someone has treated you like you didnÕt want to be treated? Both: Yeah. K: I can give you an example of my own. WhatÕs my skin color? Both: White. K: Yeah. IÕm a White girl, arenÕt I?  Both: (Laughing) K: ThatÕs a part of my formation. My identity. One time in Spain, there were people next to me talking about me in Spanish thinking that I couldnÕt speak Spanish. They were talking very rudely about me. Just the assumption because of how I looked that I couldnÕt understand them really made me feel uncomfortableÑlike I didnÕt belong.   123 Eduardo: When I first started learning English, and the kids picked on me. It made me feel terrible. It made me want to learn English.  Roberto: ItÕs hard to be Mexican here. They donÕt let migrants in, and sometimes they will stop you and ask you for your papers just because of how you look. If you donÕt show them your papers, they send you to jail, and sometimes back to Mexico. WeÕre not allowed to be here. ItÕs not fair. Anyone should be able to come to America. WeÕre all supposed to be equal.        (personal communication, 8/3/15) In this instance, Roberto is both expressing how equality is supposed to exist while at the same time explicitly referencing his experiences and those of the undocumented or Mexican community members to display that equality does not in fact exist. Although the reality is that there is extreme social inequity and inequality both in the U.S.Õs past, present, and, unfortunately, future as well, the myth of equality still survives (Olsen, 1997). Eduardo was aware of the hardships of being different as well. Despite being born in the United States, Spanish and sometimes Zapoteco were spoken in EduardoÕs home, and, thus, he did not begin learning English until he was of school age. His feelings of not belonging were motivating factors for EduardoÑin what Norton (2013) would sayÑto ÒinvestÓ in his English language learning. Being bullied or picked on must be understood Òin relationship to larger, inequitable structures within the [classroom], and the larger society, in which immigrant language learners are often considered illegitimate speakers of EnglishÓ (p. 168). This sensation of being considered an outsider for the way one speaks English was a common thread for all participants.  124 Many of these students felt their English was strong but not strong enough, and none explicitly talked about how language learning is a complex process and never perfect nor did they consider the fact that their monolingual English-speaking counterparts might have been the ones with the Òlanguage gap.Ó As Alim & Paris (2015) note, more forward-thinking approaches towards language, teaching, and learning should perhaps Òconsider those children who bring no additional linguistic and cultural resources to school as ÔdeficientÕÓ (in Avineri, et.al, p. 80). Eduardo was not the only one who expressed being treated unfairly for his English. Jos” spoke of similar instances, and how those instances influenced his sense of self-worth imbibed in him a feeling of failure in the school system that has stuck with him for over eight years:  Jos”: I was brought here 8 years ago at the age of 5 from Guanajuato, Mexico. Trying to fit in wasnÕt that easy. I got bullied a lot because I didnÕt know English. It was a big struggle. I came here, and I started off in 1st grade but they put me back into kindergarten.  Kristina: How did that feel? I mean you were only whatÑ5 or 6 years old? J: I wanted to leave. I wanted to go back. It felt like everyone spoke really ugly. I thought they were strangers. I just wanted to leave and go back to Mexico but after a while I got used to it. I was failing pretty much. I didnÕt understand anything. K: Who said you were failing? J: My parents. They knew I was failing because that is what the teachers told them.  125 K: What do you mean by failing?  J: I didnÕt know how to read or write. I did know my numbers. [Teachers] told me that I should stay back and do the year over, but my parents said that I could keep going. They said I was smart enough; that I wasnÕt dumb. It was just a dramatic change. After third grade, they saw a dramatic change, and even I felt it. After being a failing kid, I started getting AÕs and BÕs outta nowhere. Since then, I have tried to keep it in that area. Right now, in 8th grade, I finished it with 3 AÕs and 2 BÕs. But the disadvantage that I have is that I am considered a ÒSpecial EdÓ kid because I donÕt read fast enough but I comprehend. ThatÕs the problem I have. So it has been kind of difficult.   (personal communication, 8/10/15) In addition to being bullied for his linguistic difference upon moving to the United States, Jos” continues to suffer the stigma that comes with being a migrant from Mexico. Jos”, along with all of the other students in the summer program, had to take pre- and post-reading tests to determine reading level. He did very well on both tests showing that he was reading at his grade level. Yet, the school he attends the rest of the year find his reading fluency to not be up to par. The notion that the school has labeled him as a special needs student despite his success in school and his excellent English skills follows what Flores & Rosa (2015) refer to as raciolinguistic ideologies through which Jos” has been Òconstructed as linguistically deviant even when engaging in linguistic practices positioned as normative or innovated when produced by privileged White subjectsÓ (p. 150). What the authors call the ÒWhite listening subjectÓÑin this case the school,  126 administrators and teachers of the school he regularly attends throughout the academic year continue to ÒhearÓ him as a long-term English learner. I was also one of those White listening subjects. Prior to my time at Project NOMAD, I made an assumption that the individuals I would be working with would most likely be emergent bilinguals. I created an interview protocol in both English and Spanish to use with the students and the families without even getting to know the individuals themselves. Jos”, who regularly went back and forth between English and Spanish with me and his peers showed strengths in both languages, and had he been Òa privileged White student who was able to engage in the bilingual language practice[s], [he] might even be perceived as linguistically giftedÓ (p. 157). Although Jos” was both fully aware and proud of his talents, he was also conscious of the larger systemic messages being sent to him by labeling him in certain ways because of where he came from despite the fact that he has spent two thirds of his life in Michigan.  While Jos” seemed to be the only participant aware of the how his language was perceived systemically, all participants were proud of the fact that they could speak in more than one language. They all expressed a desire to receive instruction that would assist in the development of their Spanish language skills. The summer program provided a culture class where a woman from Oaxaca, Mexico came and spoke every Monday in Spanish for the complete hour. The teacher also worked with them to practice MixtecoÑan indigenous language of Oaxaca. Despite the studentsÕ emerging oral bilingualism, only a few were able to read and write in Spanish: Kristina: Do you read in Spanish? Marta: A little bit. I can read in Spanish but only kind of. I am not as fluent of a reader in Spanish as I am in English.  127 K: In what language do you speak with your friends? M: English. Sometimes Spanish and English if they speak both. K: How many of your friends speak Spanish? M: 80%? K: What does that feel like to you to be bilingual? M: ItÕs easier because you know two languages, and when you grow up, they are more likely to give you a job for knowing two languages.       (personal communication, 7/30/15) Knowing that their English literacy skills were stronger, the young women both discussed wanting to practice their Spanish literacy skills further, and they also understood that this was important not just for them as emergent bilinguals but also for some students who did not speak English at all.  Kristina: How would you feel if this program incorporated more Spanish skills? Marta: It would be a little bit better. K: Why? M: ThereÕs studentsÉthereÕs two little girls that I know that donÕt understand. They have trouble understanding English, and it would help them understand it better. Help them read and write better.       (personal communication, 8/11/15)  128 Marta has witnessed the need for linguistic support in her peers and understands that development of Spanish language skills are important, and although the educational policy does not promote such language development, it is an aspect of schooling that she thinks is vital to the success of her fellow migrant students. Marta is living out policy as it is experienced at her level, and in this instance, it is through the lack of policy initiative to provide a largely emergent bilingual population with linguistic support necessary to help them do better in their traditional school settings where the English monolingual ideology is ever present. Furthermore, this blocking of bilingual education in educational policy is evidence of such ideology. The term bilingual was entirely removed from NCLB, and there is no support of bilingual education in Title I, Part C. This is despite the fact that 81% of farmworkers speak Spanish, nearly 60% of foreign-born farmworkers cannot read or speak English, and only 35% responded as being able to speak some English (National Agricultural Workers Survey, FY 2011Ð2012). Critical approaches to such policy emphasize Òhow language policies can be hegemonic by delimiting minority language education and use and favoring dominant language varietiesÓ (as cited in Hornberger and Johnson, 2007).  However hegemonic such policies can be, Hornberger and Johnson (2007) would argue that it truly depends on whether or not local agents comply with or resist such policies. While there are several Spanish-speaking teachers, aides, administrators, and recruiters at NOMAD who regularly communicate with students and each other in Spanish and thus promoting multilingualism, classroom instruction that I observed and experienced by participants such as Marta was almost always in English no matter the grade level. Although the informal communication may have taken place in Spanish or English, the fact that curricula was conducted in English upheld the policy initiatives of focusing on English. While learning English was and is considered a tool necessary to survive and thrive in dominant U.S. schools and society  129 by the program, providing instruction multilingually would provide students with support their need in practicing their Spanish academically. As Flores & Rosa (2015) note, supporting studentsÕ native language skills Òchallenges the idealized monolingualism of constructs such as Ôfirst languageÕ and Ôsecond languageÕ and argues for more dynamic language constructs that resist monolingual populations and their linguistic practicesÓ (p. 154). That is, through persistent discussions with participants about continuing using and developing their Spanish language skills, culture classes in their summer program and working with teachers who were bilingual or former migrant students themselves provided youth with opportunities to challenge the English monolingual ideologies and continue to participate in both English and Spanish with their friends and throughout all aspects of the program. While not always present within instruction or curricular experiences, Project NOMAD, the individuals who work there, and other opportunities presented to the students, the program really provided these youth with powerful humanizing and culturally sustaining experiences. Such experiencesÑwhich will be explored in more depth in later chaptersÑare crucial to combatting dominant linguistic and racializing ideologies. As we will see in the next section, such colonizing ideologies cause what migrant youth understand as feelings of marginalization, and force them to find ways to create their own senses of belonging.  ÒItÕs me that is resistingÓ: Migrant Students and A Sense of (Not) Belonging   Pride of Mexican heritage was something shared with me by all of the young people in this study. Marta was very aware of differences between herself and her non-migrant peers where some participants, like Luc™a, seemed unsure and uncomfortable talking about racial and ethnic differences. However, all admitted to experiencing feelings of belonging in some atmospheres and groups and not belonging to others.  BelongingÑor not belongingÑtook place in several different spheres but most notably in different schools and in terms of nationality.  130 During reading hour, students would move around to different classrooms based on their reading level which was determined by a pre-test done the first few weeks of the summer program. Some students would leave to go to lower or higher grade levels, and other students from various classrooms and grade levels would enter the 6th grade room. During one of these hours, I listened in on a conversation between five students: two were participants in my study, Eduardo and Roberto. The discussion was about Òlooking Mexican.Ó Roberto and a friend of his were telling one younger girl that she did not Òlook MexicanÓ and were asking her about her heritage. Defensively, the girl admitted that she was in fact Mexican. She was born in Mexico, but her grandfather was from Spain, making her 25% Spanish. Her discomfort led the boys to stop questioning her. Later that afternoon, I conducted a joint interview with Eduardo and Roberto, and I started off by asking about that conversation and what it meant to them to be Mexican: Roberto: To be fully (Mexican) means we grew up over here. Eduardo: But were born over there.  Kristina: (To Eduardo) Were you born over there? E: Me? No. IÕm half Mexican. K: What is the other half? E: American. K: (To Roberto) What about you? R: IÕm fully Mexican. (personal communication, 8/3/15) In both of these instancesÑthe classroom discussion and the interviewsÑstudents were trying to prove and reinforce their Mexicanness by bringing up this notion of blood-nationality makeup. To be more or lessÑfully, half or 75%ÑMexican was playing out in their eyes as how much  131 they or their families had been contaminated by Whiteness or Americanness. These students were aware of how they were racialized by dominant, White society, and, thus, seemed to racialize themselves as a product of constantly living out feelings of marginalization. By being as Òfully MexicanÓ as possible, these young people were taking back the power. As noted in the opening vignette, students admitted to being treated or viewed differently and less than for being migrant, but they also admitted a pride in being Latino and being migrant. All of my participants were proud of their Mexican and/or indigenous heritage, their Spanish language abilities, and of being migrant. Having already conducted initial interviews with these two young men, I had known that Roberto was born in Oaxaca, Mexico and came to the U.S. when he was 2 years old. However, Eduardo had told me he was born in Veracruz, Mexico. What had caused this young man to give me two varying answers? I did not want to embarrass him in front of his peer and family member, Roberto, and unfortunately this was our last interview together. My imagination leads me to believe that with Roberto in the room, he knew he had to tell the truthÑand had no problem doing so. Internally, it seems as though Eduardo struggled with his own self-identification, perhaps feeling as if he had wanted to be born in Mexico because his American peers treated differentlyÑas an outsider for his English. Eduardo seemed to feel colonized in some senseÑthat being born in the U.S. had somewhat tainted his Mexican identity. Eduardo found himself in what Anzaldœa (1987) calls the Òborderlands.Ó Describing what seemed to be a common thread for all of my participants, Anzaldœa noted: Ò[c]radled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner wayÉLike others having or living in more than one culture, we get  132 multiple, often opposing messages. The coming together of two self-consistent but habitually incompatible frames of references causes un choque, a cultural collisionÓ (p. 100).  Roberto, on the other hand, was very confident in his initial answer of being ÒfullyÓ Mexican. However, I continued to probe since, him having spent 11 years in the United States, I was curious to know if he felt any sense of American identity: K: So you donÕt consider yourself American at all? R: 5% because of my brother. K: What does that mean? R: Like, IÕm kind of White because my brother is White. E: HeÕs super White! For real. K: But you have the same parents? R: Yeah.  K: But he just has a different skin color? R: Yea. But my dad is White, too. K: So you associate skin tone with being of a certain country? R: No. Where they grew up.  K: So you said you are 5% American because you have a light-skinned brother? R: No. Because heÕs an American. He was born in Florida. K: So, because your brother was born in the U.S., that makes you part American? R: Yeah.  133     (personal communication, 8/3/15) Although Roberto admitted to his brother and father having lighter skin tones than him, he made the clear connection between being White and being American, and he was not the only one. Throughout my interviews and observations, there was consistent discussion around race and its ties to nationalityÑin particular being American meant being White. Being aware of their brownness, this connection caused most students with whom I interacted to consider themselves Mexican and not American despite having spent more time in the U.S. than in Mexico. Despite being in America for such lengths of time, many felt a sense of not belonging in America because they felt different or were treated differently not just because of language but also because of their race. Marta exhibited some very strong feelings of not belonging in different settingsÑa feeling I cannot help but tie to her citizenship status. My initial prediction was that Marta would identify to herself as what Menard & Warwick (2008) would define as a transnational in that her Òaccounts [would] emphasize the importance for [her] intercultural identity development having lived long-term in two different national contextsÓ (p. 618). However, despite having spent more time in the U.S. than in Mexico, the opposite seemed to unfold. MartaÕs understanding of belonging to certain groups is tied with her understandings of culture. Culture is understood here as Menard & Warwick (2008) refer to it mean a Ògroup of people (e.g., a nation) sharing practices (e.g., greetings), perspectives (attitudes, values), and products (books, foods, etc.)É[and] can also refer to the shared practices, perspectives, and products themselves. In the following excerpt, Marta provided me with insight as to how she defines the differences in being Mexican and American.  Kristina: What is it like to be Mexican?  134 Marta: Well, itÕsÉIÕm happy being a Mexican. I like the food that my mom makesÉtostadas, enchiladas, tamales, everythingÉ you work. K: Where do you work? M: In the field? K: Is that all Mexicans? Some? M: Most.  K: What else does it mean to be Mexican? M: You have to get by a lot during the day like work, get home and make food. K: What about being American? M: I donÕt know. Their schedule might be easy or hard depending on where they work. Some of them work in the field but not most of them.  K: Do Americans look a certain way? M: They are like light-skinned, and we are dark-skinned. K: Who is ÒweÓ? M: Mexicans? K: Are you an American resident? M: No. K: YouÕve lived here for so long. You came here when you were a little girl. Do you feel like any part of you is becoming American or partially American?  135 M: I speak a lot more English. English is part of being American.       (personal communication, 8/11/15) Hard work was a common aspect of what it meant to be Mexican for all of my participants. These students understood the cultural practices of being Mexican to be one of a strong work ethic, transition, struggle, and survival. Despite the fact that Marta considered herself a strong English speaker and preferred to speak in English with me, she continued to feel like she did not belong with other Americans or feel American herself. For Marta, there are many cultural as well as physical differences separating her from being able to be American. The connection she made to her English as a trait of Americanness is thought-provoking, but was immediately followed by MartaÕs clear resistance to identifying herself as belonging in America:  Kristina: This feeling of not really feeling American, even though you have lived here for a long timeÑlonger than you lived in Mexico. What do you think is causing this feeling of not belonging? Marta: I think it is me resisting it. Since I came from Mexico, and I wasnÕt born here and since like we have different traditions, and they do different stuff that I canÕt do because of the papers and stuff. Like they can play soccer and stuff when I canÕt because I donÕt have [Medicaid] and you need that to play or join teams. I donÕt know what else. I just feel more Mexican than White.     (personal communication, 8/11/15) MartaÕs understanding of access to certain benefits provided by the government to citizens directly impacts her feelings of not belonging in America. Her reference to Medicaid and  136 ÒpapersÓ draws a clear line in the sand between what her American counterparts have access to doing and what she as a non-U.S. citizen cannot do to fully enjoy her childhood. Also interesting here is MartaÕs distinction between being Mexican and being White versus being American. She is not White, and we discussed this; she does not need to feel White. The problem that exists lies within the face that Whiteness and Americanness are almost inextricably linked not just for her but for U.S. society at large. Marta described incidents where family members were treated as illegals and job-stealers by Americans. She also testified to hearing consistent stories of police maltreatment and racismÑconstantly being asked for papers. Although she did not make those connections explicitly to her feelings of not belonging in some ways within American society, they came through in her answers to my questions. Jos” expressed some similar opinions and understanding of being treated unfairly: J: They shouldnÕt judge people by their color or by the standard they have.  K: Who is they? J: Us. Hispanics. K: Being judged by whom? J: Americans. ÒAmericans.Ó White people. Like Donald Trump for example. K: What does it mean to be American? J: Actually ÒAmericanÓ for me is being part of America. Not being American for being in the USA like everyone things. YouÕre not just American for living in the USA. YouÕre American because you live in the continent of America. America is all one. There is  137 North America and South America. ItÕs all one. So I donÕt understand why they say ÒWeÕre American and youÕre HispanicÓ because we are all Americans. K: American to you should all-inclusive. Is that the reality? J: No. K: Then what does it mean to be ÒAmericanÓ? J: To be ÒAmericanÓ means to be born here. To be White, I guess. Having ancestors from Britain. Knowing English. ThatÕs it I guess. K: Why does being born here matter? J: I donÕt know. K: Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that you werenÕt born here? J: I guess. K: What do you consider yourself? J: Mexican.    (personal communication, 8/11/15) While Jos” discussed the mature concept that no matter where you are from on either the South or North American continent, you are American. However, he is aware of the larger national discourse on what it means to be ÒAmericanÓ or belonging to the United States. While I support all of these young peopleÕs decision to identify as MexicanÑeven if some were born hereÑit is disheartening that there exists this larger ideology that equates being American with being White; that these young people are so aware of this ideology that they consider themselves to  138 resist being American. In one sense, this can take the form of resistance. However, another way to look at this is as a form of survival. Moreover, none of the participants of my study had ever returned to visit Mexico, and I would be curious to know how such an experience would impact his or her identity. Suar”z-Orozco & Suar”z-Orozco (2001) note that: Ò[a]n immigrant enters a new culture and no matter how hard she tries, will never completely belong; her accent will not be quite right, and her experiences will always be filtered through the dual frame of reference. Nor will she ÒbelongÓ in her old country; her new experiences change her, altering the filters through which she views the worldÓ (p. 93).  With such pride of Mexican heritage and a sense of belonging to a country that most of these participants left before the age of 4, the experiences of migration are complicated and deserve special attention for all human beings deserve a sense of belonging not just in a camp or a summer migrant program but in many more spacesÑespecially schools.   Many participants discussed feelings of joy when they came to Michigan or returned to Florida, these feelings were caused by the excitement of seeing their friends, and more often than not, their friends were fellow Mexicans or migrant studentsÑthey were in spaces where they felt they belonged.  Marta experienced exuding different identities or being treated or feeling differently in different social and schooling settings. Both young women felt a sense of belonging to the summer program because they would reunite with friends, and in Florida where they spend the majority of their time, their friendships helped them feel welcome. Below, Marta describes the differences in her sense of belonging comparing the traditional school experiences she has in Florida and Michigan:   139 Marta: In the school I go to here, there are more White people, and in Florida, there [are] more Mexicans. Kristina: Do you feel different when you go to these different schools? M: Well, I feel awkward around the White people because they like tell you stuff like Ôwhy are you likeÉ?Õ discriminating, and in Florida, they donÕt do that. K: Why donÕt they do that in Florida? M: in Florida, I go to school with a lot of Mexicans, and there [are] White people, too, but they get along, and here they donÕt get along.  K: Do you have any idea as to why that might be? M: Maybe because some of the White people understand what being Mexican is? And some of them work, too. And over here, none of them work, so they donÕt understand what being Mexican is.       (personal communication, 8/11/15) Marta is describing how race is not the only contributing factor to being understood as an individual. Her White friends in Florida seem to understand her as a Mexican, and although not explicitly stated, it is quite possible that she is referring to socio-economic status as one of the key components to Òunderstand[ing] what being Mexican is.Ó  Kristina: How do you feel when you move here to the camps?  140 Marta: Good. Excited because I come to see my friends and everything. And itÕs a fun camp.  K: And your friends, are they from the program? Also migrant kids? M: Yes. K: What about when you move to Davis (pseudonym)? M: Lonely. I get frustrated. There arenÕt as many friends around. I donÕt talk much over there. IÕm shy. I donÕt talk, they donÕt talk.  K: I do not believe that. You are not shy. M: (laughing) not after I get used to you! Over there, there are not as much Mexicans. There are other kinds of people, and I only talk to a little bit of people. K: When you say other kinds of people, what do you mean? M: (laughing) like Chinese people, (quietly) White peopleÉdifferent kind of races. K: Would you say the majority of your friends are like you? M: Yea. K: Why might you be more shy around these other types of peopleÑof other races? M: They say words that I canÕt understand.       (personal communication, 7/30/15)   141 Although Marta places the stress on language as a barrier in this instance, the context around the statement indicates that she feels out of place in Davis. Wortham & Rhodes (2013) argued that Òin any event of social identificationÉseveral resources from various scales will be relevant to explaining how a particular social identity emergedÓ for Marta (p. 540). The authors noted that the phenomenon of identity development is Òa heterogeneous amalgam of ideas, embodied dispositions, and material objects that [emerge] across events for several yearsÓ (p. 539. This perspective should be taken into consideration when understanding MartaÕs feelings of whether or not she belongs to certain groups or in certain spheres. Her understanding of the dispositions of the local communities around her in the four spaces she lives throughout the year play a role in how she behaves and identifies as an individual. In Florida, Marta feels understood by the large Mexican and migrant community in addition to the other racial groups of the area who Òunderstand what being Mexican is.Ó When Marta comes to Michigan, she spends the summer living in a migrant camp with other Mexicans and migrant youth and attends a summer program dedicated to migrant youthÑyouth who she identifies as her friends that she is excited to see and reunite with year after year. However, in the fourth spaceÑwhere she feels she does not belongÑthere are cultural differences, dispositions of peers who are not like her, and she lacks a support group of those ÒlikeÓ her. Suar”z-Orozco & Suar”z-Orozco (2001) note that Ò [f]acing such charged attitudes that assault and undermine their sense of self, minority children may come to experience the institutions of the dominant societyÑand most specifically its schoolsÑas alien terrain reproducing an order of inequalityÓ (p. 95). It is in Davis where she feels like an outlier and in turn affects the way she engages and participates in the local and school community while spending 3-6 weeks of each year.   142  The different racial groups and lack of Mexican peers in Davis places Marta as an outlier, and in turn, her identity and confidence shifts as she loses her sense of belonging from the summer program to the fall traditional school setting.  As Grenfell (2012) noted, ÒBourdieu argues that social inequalities in relation to schooling can actually be more pronounced than economic inequalities in societyÉand contrary to schoolsÕ stated aims to train, educate, and develop, their principal function is to socially differentiateÓ (p. 56). If MartaÕs school in Davis made better efforts for Marta to feel welcomed socially into the school, and if her peers were somehow able to better Òunderstand what being Mexican is,Ó she might not feel such a sense of not belonging in this school environment. In turn, these feelings manifest in a lowered self-confidence level, decreased participation and engagement in the schooling, and increased resistance to feeling American in general for Marta. It is no surprise then when Marta compared her schooling experiences, the school in Davis was characterized as not fun, boring, teacher-centered and not helpful.   This begs the question: What can teachers and schools do to provide equitable, safe, and engaging learning environments for migrant youth? One answer provided by Menard & Warwick (2008) is that teachers need to develop Òintercultural competence and a meta-awareness of this competence, how they define their (inter)cultural identities, and how they approach (inter) cultural issues with their studentsÓ (p. 634). That is to say that teacher education programs need to provide pre-service teachers with opportunities to practice negotiating cultural matters with students, and in that practice develop the skills necessary to make all students of various cultures feel welcome, appreciated and celebrated in the classroom. Another way that schools can provide engaging learning environments for migrant youth is in the pedagogical moves teachers make in their classrooms. Teachers and administrators can act locally in ways that resist hegemonic  143 policies such as the ones put forth in the following chapter. Although the State has specific requirements for programs such as Project NOMAD, teachers are not given scripts of what they are to say and do 100% of the time between those bells. Hawkins & Norton (2009) also call for critical language teacher education. That is, teachers and teacher education programs need to take a critical approach towards traditional and existing language ideologies. Through praxisÑwhere theory and practice meet to create and ignite social change, the authors argued that teachersÑas the Òsocial mediatorsÓ for new, immigrant and migrant students can Òmake transparent the complex relationships between majority and minority speakers and cultural groups, and between diverse speakers of the majority language, thus having the potential to disrupt potentially harmful and oppressive relations of powerÓ (p. 2). Alim & Paris (2015) called for critical language awareness and culturally sustaining pedagogies to challenge racial, linguistic and ethnic hegemony. The young womenÕ feeling that they possess a language gap is a sensation that has been constructed from the top-down. The students recognize that their bilingualism is a strength and consider their English skills strong, but they still feel as though they are missing something. In order to combat this Òlinguistic supremacy,Ó the authors argue that education and education research needs to rethink the language gap. If these two young young women are bilingual, but feel their English is not up to par with their American counterparts, is it the young women or their American counterparts who possess the language gap? By Òperpetuat[ing] and foster[ing] linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism,Ó schools can become agents of change and empowerment as well as challenge and reshape language ideologies rather than upholding existing power relations and the current monoglossic ideologies inherent in U.S. society (Avineri, et.al. (2015), p. 80). The work I did with these young people sheds light on the ways that language and atmosphere play a role in how these two migrant youth  144 shape and shift their identity in different spaces. The surrounding atmosphere impacts they way that these young people identify and their sense of belonging. Such findings might be able to provide pre- and in-service teachers with insight into how creating safe learning environments can impact the ways in which migrant youth experience education, and in turn, feel like they belong to varying social groups. Although this chapter focused on how such monoglossic language ideologies are realities for these young women, the overall study aimed to push for what Garc™a (2009) calls Òheteroglossic language ideologiesÓ where the norm shifts from a single, hierarchical language such as English persists to be in this country to a multilingual perspective. There also needs to be a shift in the larger national dialogue away from othering migrants due to language, nationality and race. The current political divide in the United States has made immigration a foregrounding issue, and as seen by the opinions of my participants, they are quite aware of how a large part of the nation feels about Mexican migrants. Such discourse is all the more reason to provide migrant youth with educational experiences which help bridge gaps, that instill and promote pride in being Latino, and pride in being a migrant. The next chapter discusses how these migrant youth experience education as it plays out in testing and math instruction at NOMAD.        145 VIGNETTE SHOE BOXES: ÒTHESE ARE THE ONLY PAIR I OWN.Ó   It was my first day at Project NOMAD. Upon arrival, my day began meeting with the two lead program administrators, Rosa and Samuel. They were brother and sister, children of migrant farmworkers and former students of the program. Both now teachersÑone in kindergarten and the other in high schoolÑRosa and Samuel wanted to figure out my goals to best accommodate my study. After a brief introduction of themselves and the program, Samuel gave me a tour of the building and introduced me to many of the teachers, recruiters and other employees. Upon returning to the icy administrative office, I asked what I could do to be of service. A handful of students were working one on one with teachers at desks around the office. Samuel asked if I would mind helping proctor literacy assessments as the program was continuously receiving more students each day and the list of students to pre-test was growing and growing. Jumping at the opportunity to immediately start working one on one with students, I eagerly agreed, and Samuel gave me a brief training session on how to give the assessment. Having worked with reading assessments before, I caught on quickly, and set out to find the next student on the ever-growing list.   Some students on the list had their last known reading level next to their name. Other students were completely new to the program, and these students required a guessing game where proctors had to test out different reading levelsÑsometimes up to four or five different textsÑbefore finding one that the student could actually read or that was not too easy for the student. Some teachers who were proctoring would simply begin after asking for the studentÕs name, while others including myself asked a few questions to make the students feel comfortable and get some background information as well: ÒWhere are you from? Do you like to read? Do you read at home?Ó The assessment itself provides a student survey of such reading engagement  146 questions for students to answer yet teachers did not always employ these. Each reading level included one to three different texts. I noticed before I began helping that some of the teachers proctoring the assessment simply chose the text for the student, and I knew at that moment that I would let the students choose which text they read.   Samuel looked to the list and explained to me where to start. I would first begin by pulling Julia and Santiago. Samuel pointed to their names, and next to both of their names was written Ò34Ó which meant they were both last recorded as reading at what the assessment listed a third grade reading level despite both being in fourth grade. Both were excited to read, and seemed especially motivated to read after choosing which text they wanted to read. The assessments went fairly smoothly for them. Julia and Santiago had both shown growth from the previous summer. After finding their instructional level and determine their intervention reading groups, I walked them back to their classrooms. After checking the list again, I went down the hall to one of the third grade rooms to find Isabel, a young girl from North Carolina. Isabel had a beautiful oral fluency when I asked her to read aloud. In the second stage of the battery, Isabel was asked to read the rest of the story silently to herself and answer the questions that followed the passage. Knowing it would take her a bit of time, Samuel suggested I go and get another student from IsaÕs class.   Ariana was from Florida. She was not as fluent a reader as Isa had been, but she was still able to complete the first task. After asking Ariana to read silently, I looked over at Isa who was falling asleep on top of her text. I walked over and gently woke her up. She had not completed her writing, and what she did have written down were passages copied directly from the text and did not answer the questions at all. I went back to Ariana who had been writing the answers to four short answer questions for over twenty minutes. She also seemed very tired. Both  147 girls had been in the office with their peer test-takers and me for nearly an hour at this point, and I could not help but feel terrible for these young girlsÑbored, tired, stressed. I looked at the schedule and saw that their classroom had PE coming up in a few minutes, so I walked them outside to the yard to meet their class and give them some time outside to re-energize and have some fun with their friends.   After nearly an hour of being out in the fresh air, I went back for both girls so they could finish their tests. One of IsaÕs sandals was broken. Ariana pointed it out to her, and Isa responded, ÒI know. My mom is going to be so mad. These are my only pair of shoes.Ó Begrudgingly, the girls returned to their seats, picked up their pencils and attempted to pick up where they left off. In the meantime, I went for another studentÑthis one was in first grade. Manolo was very excited to read. He loved reading but didnÕt have any books at home in the camp. Being a first grader, Manolo did not have to do any writing, and so after breezing through a couple of levels, we finally found his instructional levelÑthe level that would determine his reading group teacher. Since he had surpassed his grade level for reading, Manolo would be leaving his class during reading block to work with one of the third grade teachers. From the looks of it, the two girlsÑAriana and IsaÑwould be doing just the oppositeÑmoving from a third grade classroom to a second grade teacher to help get the interventions they needed to read and write at grade level.   After walking Manolo back to class, I returned to the office to check on Isa and Ariana. Ariana was finishing up, but it had still taken her a long time to complete her answers. Isa had not gotten very far since returning from PE. They had passed previous reading level texts with what seemed to be ease, but this next level seemed so difficult for them. I imagined what it would be likeÑthe exhaustion of sitting and testingÑthe girls had run out of steam and were not being  148 intellectually stimulated at all. I asked Samuel what to doÑit was not fair for these girls to miss as much instructional time as they did for these reading tests. Samuel sympathetically agreed to allow Isa to finish by answering the questions orally. I returned to Isa and tried to comfort her. Even asking her to answer the questions aloud to me instead of writing, she said to me with a face of defeat, ÒMy throat is itchy. I canÕt do this anymore.Ó I looked around the office, and Isa was not alone in her exhaustion.   I walked her back to class and Having proctored five students who had to complete anywhere from two to five batteries in order to find their independent and instructional levels, I had been rather disappointed in the books these students had to read for the tests. The younger students were excited with most of the books, but againÑthese early elementary students were not forced to write for part of their assessment. I looked through the box of reading materials and began to peruse. There was Shoe BoxesÑa tale of Mandy and her two siblingsÑwho appear to have brown skinÑwho all get new shoes. Mandy got new blue shoes for her birthday, MandyÕs sister new baseball shoes, and MandyÕs brother got new soccer shoes, and after taking all of their shoes out, the kids decide what to do with their empty shoe boxes. Another was Where is my Hat?Ña story of a young African American boy named Ben who lost his hat. He looks under his own bed, his closet, and his toy box, and finally his mother finds his hat behind a chair. Despite attempting to use variations of skin color as a diversifying aspect of these texts, the students of this summer program could not relate to most of these readings, if any. I had just walked a girl back to her class who had broken one of her two sandalsÑthe only pair of shoes she owned. I had worked with Manolo who loved reading but did not have any books at home. I ended up visiting camps where these young people live with their families of four, five, even seven all under the roof of a one-bedroom mobile home. Most of these migrant youth did not  149 have toy boxes, or closets or beds of their own. Not only did these students have to sit hunched over a desk often too tall for them answering questions on a piece of paper, but they were forced to read and respond to texts in which they could not envision themselves.   Isa was not the only one in that office that day to spend several hours completing the assessment. When I placed her assessment packets into the ÒCompletedÓ bin on RosaÕs desk, I explained to the teachers in the office the difficulty Isa had. It was nothing new to their ears. It was a feeling of frustration that seemed to hover over that office, and it would remain there for some time. I looked back at the list of students that I was so eager to look at earlier that day, and my heart sank. As a member of five people proctoring tests, we had not even finished two pages out of eight listing the students currently enrolled, and more were coming. More did come. The recruiters expected at least a hundred more students to come within the next few days. The thought of having to put nearly four hundred students through such this assessment held heavy on my shoulders, and the thought that even a handful let alone a significant number of these students would share IsaÕs experience held heavy on my heart. Knowing that this was an unfair and disengaging practice, some of the teachers proctoring the assessments would make estimates of where their reading level would be so that students could return to their classrooms. Despite these requirements, students still enjoyed many aspects of the program, and seemed to enjoy being at NOMAD. Even when assessments like this can affect how students view their skills in reading or math, students knew they brought so much more than this to the table. They were proud of themselves, of their families, and most came to NOMAD with an eagerness to participate. The strength of these young people helped activate within me on my first day at Project NOMAD a desire to join these youth in a more equitable present and future through empowering educational experiences.   150 CHAPTER FIVE POLICY IN PRACTICE: HOW MIGRANT YOUTH EXPERIENCE  TESTING AND MATH AT PROJECT NOMAD   There are many aspects of being a migrant that make this population very unique. The regular migration between and within states, changing and sometimes missing school, and pressures of choosing between having to work in the field or attending summer enrichment programs are just some of the distinctive experiences of being a migrant youth. It is because of these attributes common to the migrant experience that policy must permit flexibility to the actors who interpret and implement it at the local level.   All but one of the participant youth moved at least two times each year with their families in search of work. Jos” and his family had not moved in a couple of years, providing him with the ability to be in the same school year round. Luc™a moves each year between three different states where her parents work picking and packaging produce like jalapeŒos, blueberries, and apples. She begins the academic school year in Florida, leaves for North Carolina in May or, and then she comes to Michigan in June or July just before Project NOMAD begins. Luc™a admitted that some years she does not finish the school year if they leave early for North Carolina. Thus, there are some years that she misses out on at least three weeks of instruction.   Marta moved three times each year as well, but only between two states. Marta spends the entire summer on the west coast of Michigan on a blueberry farm about 20 miles from Project NOMAD. She then moves to an apple farm about 75 miles north of the first where she starts the academic school year. In October or November, Marta moves to Florida to pick blueberries again. She is able to finish up the academic year at the same school every year in Florida, but she admits that regularly feeling that her educational experiences suffer at the  151 expense of these moves. At Davis, the school she attends in the fall, Marta explained that they are often teaching her content she learned the previous year at her school in Florida. Then, when she returns to Florida in November, she has missed out on a lot of important learning:  Kristina: When you go to Florida, how do you feel about missing those first few weeks? Marta: I feel mad-ish. Frustrated. Sad-ish. My friends arenÕt with me, and I miss a lot of the teaching.  K: When you get to school and you jump back into it, do you feel behind? M: Yea. Some of the skills I havenÕt learned yet. Like when I get there, they are already taking a test. I donÕt know what they are doing, and they have binders full of papers, and mine is empty. Last year, when I went back, the first day they were taking a science test about the different cells in the body. And I hadnÕt learned that yet. So that was different for me. I took the test, but they didnÕt count it.        (personal communication, 7/30/15) Marta told me that there were some teachers who would make the extra effort to help her catch up on missed material, but this was not something all teachers did. Missing several weeks of not just instruction but orientation to the new classrooms and teachers has to be extremely intimidatingÑto the point that the extremely high drop-out rates for migrant youth is not surprising. Losing out on the academic content is not easy to overcomeÑespecially in subject areas that build on previously learned skills such as math. Not being a part of introductory and  152 celebratory end-of-year events can cause students to feel disconnected from their teachers, peers, and the school itself. For this reason, it is vital that migrant youth receive additional support from teachers, schools, and especially summer programs to surpass such hurdles.   In addition to having their education interrupted due to these distant moves, migrant youth are constantly changing their home situation. Although their families are able to provide them with stability in terms of being exemplars of hard work, providing them with love, and a regular moving pattern, their physical homes change multiple times a year, forcing them to uproot regularly and not hold on to material possessions in order to keep such moves light and easy. My parents still remain in the house I grew up in, and I could hardly imagine the circumstances that came with their experiences. Despite my remote knowledge of challenging living conditions for migrant farmworkers via literature and documentaries, Luc™a seemed very content when she described her trailer in Michigan: Luc™a: No, the work gives us our own house. ItÕs a little house. It just has two rooms and a kitchen inside and a bathroom and shower outside. But IÕm used to it.  Kristina: When you say bathroom and shower outside, what do you mean? In the open air? L: There is a plastic bathroom where you can go outside.  K: Like a port-a-potty? L: Yes, and a place where you can take showers. Yes, I like it.  K: Do you think it is big enough for your family? L: Yes, because we are only four.       (personal communication, 7/30/15)  153  Just as El™as had mentioned in his motivational speech at MSU, he was content as well. Although he was not as well off as some of his peers, he was not as unfortunate as others. Thus, Luc™aÕs content with her situation, it was either because it was the only life she knew of because of this appreciation that she was better off than someone who did not have a home at all. Adolfo, another 6th grader, is one of seven children, and all nine of his family members share the same size space as Luc™a. He admitted that he normally sleeps on the floor with his brothers but similar to Luc™a, he did not complain about lack of personal space or the size of his temporary homes. Again, not complaining or seeming content was perhaps due to the fact that their whole life was migrantÑthis was the reality they knew. Of course, there is also the chance that these students did not feel comfortable sharing details of their home lives with meÑwho they knew to be an educated White woman. Moreover, there are often feelings of shame that come with living in poverty, and our racial and cultural differencesÑregardless of how empathetic and understanding I tried to beÑcould prevent students from sharing such feelings with me. Realizing Adolfo focused on the fact that at twelve years old, he already knew he wanted to be an engineer and wanted to go to college, and that was what he focused on. Growing up as a child of privilege who had her own bedroom since age six, I was consistently left on the edge of my seat when talking to participants about their homesÑwaiting for some commentary about wishing they had more space for their families or that they had a playground or soccer nets at their camps that were not made of two small poles and a net draped over the tops (see images 3a & 3b). It was not until a trip to Michigan State University where the director of CAMP gave a motivational speech to the 8th-12th graders from Project NOMAD. During that speech, the director told a little bit about himself, noting that he did not realize he was poor because  154 everyone he was around was poorÑeveryone was a migrant; everyone lived in the camps, and as he put it ÒEstabamos igual de jodidosÓ (ÒWe were all screwedÓ). It was at this moment that their descriptions of life in migrant camps were not coming from a sorrowful place but just one of their natural experience. This is their life. This is what they are used to. This is life as a migrant.  Luc™a at twelve years old was used to having to take on large responsibilities since her parents worked late evenings in the fields and factories. At such a young age, she was already aware of the need that if she wanted to go to college, she would have to start working as soon as she could to save up.  Luc™a: Most of the time, at first I have toÑwell, here there is no homeworkÑbut if there was, I would check my brotherÕs homework to make sure he did his and I did mine. And then I would try and clean the room because my mom doesnÕt always have time because she like goes early to work. So I just do the beds and kinda give a sweep. If then sometimes my friends are there, I go play with them for a while. Then, my brother gets hungry and we just heat up the food in the microwave, so we eat.  Kristina: Do you take care of your brother when you get home? L: (nods). K: Have you ever worked with your parents on the farms? L: Only when we go with this man, and he has (inaudible). IÕm a really slow picker. In two more years with the company, the company says I can start working when I am 14.  K: Do you want to?  155 L: Yes, I do want toÉUsually, they leave around 8 or 9 in the morning. I have to wake up earlier than that when I come here to school. K: Is that the only reason? So that you donÕt have to get up early to go to school?  L: No, I also want to earn more money for my university.        (personal communication, 7/30/15) Luc™a admitted shared that she wanted to go to college in order to help out her parents. She admitted that she knew if she attended college, she would get a better job than they had, be able to help them out financially, and be able to help them go back to Mexico to see her brother and sisterÑwhom Luc™a had never met in person, and her parents had not seen in over twelve years when they moved from Mexico. The awareness of socio-economic status that this young girl and many of her peers had provided them with serious motivation to do well in school, to graduate high school, and attend college. This self-awareness was something that many of the young people that I worked with had which allowed them to understand that Project NOMAD was providing them with supplementary education that could assist them in achieving those goals. While younger students with whom I learned demonstrated an understanding of education as a meritocratic system, there were some discussions with older students at MSU who understood that meritocracy was just a myth. A lack in academic engagement or perhaps resistance also paired quite often with this realization that schools take the assumption through high-stakes, standardized testing that all students can achieve meet the standards. EduardoÕs brother, for example, a high school junior, did not attend the program the last two weeks, and when I asked him why at his home, he said, ÒThere is no point. I wonÕt be coming back next year.Ó Despite  156 knowing that the program could help him in many ways, Project NOMAD would not be the school giving him a diploma, and he wanted to spend his next summer working rather than preparing for a school that he felt was not for him. Although he understood the benefits that summer programs like NOMAD could provide, there was a disconnect to certain aspects of the program that left him feeling it was not worth his time.   While students understood the benefits, there were some aspects imposed on the program by the State that seemed to overlook the challenges that these students face in their daily lives. As we will see in this chapter, the Michigan Migrant Education Program (MiMEP) imposed certain interpretations of the Federal policy on Project NOMAD, and some of these mandates seemed to cause more stress on the program and all of the individuals involvedÑfaculty and studentsÑrather than doing what the program set out to do which was to empower migrant youth and their families. Through mandated pre- and post-testing of math and literacy for all students attending the program and the requirement for all teachers to use a specific mathematics curriculum, the State assumed it was doing what was necessary to best help close the achievement gap between migrant students and their non-migrant peers. In this sense, the State was imposing requirements on NOMAD that prevented them from being able to provide students with culturally relevant or sustaining learning opportunities. Such tests and math requirements also prevented NOMAD and its teachers from being able to use studentsÕ funds of knowledge to drive instruction. However, through interviews, observations, and collections of student writing, this chapter will address how these requirements ended up creating some negative and disengaging experiences for the teachers and especially the students at Project NOMAD.       157 Measurable Outcomes:  Implementing and Experiencing Testing at NOMAD   In order to provide migrant youth with the opportunity to meet the same State academic standards and achievement levels as all children in that state, the MEP requires that States include some form of measurable outcome in order to determine the success of local programs. Prior to the recent change of MiMEP directors, Project NOMAD had been measuring student achievement in literacy and math without being forced to by the State. Understanding that the goals of this migrant summer program wereÑaccording to NOMADÑto provide students with the interventions they need in order to overcome educational achievement gaps because of disruptions in their schooling, the program has been utilizing the Fountas & Pinnell method since 2009. The administrators and teachers had become familiar with the process, they had spreadsheets created, and copies of assessments and readings pre-made. The program considered it an efficient method to determine a studentÕs reading level and ensure that student would be placed in the correct reading group. Working like a well-oiled machine, Project NOMAD was able to get through all 400-600 students each year in less than two weeks to ensure that every student would receive proper intervention for at least four weeks.  When the new migrant administrator at the state level began, changes were made to the system. In what was considered an attempt to make sure all summer migrant programs were measuring student outcomes, the State required the program to switch to a Pearson Education test called the Development Reading Assessment 2nd Edition, or DRA2. The test would determine studentsÕ reading engagement, fluency, and comprehension. The results would allow Project NOMAD to place students based on their reading level in certain classrooms. For example, Mr. Garc™aÑwho taught 6th gradeÑwould have some students as young as 2nd graders and older students not at their reading level come to his classroom so that all students in his room  158 during reading block would be at the same reading level. It provided students with the opportunity to work closely with their reading level peers and reduce stress on teachers so that they would not have to worry about differentiating instruction to meet the needs of a variety of readers in each reading period.   The issue for Project NOMAD was not the fact that they had to administer this assessment but rather the fact that the sheer size of the program has turned out to become a stressful process adapting to the new system when they had a functional one previously in place. Rosa, the lead teacher of the program, noted that the switch has caused frustration for administrators, teachers, and students alike: Òit was really frustrating this year in particular because of how long it was taking for them to do their test, how long it took to get that information to their teachers and only having three weeks of interventions because it took us three weeks to get testing doneÓ (personal communication, 8/10/15). It seemed quite clear that some of the frustration was that the State required this change, and the StateÕs lack of flexibility in this case was possibly detrimental rather than productive in addressing the needs of students. Rather than working with the local agency and allowing them to continue using the methods they were familiar with, the abrupt change has caused a shake to the system.   In addition to the frustration of the switch, testing was often a draining experience for the students. Studies have shown testing to reproduce inequalities for students of color in general. These assessments were created to determine reading levels according to what is in truth White, middle class, monolingual standards, and therefore placing no value on Latina/o or migrant abilities and funds of knowledge. Because these assessments are not reflective of other experiences, they tend to be especially disengaging for Latina/o and indigenous migrant youth who are simultaneously being racialized, languaged, and migrant in a system that does not value  159 any of those identities. New students come every summer to this programÑsome leave after a month, and some come in a month late. Others stay the entire summer, but the program has no academic information either due to a lack of consistency with the inter- and intrastate informational transfer system or perhaps because some of the students had not previously been identified as migrant. For students whose reading level was unknown, giving the assessment was a guessing game. A person proctoring the exam would have to guess based on grade level where a student might be, and from there, students might have to take three, four, five or more assessments to finally determine their instructional versus independent reading level.  Rosa noted: ÒWe donÕt have the luxury of knowing where the students are coming in, so we have to do that guessing gameÑkeep going up or keep going down levelsÑand that can take 2-3 hours, and that is unfair because now the kids are here for 2 ! hours. Are they really going to show what they can do? Or are they getting tired and giving up?Ó      (personal communication, 8/10/15).  The goal was to finish all reading and math assessments within the first two weeks of the seven week program in order to provide students with at least four weeks of intervention with their proper reading group teachers and levelsÑa task Project NOMAD continually succeeded at until recent years when there was a State-mandated switch from the familiar reading assessment which they used for five years to the Pearson EducationÕs reading assessment, DRA2. Such assessments were not required of summer migrant programs under previous Migrant Education Program directors, and Project NOMAD conducted them anyways to provide their students with  160 the support they needed to overcome any gaps in their education due to their patterns of migration The switch to the British-owned test making corporation, Pearson Education, had left the program, its teachers, and most importantly, the students with an overwhelming sense of frustration and lost time that could have been spent in the classroom with their peers and instructors rather than sitting in a very cold and solemn office staring at a text or a packet of paper with questions on them and lines to fill with written answers.   It must be stated that the corporations behind these tests, such as Pearson, make an enormous amount of profit from the U.S. educational system. Billions of dollars go to these large corporationsÑmany of whom are global corporationsÑfor instructional materials, testing materials, scoring and reporting of data (Miner, 2005; Frontline, 2006). Leistyna (2007) noted that Òthe political machinery behind NCLB has effectively disguised the motivations of a profit-driven industryÓ (p. 65). Thus, the taxpayersÕ money that feeds into education is being channeled into these larger test-making corporations all thanks to accountability through high-stakes testing that was put forth in NCLB. In addition, millions more parents end up spending to have their children tutored through large corporations such as Sylvan Learning Centers after seeing their kids receive less than ideal test scores (Clarke, 2004). As previously discussed, educational programs such as the MEP then use this data to determine whether or not progress is being made in order to continue to receive funding. When the State then requires reading and math assessments to determine student progress and measurable outcomes, students are being measured according to tests that are Òcreated, administered, interpreted, analyzed, reported on, and made sense of by actual peopleÑpeople with social, cultural, racial, and economic locations, vested interests, questioned or unquestioned assumptions, biases, histories, and so forthÓ (Au, 2016, p. 47). Furthermore, as Leistyna (2007) pointed out, Ò[w]hile a score may be indicative of  161 how well prepared a student is for a particular testing instrument, it reveals little to nothing about his or her overall abilitiesÓ (p. 73). Lastly, such tests assume that every student test taker Òis objectively offered a fair and equal chance at educational, social and economic achievementÓ (Au, 2016, p. 46), which has been proven to not be the case for many populations, and migrant youth in particular.   The testing ended up taking three weeks to complete. Some students who took the test never came back to the program after Week One because their families moved. Other students who came at the beginning of AugustÑthe end of the programÑhad to take the test despite the fact that the results would not provide any real time for necessary interventions. In addition to the pre-test, students were required to take a post-test to measure the learning outcomes to show the competence of the program and its instructors. This meant that some students ended up spending up to six hours for reading assessments alone in that cold and quiet office, looking for any distraction to pull them from the bore of these mandated tests that had often no relevance or meaning to their own lives. That is why these students need summer programs, interventions, and supportÑemotionally, physically, and academicallyÑand why they should not have to spend anywhere several hours in a matter of a few weeks being pulled from instruction to take a test in order to have their outcomes measurable. Participants explained their experiences with these tests as well: Kristina: Yesterday, I saw you doing the reading test. How do you feel about doing those? Marta: Well, (nervous laugh) I donÕt like doing it at all. ItÕs too long and they give you too much to read.  162 K: What could you be doing with your time if you werenÕt doing that? M: In class, learning more. [Math tests] are okay because they donÕt take as long. K: What is boring about the [reading tests]? M: They are tests about what you know already, but sometimes itÕs hard and that makes it boring.  K: How many have you had to take? M: Yesterday, I had to take three. Two math and one reading. K: All in one day? M: Yea, and I had to do the same at the beginning of the program.     (personal communication, 8/11/15) Marta here explains how much time was taken out of her time at NOMAD to spend on test-taking, and how she knew herself that she could be spending that time in her classroom with her teacher and her peers. Thus, the way that the State had interpreted the Federal policy by requiring such testing had a major impact on the way that migrant youth experienced their time and education at NOMAD. MiMEP seemed to be more focused on measuring outcomes to present to the Federal level rather than working with the program to do what is best for students and meeting their unique educational needs. As noted by Levinson, et.al. (2009), Òpolicy posits ideal behavior in a model world, and attempts to mold such behavior through a variety of carrots and sticksÓ (p. 770). NOMAD is required to test these students according to MiMEP in order to receive funding that is vital to the success of their program. If programs like NOMAD were granted the freedom to allow their studentsÕ needs to drive instruction rather than wasting  163 essentially half of their program time on mandated curricula and testing, teachers and programs could be creating and implementing culturally sustaining pedagogies that allow students to bring their cultures and funds of knowledge to the classroom in empowering ways. Tatto et.al. (2000) noted that policymakers and even schools do not necessarily see the migrant youth population as Òlearners, but as uncritical, powerless recipients of services designated byÑbut withoutÑthemÓ (p. 15). Despite the Federal policy textÕs explicit discussion of flexibility for local agents, the MiMEP in aims of what can only be imagined as statewide universality did not provide the flexibility needed nor additional support in order to ease the program in the transition of administering this new assessment. For instance, the State could have sent volunteers with DRA2 experience to help proctor these exams. Instead, the State made suggestions to the program such as having individual classroom teachers test their students. This suggestion when interrogated was not aimed at helping the students and teachers but more at completing an assessment. Rosa noted that such adaptations were not in the best interest of the parties involved: ÒEveryday they have a new kid, so they are going to spend two hours testing this one kid; what are the other kids going to do? You cannot have them sitting there doing nothing. Every day is getting to know the class and the teacher because you are getting new students. To put it on the teachers is not realistic. Because our program is so large, itÕs hard to function as other programs do because they are smaller; they work with less kids; they have kids that come back every year. And we have kids that come back every year, but we are noticing that this year we have a bunch of new families, new kids. So now you donÕt even have last yearÕs data to  164 use to figure out where they are. Some of the suggestions [the State] make[s] are based on smaller programs, different situations that donÕt work for our program because it is so large. But then, what do we do? We canÕt stop recruiting. We canÕt stop servicing these kids. So, we have to keep going. Up until five days ago, we had new students coming in. We can give them the pre-test, but what do you do with that information? I think the state is trying to make sure that all of the migrant programs are trying to work the same. But that is unrealistic to every public school to have the same curriculum, same assessments, because every school is different and requires different things.Ó         (personal communication, 8/10/15) RosaÕs job is a difficult oneÑcoordinating a program with hundreds of students, dozens of teachers and recruiters, recording data to send to the StateÑall needing to be in compliance with the StateÕs expectations in order to continue receiving funding. As we will see in the next chapter, Project NOMAD is a unique program in the state of Michigan that provides extraordinary services to the migrant youth who attend the summer program. It will also become clearer that the limited interpretation of Federal policy by the State due to their heavy focus on data over addressing the humanistic needs of migrant youth has put restraints on Project NOMADÑa program that continues to understand what it means to be migrant and what is means to be Òin the trenches.Ó  In addition to the curricular requirements for math education in Michigan summer migrant programs, teachers are also required to complete professional development for the  165 mandated math program. Tatto et.al. (2000) critiqued migrant education policy in that more attention needs to be placed on not only selecting teachers and aides Òwho have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach Latino children and students who are not a part of the dominant cultureÓ but also in providing professional development opportunities for these educators in Ònot only knowledge of Spanish and English, but of the content matter and of pedagogies that allow self-regulated learning and critical thinking without devaluating diverse cultures and backgroundsÓ (p. i). This certainly supports Project NOMADÕs philosophy about empowering migrant youth and their families. Although Project NOMAD did provide teachers with professional development focused on culture, the State forced the implementation of professional development for programs like Math MATTERS and teaching Texas math standards as we will see in the next section of this chapter. Rosa noted that the requirements imposed at the State level was restricting teachers, those who work most closely with the youth, from being able to do their jobÑprovide migrant youth with excellent educational opportunities that address their specific needs. Instead of allowing those who have worked with migrant youth for extended periods of time or were migrants themselves to have flexibility with teaching, such curricular impositions have the potential to cause more harm than help. She noted,  ÒThatÕs why some of the teachers are in the same classroom every year because they know the grade: they know the content, they know the stories, they know everything, so they are the ones who know whatÕs best for the kids; not me telling them what to do. I donÕt want to put teachers in a certain grade level and say, ÔWe are putting you here because thatÕs where you are the most qualified, but then you canÕt do what you want.Õ And I feel like that is whatÕs  166 kind of happening at the State level. Some of us who know the kids, know the situation, have been in the situation, we feel like we are a little more experienced than someone who has never been a migrant, never really ever experienced the situation. Just because youÕve taught migrant education doesnÕt make you an expert.Ó     (personal communication, 8/10/15) In addition to understanding student needs, a crucial component for quality education is communicating with families. Project NOMAD considered outreach to families as a vital part of their program, and although the program did have strong ties with families in some aspects, it was lacking in others. The program regularly held events at camps or in local community recreational zones such as parental advisory committees and soccer games. What was missing was a genuine connection between teachers and families. Due to work schedules of parents, it was not easy even for me to schedule opportunities to visit camps and families. The one family I was able to visit admitted that I was the first ÒteacherÓ to visit their home and speak to the parents. Students I interviewed admitted that none of their teachers had met their families either. Even though the program is such a short period of time, creating those bonds and connections with parents and families is a vital part to showing empathy and caring as a teacherÑsomething that can help form a trusting relationship between teachers and students on an incredible level.  Curricular Experiences of Mathematics at Project NOMAD  MiMEP imposed a program called Math MATTERS (Math Achievement through Technology, Teacher Education, and Research-based Strategies). Math MATTERS is a Migrant Education Program Consortium Incentive Grant that was designed in order to assist migrant students in overcoming gaps in math education. The program began in Texas and based on Texas  167 standards but it also implemented in migrant summer programs in the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, and Wisconsin. Math MATTERS claims that their Òoverarching goalÉis to improve math skills of migrant students through scientifically-based instruction, technology integration, professional development, and parent involvementÓ (Math MATTERS, 2015). The State not only imposed this curriculum onto the program and its teachers but also require that it be taught for at least 15 hours a weekÑmeaning a minimum of three hours of math per day. Furthermore, the State sent staff members to visit Project NOMAD to check in and ensure that Math MATTERS was being taught in classrooms. However, The curriculum for Math MATTERS only includes thirty lessons meaning that teachers have to drag out thirty lessons for three hours every day over the course of seven weeks. Rosa, Project NOMADÕs lead teacher, admitted that she found this imposition to be somewhat problematic in that the Math MATTERS curriculum did not address all of the needs of students in math. She noted,  Ò[W]hat else do these kids need? They donÕt just need Math Matters. They need other things that arenÕt included in the Math Matters curriculum. They are trying to make this curriculum seem like the end all be all and it really isnÕt. There are some things in there that are incomplete. Last year, my teachers had some flexibility in what the Math Matters curriculum was covering and tweaking it to match the needs of their students and their teaching styles. But this year, they have been telling us specifically how we have to teach it. We have a person who is here coming around to make sure all of the teachers are teaching Math Matters. Really?  168 You canÕt just trust that our certified teachers know what is best for our kids?Ó     (personal communication, 8/10/15) In this instance, the required curricula did not afford teachers any leeway when it came to mathematics in the classroom. As Au (2016) noted, Òteachers, in direct response to the pressures exerted by high-stakes, standardized tests, have increasingly resorted to less engaging, more teacher-centered, rote lecture to cover tested materialsÑwhere in some cases teachers are required to follow the district mandated instructional scripts that dictate exactly what they are allowed to say to studentsÓ (p. 51).  Included in the Math MATTERS curriculum was videotaped instruction modeling to students how to solve certain problems. In this respect, not only were teachers not given room to create their own curricula, but instruction was completely taken out of their hands. Teachers had no opportunities to provide students with experiences with math that were culturally sustaining or culturally relevant. Given more freedom, culturally sustaining and relevant pedagogies could have offered students a chance to use their funds of knowledge to engage with math activities. Instead, students were forced to watch videos of math instruction that was completely had no regard for who these youth were and provided them with quite dehumanizing experiences. Another aspect of Math MATTERS that proved problematic was that it is based off of Texas state standards for Math. The majority of Project NOMADÕs students come from Florida where Common Core State Standards are in place as they are in Michigan. This is yet another aspect of how State requirements on local programs, although doing so in attempts to overcome educational gaps for migrant youth, end up using too much distant control on a population whose needs might not be the same as the migrant youth in the rest of the state or country for that matter.  169  Skepticism or discontent was not isolated to teachers and administrators at the local level but were especially present in studentsÕ views on math education at Project NOMAD. Every single student that participated in this study agreed that there was way too much time being spent on math, and they would have preferred that class time be spent on other subjects. Luc™a noted that she wished the program could be different. She stated that she would like it to be Ò[a] little bit more fun. Not so much math. We have five blocks of math during the day. Math is fun, but not so much of it. I like a lot of reading. I wish we had more silent reading timeÓ (personal communication, 8/10/15). Marta felt similarly in that she understood quite well that the program was trying to help her in math and literacy, but stated, ÒTwo hours is good, but we have three hours of math and I just lose my focus. I would rather do an hour of scienceÓ (personal communication, 7/30/15).  As Au (2016) noted, the implementation of high-stakes testing has caused Òlow-income, children of color are subjected to qualitatively different educational experience than that of their Whiter, more affluent counterpartsÑwho have a much higher likelihood of accessing a more engaging, content-rich educationÓ (p. 51). A common complaint from the students for math was the sedentary and rote learning that took place, and that some of the math instruction involved watching pre-taped videos Marta noted, ÒIt's boring. All we do is watch videos on the projector. We do paperworkÉa lot of it. And three hours of that is boringÉ. Just sittingÓ (personal communication, 7/30/2015). In the 6th grade classroom, students completed a writing assignment where students had to write about why they felt students should or should not have to go to summer school, and for those who did not support summer school, nearly all included the large amounts of math instruction as an influential factor for their decision. As seen in 6th grader CristŠbalÕs graphic organizer, he stated that there was ÒSo much work and studyingÓ and that ÒYou have about 4 to 5 hours of math a dayÓ (Image 3c). What  170 seemed as a result of this heavy workload, CristŠbal came to a conclusion that ÒStudents wonÕt have enough time to live their times they have as a kidÓ (Image 3c). This young man was highly aware that the programÕs hefty math requirements was forcing him to spend hours working at a desk and preventing him from enjoying his childhood. Similarly, Antonio noted that there was ÒToo much work sitting down insideÓ and that there was Òtoo much math to doÓ (Image 3d). As I helped Antonio with formulating his ideas for his graphic organizer also told me that he had to ride the bus for two hours every morning and afternoon to get to the program. It caused him to get up very early and lose out on sleep. Antonio admitted that this caused him to lose his focus in class, and having to sit inside and work on math did not help retain his focus in the classroom setting.   Figure 10. CristobalÕs graphic organizer Although these youth do have unique educational needs that require addressing including gaps in math and literacy, several hours a day and five days a week sitting in a chair is hardly an appealing way of spending oneÕs summer days.   The heavy focus on math instruction and the firm requirement of a particular curricula not developed by the teachers who are working directly with these young people is one example  171 of how dehumanizing educational policy can be. Instead of findings ways to address such gaps and provide migrant youth with hands-on and minds-on math instruction, the imposition of policy from the State to local level has created an environment that promotes boredom, physical and mental restriction for these young people. For a program such as Project NOMAD to provide migrant youth with supplementary education and, more importantly, the motivation to stay in school and graduate, the StateÕs requirements to force students to sit at desks for three hours a day on one subject would certainly not convince me to attend the summer program over making my own money working in the fields. It is no wonder that the number of migrant youth takes a steep decline in middle and high school when students are of legal working age. As a result, many students miss out on the positive attributes of summer migrant programs and remain behind in the traditional school setting. In the end, it is no wonder why many wind up feeling hopeless in catching up, are pushed out of school, and turn to employment at a very early age.        172 VIGNETTE ÒFOUR WHO GREW DESPITE CONCRETE. FOUR WHO REACH AND DO NOT FORGET TO REACH. FOUR WHOSE ONLY REASON IS TO BE AND BE.Ó FOUR SKINNY TREES, HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, BY SANDRA CISNEROS    It was a Monday in late July in the 7th grade Reading class with Ms. Stevenson. There were only three students this early morning, and it was three who showed up almost every day that I was there. The 7th grade class was a small one ranging from three to eight students on any given day. Pedro, Alba, and Samuel had all mentioned that this was because students came of age when they could work in the fields with their families and earn money. Whether students felt the income was more valuable than supplemental education was a thought that crossed my mind, but I could not judge. Many of the participants I worked with this summer told me they liked making their own money to buy things when they occasionally got the chance to go to the mall (which was an hour away). I imagined that others felt it was a better way to help their families. Although delaying income for education could mean more money in the long run, the long run is a challenge that many families living in poverty do not necessarily have the opportunity to consider.   I attended the reading class for this group every day that I attended the program. The 6th grade class was where I spent more time (although not too much more) observing because attendance was much more consistent, and I was able to see the majority of my participants on a regular basis. The students had seen me regularly attend their classes, and I had become a mild contributor to class discussion, but until this Monday class period, I had remained quite quiet when it came to analyzing texts. I had wanted my presence to become welcomed rather than being viewed as a person of authorityÑbecause I certainly was not and did not want to be viewed in this way. The class began with a ÒDo It NowÓ or DIN writing that Ms. Stevenson had  173 on the whiteboard each morning as a warm-up. This morningÕs prompt was ÒThink about your strongest emotion right now (irritation, boredom, happiness, contentment, etc.). The program had iPads that teachers could utilize, and she allowed the students to find and write down five quotes that about this emotion.  I had suggested the week before to Ms. Stevenson the anonymous online quiz game, Kahoot!, to use with her class. She regularly tested them on vocabulary words, but I though this method would be a good way to test their knowledge without putting them in the spotlight. As with all technology, the first attempt was a trial run where kinks needed to be ironed out, but in the end, the students wanted to do it againÑnothing I had heard in previous tests of vocabulary.   Afterwards, we focused on two chapters from their current reading and also a personal favorite of mineÑSandra CisnerosÕs The House on Mango Street.  Ms. Stevenson, a recently certified teacher in the southwestern area of Michigan, was kind enough to allow me not just to sit in but also participate in the classÑadd my two cents to certain passages, volunteer to read when students preferred not to, and the like. Usually, the class read aloud anywhere from two to four chapters in a row and discussed each one after they were read. Students rarely volunteered unless they were short readings. This morning, we read Sire and Four Skinny Trees. I had read these texts multiple times in various high school and university classes. While professors had allowed students to pick a chapter that meant the most to us, my high school teacher focused on what she considered the Òmost importantÓ chapters and gave us readers less agency is the material we wanted to discuss. Ms. Stevenson, however, at least tried to give students an opportunity to discuss each and every chapter of the book, and attempted to have them tie these chapters to relevant themes if they could. The themes on the whiteboard this Monday were love,  174 identity, and maturity. Natalia volunteered to read Four Skinny Trees out loud. Following the passage, Ms. Stevenson always let the reading sink in for a few seconds before posing questions. Stevenson: What is that talking about? Natalia: How she is alone and talking to trees? S: YouÕve never talked to trees? N: No way! S: Do you ever talk to something else that is not a person? N: On my phoneÉ I donÕt knowÉ S: Well, that doesnÕt count because you are talking to a person on the other end. Do you talk to a pet or a doll or stuffed animal? I used to go to the cemetery and talk to my grandparents.  N: I donÕt have a stuffed animal. S: Is [Esperanza] crazy? N: Yea, sheÕs crazy. She needs therapy. S: HavenÕt you ever talked to yourself or seen people talking to themselves? Sometimes people talk to themselves because they just need to talk in order to think things through. You donÕt think sheÕs thinking through things? Adri⁄n: SheÕs both. N: But sheÕs crazyÑshe says she hears the trees saying things like ÔKeep. Keep.Ó S: Have you ever heard of people giving words to sounds they hear from non-living or non-speaking things? So, itÕs not that she thinks  175 that the trees are talking to her, but she thinks the noises they make come out as ÔKeep. Keep.Õ N: Perhaps. A lull came over the room. Adri⁄n slumped in his chair. Natalia rested the side of her face on her fist, and gave a loud sigh. Lu™s leaned his head back, and looked up to the ceiling. I had no idea which chapters we would read that day. I had seen how many conversations had gone in the past, and knew that the students needed a jolt. Four Skinny Trees had never been a chapter that stuck out to me in the past compared to others, but in this moment, I had seen a meaning within that chapter that had previously escaped my livelihood and understanding of the world, and found it critical to the experiences of these young people, and I knew I could not let the discussion dissolve.   Kristina: What do trees need to grow? Adr™an: Sunlight! Natalia: Dirt! Water! K: RightÑall of those things. Where does her family live? In the country? N: No! In the city. K: Have you ever heard of someone refer to a city as a concrete jungle?  N: Yea!  Lu™s: Yea.  K: Cities are filled with what? N: Buildings. Bricks. Streets. Concrete.  176 K: Do you see a lot of plants or trees in the city? N: No. ItÕs too hard for them to grow there. K: But are these four trees still growing? Are they surviving? N & A: Yes!  K: And so she says, ÔWhen I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. For whose only reason is to be and be.Õ N: (while I was still reading) Ohhhh! Okay.  K: What are the trees giving her? N: Inspiration! Hope! K: Yea! Both of those things! N: WeÕre smart. K: Yea. You are! N: I said we are. K: YouÕre right. We are. After an employee from Project NOMAD came in to interrupt class for the fourth time that hour long period, Natalia expressed how annoyed she got when different people came in and disturbed class. I could not help but feel the same way. She and I had been on a path to making meaning of this text that transcended any way that I had seen texts be interpreted in the class previously by these young people. Ms. Stevenson took this break to come back and relate the chapter to themes. It seemed to be tasking for the studentsÑAdri⁄n claimed maturity but when  177 asked why, he responded by asking what maturity meant. Even with a definition, he could not confidently explain why this chapter related to maturity in front of the four of us. Lu™s claimed identity, but when asked why, shyness caused him to retreat to his introvert self. Natalia had mentally given up, and changed the conversation to why the substitute bus driver got them to school late that morning. Adri⁄n started to talk about which bus drivers he liked and which he did not. The conversation, again, was heading in one of two directions: either where Ms. Stevenson might have given her own opinion about which theme or she might have just given up on provoking more thoughtful connections to themes. I jumped at the opportunity to bring it back home. Wanting to stick with identity, I posed a question: Kristina: How have the places you have grown up affected your identityÑmade you who you are? Stevenson: How do you think living in a city where [Esperanza] lives affect who she is? Natalia: Because she is Mexican? I donÕt know. Adri⁄n: I donÕt even know what youÕre talking about.  K: ThatÕs the cool thing about reading. Even though you arenÕt a character in the book, you can sometimes relate to experiences different from your ownÑeven if you didnÕt grow up like Esperanza.  (Silence) K: Can I tell you what I think? N: Yea! K: So, what is the title of the chapter?  178 N: Four Skinny Trees. K: She says that sheÕs pretty skinny, too, right? N: YeahÑso she is comparing herself to the trees, right? K: She could be. She says that even though they are skinny, they are still very strong, and they can survive even if they are growing up in the concrete jungle. At least thatÕs what I think. A: Ms. Stevenson, what do you think? S: I donÕt know. I think thatÕs a pretty good analysis! N: ThatÕs the first time IÕve heard her say that. Last year you always said you have answers. S: I said I have answers? I donÕt think so. I have way more questions than answers.  N: Are we done?     179 CHAPTER SIX ÒTHEY CANÕT BE PATIENT. THEY CANÕT WAIT. THEY HAVE TO FIGHT.Ó POLICY IN PRACTICE: MIGRANT YOUTH EXPERIENCES OF LITERACY AT PROJECT NOMAD    Policy can impact the way teachersÕ pedagogical decisions in a variety of ways, and this can often be a reflection of what different teachers see as the goals of education. Some teachers might see policy and standardized test scores as a driving force within planning and instruction. In this case, the educator might understand student success as doing well on such tests causing them to teach to those very tests. On the other end of the spectrum, educators might see policy as restrictive parameters that are the reality of the current educational system, and will find a way to work within those circumstances. In this case, student success may or may not be interpreted through performance on standardized tests but more importantly the ultimate goal is to provide students with enriching educational experiences. This chapter explores how migrant educational policy has filtered down from the State to local levels and how that policy is interpreted and implemented by teachers in their pedagogical choices in literacy instruction, and then how that instruction is experienced by migrant youth.   As previously discussed, policy is interpreted and implemented differently at various levels and by the different actors working at each of those levels. At the State level, MiMEP imposed on local districts a variety of guidelines to meet in order to receive funding. One of those guidelines included the use of specific math and literacy assessments in summer programs to determine the effectiveness of such programs in terms of student growth. Another guideline was that student growth would be determined by how students perform on standardized tests. Using interviews, classroom observations, and student work, and self-reflection, this chapter  180 specifically looks at how migrant youth experienced reading and writing instruction in two classrooms at Project NOMAD. Literacy Instruction at Project NOMAD  While math instruction was mandated by the State, literacy instruction afforded the teachers of Project NOMAD more pedagogical freedom. The State of Michigan required that teachers have at least one hour-long block of both reading and writing, and in order to comply with the Delivery Plan, the State wanted to see that students were making progress based on their pre- and post-tests as well as meeting the Measurable Program Outcomes. As seen in Chapter Two, the program would be evaluated by the State, and literacy initiatives would be considered successful if the Òachievement gap in reading and writing between migrants and their non-migrant peers will narrow by at least 2% annually at each grade level on the MEAP/MMEÓ and that the Òpercent of migrant students who demonstrate grade level proficiency on local MEP program reading assessments will increase by 5% annuallyÓ (MiMEPÕs Delivery Plan, 2013). Teachers were required to help students practice reading fluency and comprehension and tutor students in writing. The 8th grade teacher had to ensure that students were working at least part of the reading block on their required reading lists from their traditional schools. The 7th and 8th grade students and all high school students also had to participate in a long-distance writing class with a teacher from Texas. This writing component was connected to the Texas-STAAR test, and students had to go to the computer room to receive instruction from a Texas English Language Arts teacher via Skype. Apart from that, the 7th-12th grade teachers had an additional writing block, and all teachers were able to develop their own literacy curricula, and thus the program included a variety of methods. This chapter will focus on the reading and writing curricula as experienced by students in the two classrooms that I observed. Utilizing observations,  181 interviews, and collections of student work, this chapter will highlight what students were expected to do, how they felt both during and about such assignments, and any lasting impressions that came from the studentsÕ reading and writing blocks at Project NOMAD in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.  Curricular Experiences of Writing  With the adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS), writing joined the ranks, along with mathematics and reading, to become a high-stakes subject. As seen in the MiMEPÕs State Delivery Plan (See Figure 1), summer migrant programs are evaluated based on how students do on the state standardized tests for writing as well as reading. McQuitty (2012) noted that with this adoption, Òpreparing effective writing teachers is more important than ever, [but] unfortunately, many teachers say they are unprepared to teach writing wellÓ (p. 359). During my time at Project NOMAD, the two teachers whose classrooms I observed most closely were Mrs. Stevenson, the 7th and 8th grade teacher, and Mr. Garc™a, the 6th grade teacher. Although both teachers aimed at providing the youth with literacy experiences that would improve their reading and writing, the two utilized very different strategies.  For writing, Mr. Garc™a provided his class with one major essay assignment for the duration of the eight-week program. Students wrote persuasive essays on whether or not they thought students should go to summer school. The students I worked with were aware of the educational benefits of attending Project NOMAD. In fact, most of the students in Mr. Garc™aÕs classroom argued that students should attend summer school. Only a few argued against going to summer school noting that they could be doing other things with their time such as working with families or enjoying their summertime playing with friends. At the beginning of the program, Mr. Garc™a provided students with a graphic organizer to help construct their arguments. The  182 organizer provided students with a place to write their decision, three supporting claims, three reasons for each claim, and then a concluding statement.    Figure 11. Example of persuasive essay graphic organizer The organizer had to be approved before students could move forward to a written draft that they completed in pencil. After another approval, students worked on a final draft written in ink. The assignment gave students the opportunity to analyze the program they were attending and weigh its merits and drawbacks. Students demonstrated how they perceived the program through their writing for Mr. Garc™a, and they also made such proclamations in our interviews together. Luc™a thought very highly of the program:  I like itÉThe teachers are really good. Most of the time, [the program] give[s] you extra classesÑI go to math-scripts and math group. If they see that you need help, they give you worksheets. And they test to see how good you are because students are backed up or some are more intelligent and stuff like that. They also give us extra classes like we have nutrition, PE and culture and STEM. And I also like it because we get to go outside sometimes.Ó     (personal communication, 7/30/15)  183 Although Luc™a did not explicitly say that the program helped her with any gaps, she understood that this was an essential part of the programÕs goals. Other students were aware of where they needed additional support, and they told me that they knew the program was helping them in those specific areas: Eduardo: I guess. It helps us prepare us for 7th grade.  Roberto: It helps us in our gaps. Like math. E: It helps me in reading.     (personal communication, 8/3/15)  Students regularly discussed how the program helped fill their ÒgapsÓ referencing that they have heard their academic achievement discussed in terms of gaps. In hindsight, I wish I would have pushed more on this and asked questions like: ÒWhere have you heard that term? Gaps between you andÉ? Who is telling you that you possess some sort of gaps?Ó Despite not following up on this reference, interviews further shed light on the fact that students were quite aware of how long this writing assignment was taking them to complete. Although writing a persuasive essay is an important skill to develop, I observed several students losing focus during writing block, instead preferring to speak to their neighbors. During one of our interviews, it was clear that the essay had helped Marta understand the benefits of her summer school program, but when I asked her about the work they did in the writing block, she admitted: Marta: Well, we donÕt do it much, but we were just doing a writing prompt on if students should go to summer school, and thatÕs all the writing we did I think. It took us almost like, last week we finished it. It took us almost the whole summer. Kristina: What was your stance?  184 M: That they should go: you get free food, you donÕt forget stuff, and you get to go on field trips.      (personal communication, 8/11/15)  I understood MartaÕs emphasis on the fact that this one writing assignment lasted over the course of several weeks as a negative evaluation of the writing experiences in the class. Although the topic of summer school was relevant to these studentsÕ lives, there are a lot of other things they could write about that would be more engaging. Also, this essay took up several weeks preventing the young people from being able to engage in creative and self-fulfilling writing experiences. In a study completed by Turkan & DaSilva Iddings (2012) the authors found that in the classrooms they observed writing instruction was Òa step-by-step approach that involve[s] checking for indents, punctuation, and short paragraphs amounting to seven sentencesÓ (p. 275). As a result of this method, their participants, instead of producing creative pieces of writing, conceived literacy in terms of procedures, punctuation, and a certain amount of sentences. This was true of some of the examples of student work that I observed. For example, as Luc™a was finishing up her second to last draft of the essay, I noticed that she did a good job on her persuasive essay. However, the format followed a strict procedural guideline with five paragraphsÑan introduction, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. As one can see in her essay, her conclusion is constructed from sentences taken straight from other sections of her essay, leaving her essentially no room for creativity.   185  Figure 12. Luc™aÕs Persuasive Essay   During another class, I sat next to AntonioÑone of the oldest students in the class because he repeated 6th grade during the traditional school yearÑand CristŠbal. Antonio was arguing that students should not have to go to summer school. When I sat down, Antonio did not have much written, but he welcomed my offer to help. Upon passing by, Mr. Garc™a asked Antonio to explain his argument. AntonioÑa shy student who seemed to lack confidence in the classroom but was extremely social during breaks, lunch and P.E.Ñhad a difficult time explaining himself. Mr. Garc™a, in my opinion, tried to push Antonio in his thinking in a thoughtful yet academic way, but Antonio read it as disapproving, and he slumped in his chair a bit once the teacher walked away. He looked at me, and said, ÒWow. That was harshÓ to which CristŠbal asked to what he was referring. Antonio responded, ÒWhat Mr. Garc™a said to meÓ (Observation, 7/10/15). I tried to explain that the teacher was doing the same with others, but Antonio seemed to emotionally disconnect.   186  Figure 13. AntonioÕs graphic organizer As seen in his graphic organizer, Antonio did not think that students should have to attend summer school. He noted that there was too much time sitting at his desk inside, too much math, and not enough time exercising or being outside. He also thought he could be doing better stuff with his timeÑactivities that he admitted to me kids should be doing at their age during the summer. AntonioÕs argument categorizes Mr. Garc™aÕs focus on this assignment to be disengaging. Students could have been spending their time writing in different forms in addition to persuasive essays that were more interesting and that could provide culturally relevant and sustaining opportunities that highlight other aspects of their lives apart from being in summer school. If I had to attend summer school, I think the last thing I would want to write about was whether or not I should be in summer school. Mr. Garc™a could have found ways for students to bring their funds of knowledge to their writing by adding variety to his writing block. Instead, many students disconnected just as Antonio did.   187  One the one hand, I saw Mr. Garc™aÕs talk with Antonio as important to the quality of his persuasive essay in that he was trying to push Antonio to defend his argument. However, it is my belief that writing instruction should allow room for student growth as meaning-makers and not just what is considered proper execution and development of a single writing technique. Kinloch, et.al. (2009) noted that Òour writing selves encapsulate experiences that define us as participants with, if not actual writers of, words and written symbols that daily surround usÉour writing selves exemplify many human experiencesÓ (p. 103). As McQuitty (2012) noted, the adoption of CCSS has instilled in education the need to focus more on the form and procedures of writing to accomplish specific tasks such as persuasion and removed opportunities to create and develop their own writing selves.   Mr. Garc™a provided prompts where students did have more freedom. For example, one prompt asked the following: ÒWe all have favorite activities that we enjoy. Free write one page convincing readers to try the activity you enjoy mostÓ (Observation, 7/7/15). Although this prompt appeared to give students much more space for creativity, Mr. Garc™a regularly reminded students about the correct format of having an introduction, supporting paragraphs with evidence to convince their readers, and a conclusion. Freire (1970), who believed literacy to be not just skills but ways of interacting that empowered people, would argue that such programmatic methods for writing instruction is only hindering them from realizing their place in society or the true world in which they liveÑone filled with power strugglesÑand in turn the ability to communicate or express such ideas with the world. Instead of being given space to practice and develop their ideas and use their imagination, this writing block became a space where students were recipients of the language as a matter of structure, procedure and form rather than becoming writers of their own stories.   188  In Ms. StevensonÕs 7th and 8th grade writing blocks, students had different curricular experiences. Since her students attended the STAAR long-distance writing course with a teacher from Texas, she sometimes supplemented what they did in that class within her writing block. She noted that the Texas teacher,  Òguides the students through lessons about producing the kind of writing required by the STAAR tests, and then later in the day, we take time to work through the follow-up assignments. A lot of times I would re-teach her lessons in the afternoon because the pace of the program is very fast for the middle school students, and much of the time they either donÕt remember the specifics covered in the lesson or donÕt fully comprehend the material covered.Ó       (personal communication, 3/11/16) The following is one such example for the 8th grade writing class. Students were asked students to do the following in the STAAR class: ÒWrite two paragraphs to argue whether he or she prefers to live in the country or the city and why. The first paragraph is which you prefer and why. The second paragraph is why the other option is not preferable (ex. I think living in the city is better becauseÉ I think that living in the country and less desirable becauseÉ).Ó       (Observation, 7/13/15)  The students took the online class session in the morning to outline their thoughts and begin writing, and in the afternoon, Ms. Stevenson allowed students to continue their writing and finish up their second paragraph. She also had to re-introduce the writing assignment to remind  189 students of the expectations. Reflecting on this, Skyping with a teacher every single day of the week is not an engaging method of instruction:  Ms. Stevenson: So, you should all have your first paragraph. For the second paragraph, you are going to write about what you donÕt like about the other one you didnÕt choose. Marcus: It doesnÕt make sense to me. Jos”: So, we are just doing the opposite, like whyÉ S: (cutting off Jos”) IÕll talk to you about that right now. (Speaking very quickly) For example, I said I wanted to live in the country. That means I am going to talk about why I donÕt want to live in the city. I said that I didnÕt like living in the city because there is too much noise, and I canÕt sleep, and that makes me violent. M: (laughing) Violent? S: Yea. There is also too much traffic and too many people not leaving any room for real nature. So you will do the same: say you prefer not to live in place you did not pick for paragraph one, and then say Ôfor this reason and this reason.Õ Does that make sense? M: Yes, but thatÕs too much! J: Yes, I guess. But I donÕt want to start writing. IÕm too lazy. Maybe if I can write it in Spanish. ÔHab™a una vezÉÕ (Once upon a time).  190 All: (laughing)       (Observation, 7/13/15)  As Ms. Stevenson had noted, students had difficulty understanding what took place during the online session, and needed a refresher. So, she turned her free writing block into a second opportunity for her students to complete the task from STAAR. For the remainder of the class period, students worked individually on their paragraphs. Two young girls sat next to each other sharing earbuds and listening to music. I sat next to these girls and noticed that they were still working on their first paragraphs. About every thirty seconds to one minute, Nadia would stop what she was doing to change the song. Once a song was chosen, she would seek the approval of her friend, çngela, before leaving the song or changing it again. The rest of the class seemed to be working in similar fashionÑtaking regular breaks between writing and gazing off or changing the music they were listening to. While Ms. Stevenson provided shorter and more frequent writing opportunities than the major persuasive essay assignment in Mr. Garc™aÕs class, there still seemed a resistance to fully engage with the writing assignment. Even Jos” commented that he would be more eager to start writing if he could do so in Spanish but the teacher did not respond at all. This could have turned into an opportunity where she offered students the opportunity to bring in their funds of knowledge or provide a space where they could practice their bilingualism. Instead, the writing opportunities were monolingual and followed the standards based on a Texas test. Although Ms. Stevenson was providing the students with the additional support they needed to comprehend what was asked of them for the STAAR testsÑtests that they would not ever take because these students were from Michigan and FloridaÑstudents were then asked to sit through two hour periods that often consisted of the same content.    191  In addition to the writing block, Ms. Stevenson also provided students with very short opportunities to warm-up to the classroom with a ÒDo It NowÓ (DIN) writing prompt during reading block. This additional practice gave students an opportunity to internally connect with some theme that would later present itself in the reading for that day. These DINs afforded students to use their imagination.    Figure 14. DIN #10       Figure 15. Chicken DIN   Figure 16. Lu™sÕs written response to Chicken DIN  Although these writing opportunities were short in terms of time, students seemed to enjoy the different prompts that they received. Lu™s thought for a couple minutes when responding to the  192 chicken DIN, and then began writing in an imaginative way as seen in his response. However, he did regularly stop and count his sentences to see where he was at in terms of the requirement. Again, the focus on structure and form was an important factor in how he addressed his writing rather than focusing on the story itself. After a couple minutes of writing, some students would begin to check out even though they were only asked to write 4-5 sentences. Even with prompting from Ms. Stevenson, students would respond claiming they did not know what else to write. While Ms. Stevenson provided students with variety for writing, none of the writing prompts that I observed were culturally relevant or sustaining, and they did not provide students to use their funds of knowledge. Students translanguaged between English and Spanish all of the time in her classroom, but apart from reading House on Mango Street which includes some Spanish in the text, there were no opportunities for students to write or engage in classroom instruction in Spanish.   Ms. Stevenson provided students with opportunities to practice writing in a variety of ways with a multitude of approaches. Although Mr. Garc™a focused heavily on persuasive writing during my observations, the writing skill is an important and powerful one to master. Yet, in both classrooms, students tended to disengage from the writing whether by focusing on music, talking to friends or peers, or just gazing off into the distance. It must be noted that both teachers passionately provided their students with opportunities to develop writing skills that are necessary to survive in the educational setting. However, had they incorporated writing opportunities that utilized culturally sustaining pedagogies and allowed students to bring their funds of knowledge to their writing, such opportunities could have been more meaningful in developing students cultural identities as well as acquiring the skills aligned with dominant, White, middle-class standards. Nothing was culturally sustained in the assignments these  193 students were receiving. They were disconnected from their lives, and were not providing the youth with any opportunities to perpetuate any of their linguistics or cultural practices but rather focused on addressing the requirements of State and Federal requirements. Thus, in these literacy assignments, these local agents chose not to interpret and appropriate required writing blocks in ways that would have utilized the studentsÕ funds of knowledge or in any culturally sustaining ways. Rather, these teachers were essentially what Hornberger and Johnson (2007) called Òclosing potential spacesÓ (p. 527) where such learning could have taken place. As we will see next, reading also had its challenges for migrant youth.  Curricular Experiences of Reading Mr. Garc™a and Ms. Stevenson had very different approaches when it came to their reading curriculum. Mr. Garc™a divided his time between sustained silent reading where students could choose a reading of their choice either from the bookshelf or short passages from a non-profit called ReadWorks.org. ReadWorks claims it is Òcommitted to solving the nationÕs reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their studentsÓ (ReadWorks.org, 2015). It is a website that provides free non-fiction and literary passages in addition to units and lessons that are in alignment with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It also claims to be Òfaithful to the most effective research-proven instructional practices in reading comprehensionÓ (ReadWorks.org, 2015). The reading passages from ReadWorks that Mr. Garc™a chose were designed to be on a 6th grade reading level. He also supplied articles he thought might be interesting to his class.  Each passage from ReadWorks.org would have a short reading of 2-3 pages followed by multiple choice and short-answer essay questions much to the style of any standardized reading  194 test. Topics ranged from life science to history to technology. During my observations, I noticed that Mr. Garc™a would ask for reading volunteers. Sometimes he would choose a student to read and then have the person next to him or her follow, and so forth. Other times, Mr. Garc™a would read the passage out loud to the students to model fluency and prosody. Throughout my observations, some students were more willing to participate than others, nor most of the dialogue during reading block came from Mr. Garc™a as he would often pause during a reading passage to utilize informal assessment to check for student understanding. Quick comments were made here and there when Mr. Garc™a raised a question. Although it was not his intention, the class was regularly oriented around Mr. Garc™aÕs understanding of the text and not that of the students. After completing the passage, Mr. Garc™a would ask students to answer the questions and return to the text to highlight or underline any evidence backing up their answers. Then, after giving students time to complete the questions and providing individuals with help as necessary, the class would go over the answers together. After having students answer and support their answers using the text, Mr. Garc™a would posit a final question to bring the article back to studentsÕ lives and thoughts offering a moment where those who were comfortable voicing their thoughts in front of their peers. Left behind were introverts who did not feel the comfort of speaking in front of their peers. For example, one reading about aliens was followed up by a question of whether the students believed in aliens. Most said they did not, but the teacher asked for whether there was proof that they did or did not exist. It left students pondering at the end of the reading block. Although this was an opportunity for him to pose a question, and in hindsight a more powerful question to 12 and 13 year oldsÑhe attempted to give students the space to voice their own opinions, and this was done at the last minute when students were gathering into a line to use the restroom and not when they were seated in the class. This almost seemed a  195 subconscious message that the open-ended and free-thinking questions were not necessarily welcomed during actual class time but rather during a break. Although the teacher attempted to choose passages he thought would pique the studentsÕ interest, there was no evidence that any cultural, linguistic, or literate practices of these youth were being sustained or fostered in any way. Instead, the focus was left to align with the hegemonic policies that place answering multiple choice and short answer questionsÑ in other words, developing standardized test-taking skillsÑas the value of the assignment.  By focusing on these Common Core based articles and without allotting time for students to develop their own theories or connections, he did not allow for students to question the texts, and perhaps he did not allow the texts to be read as hooksÕ (1991) Òcritical fictions.Ó As the author noted that such critical fictions Òemerge when the imagination is free to wander, explore, question, transgress,Ó and we should thus incorporate Òliterature that enriches resistances struggles [that speak] about the way the individuals in repressive, dehumanizing situations use imagination to sustain life and maintain critical awarenessÓ (p. 55). By following such critical fictions, the teacher would have been providing students with culturally sustaining pedagogies that not only name their experiences but also uphold them in powerful ways. Although Mr. Garc™a tried to provide such critical awareness for his students, by, for example, reading Jackie RobinsonÕs letter to President Johnson or an article about poverty and health, limiting discourse to his own voice halted the studentsÕ opportunities to understand the literature in critical and imaginative ways.  Barring student input not only limited the impact of texts on the students but also the impact that a studentÕs critique of a text could have on the educator. Thus, an additional consequence of such teacher-centered pedagogy was a missed opportunity for the teachers  196 actually learn from students and students can learn from each other. Mr. Garc™aÕs intention was certainly not to have a teacher-centered class setting, but students seemed hesitant and nervous to participate when prompted. By promoting more student participation in a variety of waysÑgroup work, partner work, or other forms of output, Mr. Garc™a could have created a place where he and students could Ò[develop] a historicizing literacy that links studentsÕ historical and immediate past, the present, and the imagined future through social dreamingÑa collective dream for a better worldÓ (p.158). Mr. Garc™a could have become what Freire (2005) considered a Òcultural workerÓ where he could Òwork with [students] wherever they are along their learning journey and to co-construct a scaffold getting them from where they are to where they want to beÓ (Winn, 2011, p. 5). However, with the pressures of high-stakes testing and the need for students to develop test-taking skills and practice pulling main ideas from the texts, Mr. Garc™a stuck with this method that had proven in his teaching past with migrant youth to promote academic growth according to the StateÕs guidelines. Without providing students with the awareness of the need for such growth in order to meet the standards set normalized by dominant White monolingual peers, such experiences were unappreciated and experienced as disengaging. Thus, these reading selections were oftentimes not culturally relevant or sustaining and did not invoke a need for students to use their funds of knowledge to bring depth and breadth to readings.  In order to provide more student input into the reading choices, I suggested that he provide students with an interest survey. Mr. Garc™a welcomed to the idea, and we were able to gain a great deal of insight into studentsÕ interests, what they wanted to do when they grew up, and discovered topic themes that would likely create more engagement with the text. Discovering that many students were interested in reading about mysteries, Mr. Garc™a and I found a mystery passage to read with the students. On the day that we were to teach the lesson,  197 Mr. Garc™a had to leave the room, and left me with the aides to run the class. Rather than the usual multiple choice and short-answer questions, I abruptly finished reading the passage at the most interesting point in the story, and had students come up with their own interpretations of what would happen next. Many students were dissatisfied with this as they wanted to hear the ending. For example, Roberto wanted more: Roberto: It was interesting, but they should have put more stuff at the end. Kristina: Well, you will have the chance to do that. R: But, no! I wanted to hear what the author had to say! K: Was what we did today different from other reading sessions? Eduardo: Yea. It was more fun because we read about something that was interesting.       (personal communication, 8/3/15)  Although not all students were receptive to my strategy, I believe it provided them with an opportunity to think for themselvesÑto create an ending of their ownÑrather than be told the answer. Without providing students with such opportunities, teachers rob their students of the ability to develop real problem-solving and critical thinking skillsÑskills that are crucial to being independent thinkers and develop confidence in oneÕs self.   Mr. Garc™a also took the common interest in fœtbol, or soccer, to drive selection of reading passages. He chose a text on soccer and its relation to physics. Although he followed his routine of having students answer the questions that came with the passage, students were able to express what they learned from that class period. For example, with some prompting, I was able to take that lesson and have them explain how field trips could be educational:  198 Kristina: If you had a magic wand, how would you change this program? Roberto: Make it funner. In another program, they go on field trips every Friday. We should have more field trips. K: Are their field trips educational? Eduardo: Yes, but they have to earn their Fridays. Like if they do really well this week, they get to go to a water park. K: Is that an educational field trip? (all laughing) R: Well, yeah! I mean you can talk about how many gallons of water you need for the park.  E: How the water gets there. K: How the park was built? E: How long itÕs been there. You could do a scavenger hunt, too! K: Remember the article you read last week? It was about soccer and something else. R: NewtonÕs Law! K: Right! What is NewtonÕs Law? R: Motion. Gravity. E: Force. You could talk about how the water goes down the slides, and how people travel on the water.       (personal communication, 8/3/15)   199 Once prompted, Roberto and Eduardo were able to really start flowing through what they learned in that passage. However, without the opportunity to see where such connections of physics to their daily lives, they would have only made those connections to soccer as done in the article. Mr. Garc™a provided the youth with interesting articles and passages to read, but by focusing on the the skills and style of standardized testing, students were not always afforded the opportunity to relate the material to their own lives or in other contexts. Thus, reading opportunitiesÑalthough well intendedÑ often focused on strategic ways to answer pre-written questions and left students just shy of the space and opportunity to take what they learned and make sense of it on their own.  Co-Teaching The Activist Project   Mr. Garc™a welcomed some of my pedagogical ideas that explicitly welcomed the incorporation of studentsÕ funds of knowledge and provided them with culturally sustaining learning opportunities. From the interest survey, we were able to determine that many students were interested in history.  In her survey and an interview, Luc™a noted that she liked: Òlearning about how slavery ended. I like learning about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. I like Barack Obama, but he hasnÕt really done anything to help Mexicans. He said he was going to try to, but he never actually did. He should give permission to them to go back to Mexico and visit their families and be allowed to come back and work.Ó     (personal communication, 8/10/15)  Having particular interest in social justice in my research and my university course teaching, I knew that I wanted to incorporate a reading project that focused on activism. I proposed the idea  200 to Mr. Garc™a, and he was excited with the idea. This moment was an opportunity for me to collaborate with Mr. Garcia, and I did not want to pass it up. Mr. Garc™a welcomed the because policy would have allowed for such a project as long as it helped promote growth on the reading assessments. I was more focused on providing meaningful experiences to these young people for their reading block than I was interested in the policy expectations. However, I took into consideration which reading level books I would choose from the library in order to meet the needs of the program. Before my next visit to Van Buren Township, I put together a couple of lesson plans, and I visited several library branches to collect as many readings as possible on different activists. The next time I attending Project NOMAD, Mr. Garc™a allowed me to take a leadership role for the first period. At each table, I scattered multiple books on various activists: Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, and Harriet Tubman. Each table had 4-7 books or readings on each activistÑincluding biographies, non-fiction narratives, and even speeches. I invited students to walk around the classroom, and find a book or a person that they wanted to read about. Once students chose an activist and a book, I gave them some instructions. I provided them with a graphic organizer, and I told them to go through their books to find three main ideas, any vocabulary they thought might be important, and anything they do not understand. I then said, ÒPay particular attention to what you are reading because you are becoming an expert on your activist. Once you have your information, you will share it with your group members to create a more holistic vision of who your activist was, what they accomplished, and how they did so.Ó I also provided on the graphic organizer several brainstorming questions such as ÒIf I could sit down with this person, what are 2-3 questions I would want to ask her or him?Ó and ÒWhat information can I NOT leave out about this person?Ó Mr. Garc™a was working with a young girlÑa 2nd grader who was reading at a 6th grade reading  201 levelÑwho at the end of class remarked, ÒI walked in here today not knowing anything about Nelson Mandela, and now IÕm an expert!Ó  Over the next couple of weeks, students jigsawed and shared their information to create an all-encompassing story of their activist. I had suggested to Mr. Garc™a during a planning discussion that I wanted to provide students with the freedom to choose their method of output and present their findings to the class. At first, he was skeptical noting that they were only in 6th grade and might not be prepared for such presentations. With some encouraging words, I attempted to translate to him the importance of such practiceÑthat one cannot become a good presenter without practice, and this opportunity would hopefully develop confidence in such presentations. Once information was shared, Mr. Garc™a provided the students with several options that they could choose from to share their activistÕs story with the rest of the class. He also told them that if they had additional ideas, they would be welcomed with his approval. In the end, students chose timelines, posters, artistic displays of activism, and one group even chose to create a board game about the life of Sojourner Truth.    202  Figure 17. Student drawing Sojourner Truth   Figure 18. MartaÕs group poster on Cesar Chavez and another poster for MLK, Jr.   203  Figure 19. A poster on MLK, Jr., and an artistic display of Sojourner Truth  Figure 20. Campaign poster for Nelson Mandela and ÒI Have a DreamÓ inspired poster on MLK, Jr.  In one poster about MLK, Jr., the students showed how he was able to do powerful things even when his freedom was taken away when he was put in jail. Marta and her group, who worked on Cesar Chavez, focused on the phrase, ÒSi se puedeÓÑa powerful tagline from his cause. Apart from the tangible products that students produced, interviews with the students allowed me to glimpse some of the lasting effects that came from the project, and their views about the project itself. For example, Luc™aÕs interest in history led her to enjoy this type of learning: Kristina: How did your presentation go? Luc™a: It was good. I was the first one to give a speech.  204 K: What did you think of that project? L: It was fun and educational because we had time to be with our friends or partners and do something fun like posters and speeches. And it was also educational teaching us about things like History and stuff like that.  K:  You had Gandhi, right? What did you learn about him? L: He wanted to give rights to everyone equally, and also for the women because they didnÕt have rights. He did non-violent protests and stuff like that. K: Would you like to see more projects like that?  L: (nods).       (personal communication, 7/30/15)  MartaÑwho had previously admitted she did not like a lot of the reading and writing they did at Project NOMADÑ agreed that this project was something she enjoyed:  Marta: What I did like of the reading group we had was we did a project on the different people. We could do models and that was fun. It was hands on learning. Then, it got boring because it was just reading passages instead of doing more stuff.  Kristina: You say that the activist project was hands on, but it started off with what? M: WritingÉreadingÉ K: So you read about main ideas, supporting details and then what did you do with that information?  205 M: It was your choice. You could do different stuff like model it, posterÉ      (personal communication, 8/11/15)  Marta as well as her peers enjoyed the option to choose what they read, and how they interpreted what they read in order to convey that learning to their peers. There were still important literacy tools involved including finding main ideas and providing evidence, but that skill development became the method rather than the focus of the project. The highlight was put on the activist, their life stories, and their ideologies which seemed to have more lasting effects on their growing minds. Beyond enjoying the project itself, students were able to take what they learned from their reading and their peers and inject those takeaways into their understanding of their own life experiences. For example, Roberto and EduardoÑalthough they read about Sojourner TruthÑused the work of Dr. King in an interview discussion about difference: Kristina: Have you ever felt different from other people at school?  Both: No. K: So everyone is similar to you where you go to school? Eduardo: Well, kind of. Not really. Roberto: (cutting off Eduardo) We are all kids. Who cares if we are from another state? Who cares if we are different skin colors? We are all the same.  K: Tell me more about that. Why did you bring up skin color? R: I heard somewhere that whatever we do, we can never be separate. It doesnÕt matter if we are brown, black, or white. We  206 are still together as friends, brothers, sisters. Who said that? Was it Martin Luther King? K: Dr. King helped the Civil Rights Movement. E: HeÕs the one who had the dream.      (personal communication, 8/3/15)  Roberto and Eduardo were able to learn about racial injustice through the presentations of their peers in addition to their project on Sojourner Truth. These reflections they made demonstrated their abilities to learn from and apply that knowledge to think critically about race and racism. They were using their funds of knowledge and their experiences of being racialized and racializing themselves based on marginalized experiences to stand up for what is right. In hindsight, Mr. Garc™a and I could have constructed with the students a Third Space in his classroom using this activist project. The project was culturally relevant and sustaining in that it provided youth the opportunity to engage with other individuals and populations that were oppressed and marginalized because of their race, class, language, gender, or other cultural aspects of their identities. However, the project could have been furthered by having students find ways to become activists themselvesÑexactly what Roberto and Eduardo seemed to do in this discussion of difference. In what was for me a very special interview session with Marta, I was able to see her take a reading that Mr. Garc™a had given students, connect it to her activist project, and then relate it to current tensions in U.S. politics and her migrant experience. The reading was about Jackie Robinson and his letter to President Johnson in his advocating for Civil Rights, and she made connections from him to Cesar Chavez tying it all to immigration:  Kristina: Do you think things might change?  207 Marta: Maybe it will. If they keep sending more people back to Mexico, who will pick their fruits and everything? Or they might give them the rights they deserve and they might be paid more, give them healthcare and money.  K: Can you relate that back to todayÕs reading or Jackie RobinsonÕs letter? M: They had different schools for the blacks and different water fountains, and bathrooms and stores that the blacks werenÕt allowed to go to. And the government sent..these eight black people that went to this school and the government sent some officers to make sure that they got into school safely. K: What was Jackie saying? That they canÕt do what? M: That they canÕt be patient. They canÕt wait. They have to fight. K: Does this relate to your feelings about rights for Mexicans and Mexican farmworkers? M: Yea. ThatÕs what Cesar Chavez did.       (personal communication, 8/11/15)  Marta was able to make connections between the main ideas from JackieÕs letter and ChavezÕs fight for migrant farmworker rights. She used the experiences she had as a migrant youth and the experiences of her family members as migrant farmworkersÑher funds of knowledgeÑto better understand the concepts that Jackie Robinson was expressing. Despite policy constraints, Mr. Garc™a and I were able to provide students with what Morrell (2005) called ÒCritical English EducationÓ in these practices. In critical English education, practices are used to Òdevelop in  208 young women and men skills to deconstruct dominant texts carefullyÉwhile also instructing them in skills that allow them to create their own critical texts that can be used in the struggle for social justiceÓ (p. 313). Perhaps Marta had made those connections before between Robinson, Chavez, and immigration on her own, but students are not being provided with a space to put those puzzle pieces together, students are often left without opportunities to Òcreate their own critical texts.Ó This project provided an example of culturally sustaining pedagogy in that it embraced several activists from non-dominant racial and ethnic groups and promoted cultural equality. The project further promoted students to read about individuals who persistently stood up for their beliefs and social justice despite going against the grain of dominant cultural society. This hit home for many of the participants that I worked with as they were making sense of their lives and experiences of migrant youth in various school and social settings. The project also tapped into studentsÕ funds of knowledge in that many of the individuals were able to relate to the experiences of the activists having experienced feelings of difference from their peers for the color of their skin, language that they spoke, and economical situations. Apart from Mr. Mart™nezÕs and El™asÕs motivational speeches, this project and Mr. Garc™aÕs reading passage on Jackie Robinson and his letter to President Johnson were the only times where I observed pedagogy that discussed issues of power and social justice. I did not observe any other curricular opportunities where students or teachers engaged with the possibility to make change. The only change that I observed to be regularly present in the program apart from those sporadic moments was the focus on small, individual changes in student growth in an unequal educational system.   Mr. Garc™a and I were very proud of the work his students completed for this project. After talking to Marta, and reflecting on this project and the study itself, I realize that in hindsight, I would have done things differently. Although I provided a space for students to learn  209 about activists, I should have taken things at least one step further: give students an opportunity to relate to those activists and imagine becoming activists themselves. If students had the additional layer of self-reflection, they would have been able to further tap into their imagination and visualize themselves as agents of change and advocates for social justice. While the project was inspiring, I failed to provide students with the most important part: taking what they learned and having them explicitly apply it to their own lives. Such a follow-up activity would have given students an empowering learning opportunity that is both well-deserved and necessary for migrant youth.   Despite all of our attempts to provide students with skills vital to academic and life success, Mr. Garc™a, Ms. Stevenson, and I all struggled with the challenge. In both classrooms that I observed, teachers provided students with opportunities to practice the reading and writing skills they needed to further practice and develop in order to succeed academically in school and close the differences in academic achievement between them and their non-migrant peers. However, neither classroom seemed to provide students with an explanation as to why learning how to craft arguments through persuasive essays was an important skill to possess. This is similar to DelpitÕs notion of Òcodes of powerÓ where Òsuccess in institutionsÑschools, workplaces, and so onÑis predicated upon acquisition of the culture of those who are in powerÓ (p. 25). However, she also argued that students must be made explicitly aware of such codes in order to acquire said capital more easily. If students are just taught that they need to learn something but are not given a reason why, such instruction can become what Toshalis (2015) called a Òrecipe for diminished motivation and outright resistanceÓ (p. 115). In other words, if students were provided with the explicit rules of the game that they were expected to play, they might be more motivated to participate in these writing experiences. Furthermore, Toshalis noted  210 that teachers need to remember there is a Òcausal link between a good anticipation set (or ÔhookÕ) and students engagementÓ and, therefore, teachers should provide students with Òwell-sequenced lessons peppered with novelty, experimentation, and social interactionÓ in order to Òelevate studentsÕ motivation to stay focused and eventually succeedÓ (p. 107). Motivation is a huge factor in student engagement, and while these two teachers provided their students with skills needed to be successful in school by being able to construct a sound argument, their, as well as other educators, myself included, could employ additional pedagogical tools in order to aid students in finding relevance and empowerment through curricular activities. When student gaps in academic or linguistic achievement are the focus of the rhetoric in policy and how policy is interpreted and appropriated at local levelsÑsuch as many of the examples put forth in this chapterÑeducators ignore such empowering frameworks as funds of knowledge and culturally sustaining pedagogy. While the program certainly provided these young people with the tools necessary to grow academically and overcome academic achievement gaps, educators must continuously reflect on their teaching and find ways to improve their instruction in order to provide young people with powerful and excellent learning opportunities.      211 CONCLUSION: HUMANIZING EDUCATION FOR MIGRANT YOUTH    The summer at Project NOMAD was nothing short of an eye-opening experience. I learned so much from the young people of this program as well as the people who dedicate their summers working for the program. Having only spent 22 days with these young people, I barely scratched the surface of what these young people experience on a daily basisÑnor will I ever truly understand what it means to be Latina, indigenous, or to be migrant. However, by talking with these young peopleÑin the forms of interviews, sitting next to students in the classrooms, or walking in the hallways of NOMADÑI developed an enormous amount of respect for these young people and the individuals who work for them.   Although this study has very important implications for migrant education, further research is needed. Working with teachers in summer migrant programs utilizing action based research would be a powerful way to see how incorporating such powerful teaching and learning methods can impact migrant youth and how they identify themselves. Regular visits to camps and following migrant youth as they move between states and schools would also add several layers of rich data to such a study.   This study provides an understanding of migrant educational policy, and how it filters through the Federal, State, and local levels. By using Project NOMAD as my site, I was able to use ethnographic tools to see how policy is interpreted and implemented in this local space. However, the most valuable data came from the students in how they are developing their identities, understanding how they are identified by others, and how they experience education at Project NOMAD. The summer programÑwhose goal was to empower migrant youthÑprovided the young people and their families with an incredible amount of support. There were powerful  212 humanizing experiences for these young people at NOMAD. However, due to policy constraints, students had few opportunities to engage in culturally sustaining curricula and not only use but to place value on their funds of knowledge. These findings shed light on the implications that this study has for migrant educational policy, schools, beyond school programs such as NOMAD and other summer migrant programs, teachers, and teacher preparation programs.   The chapter on policy explained how educational policy was developed for migrant youth, and then how it filtered through and was interpreted and appropriated at the State and local levels. It was seen that policy at the Federal and State levels are often far-removed from those for whom the policy is written. My explanation of the higher levels of policymaking and enactment are viewed in a negative light, and it is because of that disconnect. Only local agents can truly see the needs of the individuals they work with, and in this case that was the individuals working at NOMAD. The language coming from the Federal and State levels referring to the goals of migrant education policy revolves around bridging an academic achievement gap between migrant youth and their non-migrant peers. The language of the policy text itself certainly had its impacts on migrant youth as they academically experienced Project NOMAD.   This dissertation looked at how migrant youth were developing their own identities in both NOMAD and their other educational experiences. Participants often referenced their languages and cultures as both barrier and bonus, and a question that came from that section was Òwhere are these messages about what is acceptable and what is not coming from?Ó The answer is policy. If local agents are adhering to the written text whose rhetoric includes discourse around gaps and deficiencies, that filters directly into the experiences and, in turn, identities of these young people. Local agents must resist such policy and act in ways that can simultaneously culturally sustain and uphold the languages and cultures of migrant youth, utilize their funds of  213 knowledge, and provide them with the tools necessary to survive and thrive in dominant U.S. schools and society.  Unfortunately, there were many ways that NOMAD was required to comply with written interpretations of policy coming from the State and Federal level in order to receive necessary funding for their program to flourish. Such practices included spending a lot of time testing students in math and literacy, and following math curricula that matched a stateÕs curriculum where very few students would migrate. Furthermore, it was shown through the curricular choices that one of the teachers I worked with was heavily focused on developing skills necessary to do well on standardized tests. Through the activist project, we saw an opportunity for students to draw from their own funds of knowledge and maintain beliefs in social justice in critical ways across multiple learning experiences both in and outside of the classroom. NOMAD also provided and continues to provide many opportunities for students to become and maintain awareness of difference and develop cultural pride. Through motivational talks, choice of texts, and opportunities to envision their lives out of the field if they chose to do so, NOMAD was providing humanizing learning experiences for these youth.   Humanizing education should be learning experiences that not just relate to the individuals in the classroom but sustain and celebrate their linguistic, cultural, and literate practice. It should also utilize what students bring to the classroom from their cultural histories. Most importantly, humanizing education should focus on the development of a person as an individual human being and not focus solely on bridging academic gaps, surviving in schools whose curricula and policy set them behind their peers, and how to answer multiple choice questions. At the end of the day, at the end of the school year, and after graduation, the measure of a person will not be how they did on a fill-in-the-bubble test. Measurable outcomes should be  214 based on oneÕs ability to be sympathetic, caring, and who fight for social justice. This study then provides several reasons that providing migrant youth with such humanizing education is so important.   First, migrant youth are unique individuals with unique needs and an incredible amount of strength and resilience. They deserve powerful, excellent, and humanizing educational opportunities that help them not only overcome any differences in academic achievement between them and their non-migrant peers, but also help them grow to be the critical thinking leaders that they are capable of becoming. By implementing culturally sustaining pedagogies, utilizing and highlighting studentsÕ funds of knowledge, and creating a classroom that welcomes a space where students and teachers learn from one another, educators could provide these youth with excellent and empowering learning opportunities that lead to greater forms of social change.  Second, programs like Project NOMAD provide a range of invaluable support for and empower migrant youth and their families, and summer programs around the country should look to NOMAD as a program successful in meeting policy expectations and addressing the unique needs of migrant youth. However, due to the focus of policy at State and Federal levels on measurable outcomes and closing Òachievement gapsÓ between migrants and non-migrants, local programs like NOMAD lose out on opportunities to provide youth with more empowering educational experiences. Furthermore, State legislation on legal working ages provides an outlet for these youth to choose working in the fields over attending summer programs like NOMAD that can provide them with the tools they need to not only succeed but survive in dominant White American schools and society. State and Federal agents could be better meeting the needs of migrant youth by giving local agentsÑthose who know these students and their familiesÑmore flexibility in developing experiences and curricula that empower migrant youth. Such freedom  215 could challenge English monolingual ideologies and provide students with opportunities to learn in and develop literacy in multiple languages. This freedom would also provide young people with more humanizing experiences that occur both inside and outside of the classroom. Until that flexibility becomes available, programs for migrants and educators of migrant youth must continue to reflect on how they can provide humanizing educational experiences within the constraints of educational policy. Such reflection should include increased communication with parents by the teachers in summer programs and professional development opportunities to create powerful learning experiences. If teachers visited more often with families, they could learn more about their studentsÕ and familiesÕ funds of knowledge and incorporate this into their curricula. By providing teachers with professional development opportunities to implement culturally sustaining pedagogies that use and support studentsÕ funds of knowledge and to do so despite policy constraints, teachers would be provided with the support they need to both resist and inform policy and provide these youth with empowering educational experiences.       216                      APPENDICES   217 Appendix A: Assent Form for Students (English)   July 17, 2015  Dear Student,  My name is Kristina Crandall, and I will be investigating the educational experiences and language practices of young people participating in the Project NOMAD this summer. I want to know how young people are practicing their English and Spanish reading, writing and speaking with the program and in their homes and schools. As a part of this research project, I plan to observe how students are practicing and learning at school and home, and I plan to interview the students about eight to ten times during the summer and fall. I hope that what I learn from the students will help teachers, tutors and schools understand how bilingual students practice their language skills. I am looking for students who are interested in participating in this research project and share their experiences with language learning with me.   I want to know if you are willing to be a focus student in my project. Participation is completely voluntary, which means you do not have to participate if you do not want to.  You may refuse to participate in certain procedures or answer certain questions or discontinue your participation at any time without consequence.  If you agree to be a participant, you are saying yes to allowing me to observe you, talk to you and interview you about your experiences with English and Spanish. I hope to observe your educational sessions, discussions with family and friends and whenever you practice reading or writing. The interviews will take about 20 minutes to ask you about your language, reading and writing practices at home, school and with Project NOMAD. These interviews will be recorded so that I can remember what you say. Everything that I talk to you about or observe will be kept confidential, and I will not use your real name or the names of your family members, friends, schools or home.   If you agree to participate, please sign the bottom of this letter and return it to me or any other member of the Project NOMAD. If you sign the letter and decide later that you do not want to participate, just let me know. You will not receive any compensation for participating other than the learning that would occur with the Project NOMAD. There will be no penalty for deciding not to participate.   If you have any questions, you can call me anytime at (313) 378-0750 or by email at cranda43@msu.edu. My address is also listed below. You can also contact my advisor, Dr. Django Paris. His telephone, email and address are also listed below.   Sincerely,   Kristina A. Crandall College of Education, Michigan State University 301D Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI  Phone: (313) 378-0750; E-mail: cranda43@msu.edu  218  Dr. Django Paris, Associate Professor College of Education, Michigan State University 329 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Phone: (517) 884-6639; E-mail: dparis@msu.edu     I have read the above information and understand that this survey is voluntary and I may stop at any time.  I consent to participate in the study.   ______________________________________ Signature of participant   _____________     Date    _____________________________________  Signature of researchers  _____________ Date    ! Participant received a copy.     219 Appendix B: Assent Form for Students (Spanish)   27 de junio de 2015  Estimado estudiante:  Me llamo Kristina Crandall. Le escribo para informar de que voy a investigar las experiencias educativas y la pr⁄ctica de los idiomas de los jŠvenes participantes en el Project NOMAD este verano. Quiero saber como est⁄n practicando ingles y espaŒol los jŠvenes Ñcomo leen, escriben y hablanÑen el programa, en sus casas, en las granjas y en las escuelas. Como parte de este proyecto, me gustar™a observar como los estudiantes est⁄n practicando y aprendiendo mientras que est⁄n en estas zonas escolares, y quiero hacer entrevistas durante el verano y al principio del otoŒo. Habr⁄n entre 8-10 entrevistas durante el verano y otoŒo. Espero que los resultados de este proyecto puedan ayudar en el futuro a los profesores, tutores y escuelas a entender mejor como los estudiantes bilis y migrantes experimentan escuela aprenden y practican idiomas. Estoy buscando estudiantes interesados en participar en este proyecto para compartir sus experiencias.   Quiero saber si estas interesado en participar en mi proyecto. Es totalmente voluntario, es decir, que no hace falta participar si no te apetece. Puedes rechazar de participar en cualquier parte del proyecto, elegir contestar solo algunas preguntas o parar tu participaciŠn en cualquier momento sin sanciŠn. S™ te interesa, debes estar de acuerdo en que observe tu aprendizaje, en que hable contigo y en hacer entrevistas sobre tus experiencias con el ingles y el espaŒol. Estar” observando las lecciones con el Project NOMAD y tu propio colegio en el otoŒo, charlas con amigos y familia, y cuando est”s leyendo o escribiendo. Las entrevistas tardar⁄n 20 minutos y te preguntar” sobre tus pr⁄cticas con los idiomas, lectura y escritura en casa, en la escuela, en la granja y con el Project NOMAD. Las entrevistas van a ser grabadas para ayudarme a recordar todo. Todo lo que hablemos y las cosas que observe durante este proyecto ser⁄ confidencial, y no usar” tu nombre propio ni los nombres de tu familia, amigos, escuelas o casa.   Si aceptas a participar, firma esta carta y devu”lvela a mi o cualquier persona relacionada con el Project NOMAD, por favor. S™ decides que no quieres participar despu”s de firmar esta carta, d™melo y no habr⁄ ningœn problema (no habr⁄ ninguna sanciŠn si decides que no quieres participar).   Si tienes alguna pregunta, ll⁄mame en cualquier momento. Mi nœmero de tel”fono es (313) 378-0750, o env™ame un correo electrŠnico a (cranda43@msu.edu). Si lo deseas, tambi”n puedes ponerte en contacto con mi tutor, Dr. Django Paris. Su tel”fono, correo electrŠnico y direcciŠn est⁄n a pie de p⁄gina.  Un saludo cordial,  Kristina A. Crandall College of Education, Michigan State University 301D Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI  Phone: (313) 378-0750; E-mail: cranda43@msu.edu  220  Dr. Django Paris, Associate Professor College of Education, Michigan State University 329 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Phone: (517) 884-6639; E-mail: dparis@msu.edu  He leido la informaciŠn arriba y comprendo que este proyecto es voluntario y puedo dejar de participar en cu⁄lquier momento. Yo doy mi consentimiento pare participar en este proyecto.    ______________________________________ Firma de Participante (Padre/Tutor Legal s™ tiene menos 18 aŒos)  _____________     Fecha    _____________________________________  Firma de investigadores  _____________ Fecha    ! Participante ha recibido una copia.     221 Appendix C: Informed Consent Form for Parents (English)    July 17, 2015  Dear Parent,  My name is Kristina Crandall, and I will be investigating the educational experiences and language practices of young people participating in the Project NOMAD this summer. I want to know how young people are practicing their English and Spanish language use with the program and in their homes and schools. As a part of this research project, I plan to observe how students are practicing and learning at school and home, and I plan to interview the students about eight to ten times during the summer and fall. I am looking for students who are interested in participating in this research project and share their experiences with language learning with me.   Participation is completely voluntary, which means you do not have to participate if you do not want to. Your child may refuse to participate in certain procedures or answer certain questions or discontinue your participation at any time without consequence.  If you agree to be a participant, you are saying yes to allowing me to observe your child, talk to and interview him or her about their experiences with English and Spanish. I hope to observe their school sessions, and possibly discussions with family and friends and as they practice reading or writing. The interviews will take about 20 minutes to ask them about their language, reading and writing practices at home, school and with the Project NOMAD. In addition, I would also like to interview the families and parents of these young people to get a better picture of the experiences of the youth. In order to gain a better perspective of relationships between families and schools, these interviews would certainly help further my study. These interviews will be recorded so that I can remember what they say. Everything that I talk to them about or observe will be kept confidential, and I will not use your real name, their real names or the names of their family members, friends, schools or home.   The potential benefits for participation in this study includes a better understanding of the importance of how migrant youth are experiencing schooling and language learningÑboth in English and SpanishÑand how to read, write and communicate in both languages can improve their education and life skills. The potential risks for participation include the fact that being interviewed by an adult could be uncomfortable for you or your child. I will do my best to make sure your child feels safe and comfortable during my interviews and observations. Your child will not receive any compensation for working with me other than the learning that would otherwise occur during Project NOMAD, school or home.   If you agree to participate, please sign the bottom of this letter and return it to me or any other member of the Project NOMAD. If you sign the letter and decide later that you do not want to participate, just let me know. There will be no penalty for deciding not to participate. If you have any questions, you can call me anytime at (313) 378-0750 or by email at cranda43@msu.edu. My address is also listed below. You can also contact my advisor, Dr. Django Paris. His telephone, email and address are also listed below.    222 Sincerely,  Kristina A. Crandall College of Education, Michigan State University 301D Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI  Phone: (313) 378-0750; E-mail: cranda43@msu.edu  Dr. Django Paris, Associate Professor College of Education, Michigan State University 329 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Phone: (517) 884-6639; E-mail: dparis@msu.edu  I have read the above information and understand that this survey is voluntary and I may stop at any time.  I consent to my childÕs participation in the study.  ! As a parent, I also consent to participate in the study.   ! As a parent, I consent that Kristina can take photos of my family and my child and his or her work.  ! As a parent, I consent that Kristina can take videos of my child in school or with family at home.   ______________________________________ Signature of participant (Parent/Legal Guardian if under 18 years)  _____________     Date    _____________________________________  Signature of researchers  _____________ Date    ! Participant received a copy.     223 Appendix D: Informed Consent Form for Parents (Spanish)    17 de julio de 2015  Estimado Madre o Padre del Estudiante:  Me llamo Kristina Crandall. Les escribo para informar de que voy a investigar las experiencias educativas y la pr⁄ctica de los idiomas de los niŒos participantes en el Project NOMAD este verano. Quiero saber como est⁄n experimentando escuela y practicando ingles y espaŒol los jŠvenes Ñcomo leen, escriben y hablanÑen el programa, en sus casas, en las granjas y en las escuelas. Como parte de este proyecto, me gustar™a observar como los estudiantes est⁄n practicando y aprendiendo mientras que est⁄n recibiendo ayuda de los tutores, y quiero hacer entrevistas durante el verano. Espero que los resultados de este proyecto puedan ayudar en el futuro a los profesores, tutores y escuelas a entender mejor como los estudiantes bilis y migrantes aprenden y practican idiomas. Estoy buscando estudiantes interesados en participar en este proyecto para compartir sus experiencias. …sta carta sirve para pedir su permisiŠn dejar a su hijo a participar en mi proyecto.  Es totalmente voluntario, es decir, que no hace falta participar si no te apetece. Su hijo puede rechazar de participar en cualquier parte del proyecto, elegir contestar solo algunas preguntas o parar su participaciŠn en cualquier momento sin sanciŠn. S™ te interesa, debes estar de acuerdo en que observe su aprendizaje, en que hable con ”l o ella y en hacer entrevistas sobre sus experiencias con el ingles y el espaŒol. Estar” observando las lecciones con el Project NOMAD, charlas con amigos y familia, y cuando est” leyendo o escribiendo. Las observaciŠnes ser⁄n inclu™das en mis sesiones con ellos mi”ntras que estoy ayudandoles aprender ingles. Tambi”n, con su permisiŠn, me gustar™a ver como hablan, leen y escriben en sus casas con usted para tener una idea como ”stas pr⁄cticas son distintas o similares a las del Project NOMAD. Las entrevistas tardar⁄n 20 minutos y le preguntar” sobre sus pr⁄cticas con los idiomas, lectura y escritura en casa, en la escuela, en la granja y con el Project NOMAD. Las entrevistas (entre 8-10 durante el verano y el principio del otoŒo) van a ser grabadas para ayudarme a recordar todo. Encima, me gustar™a hablar con las familias de los jŠvenes tambi”n. Para entender mejor las experiencias que tienen las familias con los profesores y escuelas, una charla con los padres y familias me puede entender much™sima m⁄s para darme un imagen completo de sus vidas. Todo lo que hablemos y las cosas que observe durante este proyecto ser⁄ confidencial, y no usar” su nombre, el nombre del jŠven ni los nombres de su familia, amigos, escuelas o casa.   Los beneficios de participar en este proyecto incluye la capaz de su hijo a entender mejor la importancia de aprender idiomasÑingles y espaŒolÑy como leer, escribir y comunicar en los dos idiomas puede mejorar su educaciŠn y abilidades de vida. Los riesgos pueden incluir la sensaciŠn de no estar cŠmodo hablando con una persona extraŒa, pero har” todo posible para asegurar que su hijo se encuentra cŠmodo y seguros durante la duraciŠn del proyecto. Su hijo no recibir⁄ nada de compensaciŠn por ser parte de este proyecto.   Si aceptas a participar, firma esta carta y devu”lvela a mi o cualquier persona relacionada con el Project NOMAD, por favor. S™ decide que no quiere que participa su hijo despu”s de firmar esta  224 carta, me lo puedes decir en cualquier momento y no habr⁄ ningœn problema (no habr⁄ ninguna sanciŠn si decide que no quieres participar).   Si tienes alguna pregunta, ll⁄mame en cualquier momento. Mi nœmero de tel”fono es (313) 3780-0750, o env™ame un correo electrŠnico a (cranda43@msu.edu). Si lo deseas, tambi”n puedes ponerte en contacto con mi tutor, Dr. Django Paris. Su tel”fono, correo electrŠnico y direcciŠn est⁄n a pie de p⁄gina.  Un saludo cordial,   Kristina A. Crandall College of Education, Michigan State University 301D Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI  Phone: (313) 378-0750; E-mail: cranda43@msu.edu  Dr. Django Paris, Associate Professor College of Education, Michigan State University 329 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Phone: (517) 884-6639; E-mail: dparis@msu.edu  He leido la informaciŠn arriba y comprendo que este proyecto es voluntario y puedo dejar de participar en cu⁄lquier momento. Yo doy mi consentimiento para mi hijo/hija participar en este proyecto.   ! Como padre, yo doy mi consentimiento para participar en este proyecto tambi”n. ! Como padre, yo doy mi consentimiento a Kristina echar fotos de mi familia, mi hij@ y su trabajo.  ! Como padre, yo doy mi consentimiento a Kristina echar videos de mi hij@ en la escuela o con su familia.  ______________________________________ Firma de Participante (Padre/Tutor Legal s™ tiene menos 18 aŒos)  _____________     Fecha    _____________________________________  Firma de investigadores  _____________ Fecha  ! Participante ha recibido una copia.  225 Appendix E: Informed Consent Form for Teachers     June 27, 2015  Dear Teacher,  My name is Kristina Crandall, and I will be investigating the educational experiences and language practices of young people participating in the Project NOMAD this summer. I want to know how young people are practicing their English and Spanish language use with the program and in their homes and schools. As a part of this research project, I plan to observe how students are practicing and learning at school and home, and I plan to interview the students about eight to ten times during the summer and fall. I hope that what I learn from the students will help teachers, tutors and schools understand how bilingual students practice their language skills. I am looking for students who are interested in participating in this research project and share their experiences with language learning with me. In order to learn more about the preparation of the teachers working with these young people, I would like to conduct one or two interviews with teachers as well.   Participation is completely voluntary, which means you do not have to participate if you do not want to. You may refuse to participate in certain procedures or answer certain questions or discontinue your participation at any time without consequence.  If you agree to be a participant, you are saying yes to allowing me to observe your classroom, talk to and interview you about your experiences with your students, teaching and teacher preparation as well as linguistic experience with English and Spanish in the classroom domain. The interviews will take about 20 and will be recorded so that I can remember what is being said. Everything that I with you and your students will be kept confidential, and I will not use your real name or the names of the youth, their family members, friends, schools or home.   The potential benefits for participation in this study includes a better understanding of the importance of how migrant youth are experiencing schooling using languageÑboth in English and SpanishÑto navigate these spaces. It will also provide insight into how to improve their educational opportunities and life skills. There are little to no risks involved with your participation as your responses will inform the ways in which teachers communicate and work with migrant youth and their families. You will not receive any compensation for working with me other than the collaboration that would otherwise occur during school.  If you agree to participate, please sign the bottom of this letter and return it to me or any other member of the Project NOMAD. If you sign the letter and decide later that you do not want to participate, just let me know. There will be no penalty for deciding not to participate. If you have any questions, you can call me anytime at (313) 378-0750 or by email at cranda43@msu.edu. My address is also listed below. You can also contact my advisor, Dr. Django Paris. His telephone, email and address are also listed below.   Sincerely,  226    Kristina A. Crandall College of Education, Michigan State University 301D Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI  Phone: (313) 378-0750; E-mail: cranda43@msu.edu  Dr. Django Paris, Associate Professor College of Education, Michigan State University 329 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Phone: (517) 884-6639; E-mail: dparis@msu.edu   I have read the above information and understand that this survey is voluntary and I may stop at any time.  I consent to participate in the study.  ! I consent to Kristina taking pictures in and of my classroom. ! I consent to Kristina audio recording class events. ! With the consent of parents, I consent to Kristina taking videos of academic events (i.e., student presentations).   ______________________________________ Signature of participant (Parent/Legal Guardian if under 18 years)  _____________     Date    _____________________________________  Signature of researchers  _____________ Date    ! Participant received a copy.     227 Appendix F: Interview Protocol (English)    Interview with Student  Introduction:  1. What is your name? 2. How old are you? 3. Where are you from originally? 4. Where do you spend most of your time during the year? 5. Where did you live before you came here to Michigan? 6. Do you work on the farm where your parent(s) work? If so, how often? How much time do you spend working per day/week? 7. What do you want to be when you grow up?  School Experience:  1. How many schools did you attend this past year? 2. How many times do you usually change schools in one year? 3. What have your experiences been like at school? 4. What was your last school like? 5. How long were you at your last school?  6. What were your teachers/principals like? 7. Have you ever missed school to work with your families?  Language:  1. What language do you speak with your parents? 2. What language do you speak with your friends? 3. What language do you speak at school? 4. What language do you speak on the farms?[[[ 5. When did you start learning English? 6. Who was your favorite English teacher? Why? 7. What is your favorite word in English? In Spanish? 8. If you had a magic wand, how many languages would you be able to speak? 9. What does it mean to you to be able to speak two languages? 10.   Personal/Interests:   1. Do you like to listen to music? 2. What is your favorite song? 3. Do you listen to more music in Spanish or English? 4. Do you like to read books? 5. What is your favorite book?   228 6. In which language do you prefer to read? 7. When do you read in Spanish? 8. When do you read in English? 9. Where do you do most of your reading?  Interview with Parents 1. What was your schooling experience like? 2. What grade level did you complete? 3. Do you speak often with your childÕs teachers? 4. What which schools or states do teachers communicate with you more than others? 5. Do you feel included in your childÕs education? 6. What do you do in the house to help with your childÕs learning? 7. In what language do you speak at home? 8. In what language do you speak with teachers of your child? 9. Are you happy with your childÕs education? 10. What would you like to change for your child to have a better educational experience?  Interview with Teacher 1. How long have you worked with migrant students? 2. How were you prepared professionally to work with migrant youth? 3. Do you speak more than one language? 4. Do you speak with any migrant youth in a language other than English? 5. What do you feel you do to help migrant youth in school? 6. What extra support to you provide for these students? 7. Do you wish you could have received extra training to work with these youth? 8. Can you describe your typical interaction with migrant students in the class? Outside of class? 9. How do you communicate with parents and families? 10. Do you think you could or should communicate more with parents and families? 11. How do you think the educational experiences of these young people be improved?    229 Appendix G: Interview Protocol (Spanish)   Entrevista con Estudiante  IntroducciŠn:  1. ÀCŠmo te llamas? 2. ÀCu⁄ntos aŒos tienes? 3. ÀDe donde eres? 4. ÀDonde pasas la mayor™a de tu tiempo durante al aŒo? 5. ÀDonde viviste antes de venir a Michigan? 6. ÀEn cuantas granjas has vivido este aŒo? En tu vida? 7. ÀTrabajas en la granja donde trabaja tu familia? ÀCuanto? ÀCuanto tiempo pasas trabajando durante un d™a/semana? 8. ÀQu” quieres ser cuando seas mayor?  Escuela:   1. ÀCŠmo era tu œltima escuela? 2. ÀCŠmo eran tus maestros? 3. ÀCu⁄nto tiempo pasaste en tu œltima escuela? 4. ÀCu⁄nto tiempo pasas en la granja? 5. ÀHas perdido escuela porque necesitabas trabajar en la granja alguna vez? 6. ÀCŠmo eran tus profesores y administrativos? 7. ÀHas perdido escuela para trabajar en las granjas con tu familia?  Idioma:  1. ÀEn que idioma hablas con tus padres? 2. ÀEn que idioma hablas con tus amigos? 3. ÀEn que idioma hablas en tus escuelas? 4. ÀEn que idioma hablas en las granjas? 5. ÀCuando empezaste a aprender ingles? 6. ÀQui”n era tu maestro preferido de ingles? ÀPor qu”? 7. ÀCu⁄l es tu palabra favorita en ingles? Àen espaŒol? 8. ÀSi tuvieras una barita m⁄gica, cuantos idiomas te gustar™a hablar? 9. ÀQue significa para ti hablar en dos idiomas?  Literac™a:  1. ÀTe gusta escuchar mœsica? 2. ÀCu⁄l es tu canciŠn favorite? ÀEn ingles? ÀEn espaŒol? 3. ÀTe gusta leer? 4. ÀCu⁄l es tu libro favorito? ÀEn ingles? ÀEn espaŒol? 5. ÀDonde lees habitualmente?  230 6. ÀCuando lees en espaŒol? 7. ÀCuando lees en ingles? 8. ÀEn cu⁄l idioma prefieres leer? 9. ÀDonde te gusta leer m⁄s?   Entrevista con Padres  1. ÀCŠmo fue su experiencia con escuela?  2. ÀCu⁄l nivel de escuela completŠ? 3. ÀHablas mucho con los profesores de tu hij@? 4. ÀEn cu⁄les escuelas/estados los profesores est⁄n comunicando con usted m⁄s que los otras? 5. ÀSe siente incluido en la educaciŠn de su hij@? 6. ÀQue hacen en la casa para ayudar a su hij@ aprender? 7. ÀEn que idioma hablan en la casa? 8. ÀEn que idioma habla con los profesores de tu hij@? 9. ÀEst⁄ contento con la educaciŠn de su hij@? ÀCon Project NOMAD? 10. ÀQue le gustar™a cambiar para tener una mejor experiencia en la escuela para su hij@?     231 Appendix H: Interest Survey   Interest Survey Please be honest when answering this survey so that I can get to know you as a person and a reader. DonÕt forget to answer ÒwhyÓ if it is part of a question! "  Mr. D™az and Mrs. Crandall Name ________________________________________ 1. What kind of books do you like to read? Why? Here are some genre examples: mystery, informational, historical fiction, poetry, etc.  2. What are your favorite magazines and websites?   3. What types of TV programs or movies do you like to watch? Why?   4. What is your first choice of what to do when you have free time at home?  5. What is your favorite subject in school? What is your least favorite subject? Why?   6. What kind of career do you think you would be suitable for when you are an adult? Why?  7. If you had to guessÉ   *How many books would you say you owned? _________   *How many books would you say you read this summer? _________   *How many books would you say you read during the last school year?            __________     8. How do you choose a book to read?    232 9.  What are your hobbies or interests?   10.  What do you think are your three greatest strengths as a reader of books?   11.  What would you like to get better at?   12.  In general, how do you feel about reading and yourself as a reader?   13.  If we could read about any three topics (people, places or things) in class, what  would it be? (For example, Mrs. Kristina would like to read about important  women in history, nature and different world cultures.)             Is there anything else you want to tell us or you want us to know about you?       233 Appendix I: Researching Activists Lesson Plan    Researching Activists Lesson Plan  Activity: Jigsaw reading ¥ Students can choose between four activists or social movement leaders to research in groups.  ¥ First, students will do a gallery walk to look at the covers of different books or texts to choose which leader interests them the most (2 minutes). Groups should be between 4-7 students.  ¥ Each student will have a graphic organizer (G.O.) to write their take-aways from the texts. Each text should be labeled Source #1, #2 or #3 within each activist group.  ¥ Once in their groups, students will read and become ÒexpertsÓ on one source relating to the activist chosen. In most cases, students should work with a partner during this step to better extract the important and main ideas from each text. Students working alone should ideally be stronger readers or be receiving additional support from teacher or teacher aid. Students should read through the text once without stopping to take notes. Then, they can refer to their G.O. as they go through the text a second time to get the main ideas, jot down important vocabulary and take note of anything they do not understand. Students should fill out the section of the G.O. that corresponds to their text. *Teacher should remind students to use a dictionary for vocabulary that they do not understand.  (10 minutes) ¥ Once they complete their section of the G.O., students will return to the entire activist group. Each expert will summarize the text as a whole to their classmates. Then, they will go back and explain the three main ideas that they took away from the text and wrote on their G.O. along with defining any important vocabulary. Once each expert is done with explaining their text, every student should have a completed G.O.. (3 minutes per source) *Teacher should check in at 3 minutes to see if they need more time and give them a one-minute warning. Then, at 4 minutes, make sure each group has moved on to the next source (9-12 minutes).  ¥ Now that groups have a more complete picture of their activist and the issue he or she fought for, they will brainstorm how they want to present this individual to the class. First, students should use the provided questions on the G.O. to guide their thinking. Students can follow this format or choose another method of presenting their activist (a picture with important vocabulary; a poem; a skit, etc.).  ¥ Each group will have 3 minutes to present their activist to the class. Every group member must participate in presenting. Then, we will offer time for the class to ask the group 1-2 questions. Every presentation should include the following: description of the activist and a few details about his or her life (including how he or she got involved in the activism; description of the issue; the activistÕs role, questions they have for the activist. Teacher should ask each group at the end of the presentation how they feel about the issue involved.    234 Appendix J: Activist Jigsaw Graphic Organizer     Source #1 Title: _______________________  Main Idea #1:   Main Idea #2:   Main Idea #3   Important Vocabulary:    Things I do not understand:   Source #2 Title: _______________________  Main Idea #1:   Main Idea #2:   Main Idea #3   Important Vocabulary:    Things I do not understand:  Source #3 Title: _______________________  Main Idea #1:    Main Idea #2:    Main Idea #3    Important Vocabulary:     Things I do not understand:  Brainstorming questions for your 3-minute presentation (Use the back of this page to take notes):  What are the most important points about this individual that I need to present to the class (What information can I NOT leave out in my presentation)?   What background information do I need to give to the class about the   What important vocabulary words do I need to include and define to help my class understand more about this person and their achievements?   If I could sit down with this activist, what are 2-3 questions I would want to ask him or her?     235                      REFERENCES    236 REFERENCES   89th Congress. (1965). Elementary and Secondary Education Act. H.R. 2362 Public Law 89Ð10. 89th Congress. (1965). Higher Education Act. H.R. 2362 Public Law 89Ð329. 95th Congress, 2nd Session. (1978). Educational amendments of 1978 (House report 95Ð1137). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Avineri, N. et al. (2015). Invited forum: Bridging the ÒLanguage GapÓ. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 25, 66Ð86.   Au, W. (2016). Meritocracy 2.0: High-stakes, standardized testing as a racial project of neoliberal multiculturalism. Educational Policy, 30(1), 39Ð62.   Blackledge, A. & Creese, A. (2008). 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