In this case study, you are the associate superintendent and chief academic officer (CAO) of a large school district in the southwest. The case involves the complex issue of how to serve the burgeoning adolescent immigrant population in your school district. The study considers how a school that is situated in the heart of a Hispanic/Latino community can address the academic needs of adolescent newcomer immigrants, both collectively and individually, by making decisions informed by instructional experts. The institutional practices and policies of your school are steeped in memory-laden ways of behaving that have constrained its ability to always be responsive to the school community. You have been working for 4 years with a 2-year International Academy for high school students who are new to the United States and perform lower than the third-grade level on a placement test when they begin as students in the ninth grade. As you work with the school, issues about how decisions are made in the district and at schools are rising to the surface. You have just received a phone call from the principal at the Academy. Teachers in the English department (English as a second language, reading, and composition) have walked out and are threatening to stay away for the rest of the week if some agreement about how to address the language issues at the Academy is not reached.
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