Having arrived: Dimensions of educational success in a transitional newcomer school

This article examines a program for newly arrived, non-English-speaking imm igrant children in a major California city. Focusing on students of Mexican and other Latino origin, I explore the local model of success and ask, How is student success defined and fostered? This study lays the ethnographic foundation for a comparison between settings fm first-generation students. The research demonstrates how a nurturing setting, a culturally flexible te aching approach, linguistic and cultural validation, and a valued spatial e nvironment can contribute to newcomer students' success and educational con fidence. Further, it addresses both the personal and political tensions tha t can arise when such programs are physically separate and distant from the "home" or neighborhood school.