Arizona continues to implement the 4-hour ELD block despite opposition and concerns regarding is appropriateness and effectiveness. Research using state and national assessments show that English language learners continue to fall behind their English proficient peers in reading achievement even after the implementation of the 4-hour ELD block. In general, there is no proven direct correlation between the program and underachievement. This study evaluated the impact of the 4-hour ELD block on reading achievement by comparing similar reading-abled students that were in the program with students that were not. The study was conducted in a district located in a predominately Hispanic poor community in order to eliminate social and economical factors that could disadvantage one group over the other. The findings demonstrated there were no significant differences in the reading achievement between both groups, supporting arguments that the 4-hour ELD block has made little to no impact for ELL students. However, results demonstrate that early intervention may be significant in explaining increases in reading achievement.

This qualitative study investigates the at-home educational efforts of six immigrant families as they prepare their children for school in the United States. The participants’ at-home educational activities were provided by the Mexican immigrant families using photographs of activities that they judged as skills which developed the child’s ability to engage with other children, teachers, and the curriculum on their first day at school. Photovoice methodology was used in order to provide the Mexican immigrants’ voice.

The families were recruited from a large urban city in the Southwest with a large immigrant population. They were recruited from medical centers, social support centers, churches with immigrant communities, and schools that had Mexican immigrant children in attendance. The schools and churches provided the greatest source of participants. The educational level of the parents varied from over fifteen years to three years of schooling in Mexico. The children in the study were citizens of the United States, were from two to four years of age, had not yet attended school in the U.S., but had siblings attending public schools in the United States. The families opened their life to the researcher and provided an insight through their photographs that could not have been gained if only interviews and/or questionnaires were used.

The twenty five photographs selected to identify the six educational themes that were highlighted throughout the study are demonstrative of what the families in the study were doing to prepare their children for their first day of school. Mexican immigrant parents have high expectations for their children and are willing to sacrifice for the children’s education.