Made in America: Immigrant Students in Our Public Schools by Dr. Laurie Olsen (1997) is an excellent book for all educators of multicultural students. The book focuses on immigrant students, who sometimes take a back-burner to other multicultural students in the education system, and discusses the unique challenges these students face in American public schools. Made in America is a collection of interviews and observations that Olsen conducted for her doctoral dissertation. Dr. Laurie Olsen is an independent consultant, the Director of the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL), and previously served as director of California Tomorrow. Dr. Olsen has dedicated 50 years researching, writing, and advocating for immigrant and ELLs students in America. The new preface for Made in America, added in 2008, states that Dr. Olsen would be more of an activist today than just a researcher when she wrote the book. She would advocate more for immigrant students and English …show more content…
However, immigrant students are required to have sufficient mastery of the language to do well in high school. All of their classes, besides language learning classes, are taught wholly in English in the majority of high schools across America. As Dr. Olsen points out, “a student cannot learn social studies, math, and science if they cannot understand the language of the teacher or … the textbook” (Olsen, 1997, pg. 94). She goes on to state that learning English can take up to seven years, and that for students to truly master the language, they need “instruction and support in their home language” (Olsen, 1997, pg. 94). Several researchers agree; they point out that teaching students solely in English is detrimental, and that having a better understanding of students’ culture/language will greatly increase learning (García, Arias, Harris Murri, & Serna, 2010; McMillan & Rivers,