Partnerships for Immigrant Student Equity: An RPP Between a University Researcher and Nonprofit to Counter Anti-immigrant Legal Climates

Funded by NYU's Institute of Human Development and Social Change's Partnership Development Seed Award, Dr. Rodriguez will work with a nonprofit organization that partners with K-12 schools to implement interventions to support belonging and well-being of immigrant youth. The organization partners with multiple schools and districts nationally to support immigrant students through advocacy and professional development for educators, impacting more than 40,000 immigrant students, families, and K-12 educators across 15+ states.

This partnership will focus on building capacity and infrastructure for the organization and developing research questions related to their evolving theory of change. A goal will be to develop ideas for studying the effectiveness of legal advocacy on reducing family separation and increasing educator awareness about the chilling effects of immigration encounters. This partnership aims to build a research infrastructure within the national network, as well. The short-term goals of this partnership development award relate to the longer term goal of increasing research evidence use for this network and the organizations in the network.