UCLA

With the increasing number of displaced people all around the world, comparative studies gain more importance in creating better models for education. This study aims to understand assessments of newcomer students in urban middle schools in Southern California, which has coped with migrant education for several decades, and Turkey, which has been hosting the largest number of refugees in the world. The interviews with twenty educators from Turkey and Southern California, twenty field-observation reports, and related documents are analyzed in this qualitative study. It is found that both regions have similar criteria during enrollment of newcomers. In Turkey, mathematics, science, and literature levels of newcomers are also taken into consideration during enrollment. For the academic assessment in integrated classes, there are more criteria in Southern California, which are standardized at the state or district level, while teachers in Turkey have more flexibility during assessments.