Liberal Arts Researcher Receives Major Grant To Study Immigration

A research team including Trey Marchbanks, an associate research scientist with the Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI) in the College of Liberal Arts, received a grant for more than $750,000 from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to study the link between immigration and school safety, education and juvenile justice.

“We need to better understand how students who have immigrated to the country experience the education system, which has been ignored,” Marchbanks said. “Nationally we’re seeing a large population of immigrant children. We need to make sure they achieve to their fullest potential, and that we don’t waste money pursuing ineffective policies.”

This study is a follow-up to a 2009 study Marchbanks participated in, the revolutionary Breaking Schools’ Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement. This study was the first statewide project to research the school-to-prison pipeline with individual-level data, and even influenced President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative which promotes intervention by civic leaders in the lives of young men of color to address their unique challenges and promote racial justice.

Building upon the findings of Breaking Schools’ Rules, the current study will look at all K-12 public school students in Texas, flagging those who have moved to the U.S.. Marchbanks and his team will examine instances of discipline—physical removal from the classroom in some fashion—and how they relate to drop-out rates and overall academic performance.

“What we’re looking for is to see if immigrant children or schools with high immigrant populations face unique challenges,” Marchbanks said. “Is it possible that these students have different needs than non-immigrant students? If so, policy makers will need to address the problem.”

PPRI was established in 1983 by the Texas Legislature to develop policy-relevant information for the state, continuing Texas A&M’s commitment to the land-grant philosophy of using research to benefit citizens.

“The mission of PPRI is what drove me to work here 10 years ago,” Marchbanks said. “This job is improving the lives of Texans, and that’s what PPRI is all about.”