This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Angela Valenzuela, Kathryn F. Whitmore, Jasone Cenoz, Okhee Lee, Caryn Park, Caryl G. Crowell, Joshua A. Fishman, Frederick M. Hess, Carlos Kevin Blanton, and Gina Lydia Garza-Reyna.
(2008). Developing Multiliteracies through Bilingual Education in Burkina Faso, Educational Research and Reviews. Being literate involves being able to move from the ability to read and write to include different forms of knowledge and modes of communication of the milieu (drumming, dancing, story-telling, etc.). This article examines the new literacy allowed through the existence of two types of schools (bilingual and monolingual) in Burkina Faso, in West Africa, and how the two affect the development of literacy and cultural sustainability of their graduates. Since 1994, this country has moved from a French only educational system inherited from colonization to a bilingual one. In this context, bilingual education means the learning of two languages (African language and French) and the indigenous knowledge and ways of learning. The data is based on a qualitative study conducted during 2006 and 2007 in this country. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from bilingual schools and from monolingual schools. They analyze the impact of their schooling path on their literacy development and cultural identity by looking at the language spoken and written, and the information they use and produce. [More] Descriptors: African Languages, Indigenous Knowledge, Bilingual Education, Interviews
(2000). "Chicano Empowerment and Bilingual Education: Movimiento Politics in Crystal City, Texas," by A. Trujillo (1998). Book Review, Bilingual Research Journal. Reviews a book that analyzes the 1970s political takeover of the Crystal City (Texas) school board, city council, and county offices by radical Chicano activists; district-wide establishment of maintenance bilingual education; internal and community divisions that followed; and eventual abandonment of the innovative programs. Points out the links between bilingual education and consciousness raising, critical thinking, and community empowerment. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Book Reviews, Community Action, Culturally Relevant Education
(2012). The Effects of Transitional Bilingual and Dual Language Education Programs on the College Readiness of English Language Learners in a South Texas School District, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of this quantitative study was to track, compare, and analyze the college readiness of two cohorts of Hispanic English Language Learners (ELLs) by examining scores on state exit-level and national college entrance exams. One cohort was enrolled in the early-exit Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) program, while the other cohort was enrolled in the two-way Dual Language Education (DLE) program. The college readiness of the participants was measured by analyzing their academic performance on the (1) Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Mathematics exit-level examination, (2) TAKS Reading exit-level examination, and (3) the American College Test (ACT). Descriptive and inferential statistics were run on the collected data. The results of the inferential statistics showed a statistically significant difference between the two comparison groups in the TAKS exit-level Mathematics and Reading examinations. The descriptive statistics support the inferential statistics. Based on the recommended scores of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), the results revealed that the DLE participants had a 27.38% higher probability of sustaining themselves in college level reading/English classes and a 30.52% higher probability of sustaining themselves academically in college mathematics courses than the TBE group. The results of the inferential statistics on the ACT examination also found a statistically significant difference between the two comparison groups for all components of the exam. The descriptive statistics complement the inferential statistics. The results show that the DLE participants had a higher probability to be academically successful in mathematics (15.2%), science, (29.6%), reading (41%), and English (50.3%) college level courses by using the recommended ACT scores outlined in the Texas Uniform Admission Policy (TUAP) (Texas Education Code ¬ß 51.803, 2011) to gauge the ELLs' college readiness. Over all, the results of this study support the conclusion that the DLE program participants in this study are better prepared academically than those that were educated through the TBE program. The findings of this study provide insightful information to administrators who make decisions on bilingual program implementation, classroom teachers who deliver instruction to ELLs, college administrators and recruiters seeking to recruit students who already possess the academic skills to be successful in college, and the faculty who work with ELLs in institutions of higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Instructional Effectiveness, Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, English (Second Language)
(2000). The Politics of Bilingual Education Expenditures in Urban School Districts, Social Science Quarterly. Examines the political, demographic, and fiscal determinants for urban school district spending on bilingual education. Reports that bilingual expenditures are associated with student enrollment in bilingual education programs, the percentage of Latinos and Asian Americans on the local school board, median family income, and state/local spending. Includes references. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Education Programs, Boards of Education, Educational Finance
(2012). Is Arizona's Approach to Educating Its ELs Superior to Other Forms of Instruction?, Teachers College Record. Background: In the "Horne v Flores" Supreme Court decision of June 25, 2009, the Court wrote that one basis for finding Arizona in compliance with federal law regarding the education of its English learners was that the state had adopted a "significantly more effective" than bilingual education instructional model for EL students–Structured English Immersion (SEI). Purpose: This paper reviews the extant research on SEI, its definitions, origins, and its effectiveness, particularly in contrast to other instructional strategies. This paper asks, Does the research bear out the Court's conclusion? What is the evidence that Arizona's program of SEI is really superior to other approaches, including bilingual or dual language education? How are Arizona's EL students faring under this "significantly more effective" instructional program? Research Design: Data on the relative effectiveness of SEI are drawn from a comprehensive review of the literature. Analysis of public documents, particularly records from the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force, which was charged with selecting a research-based instructional program for English learners. Drawing from a recent ethnographic study and student achievement data, we examine the impact of structured English immersion programs on English learners in Arizona thus far, beginning with achievement outcomes. Conclusions/Recommendations: There is no research basis for the Court's statement the SEI is "significantly more effective;" at best SEI is no better or no worse than other instructional strategies, particularly bilingual instruction, when they are both well implemented. However, SEI as implemented in Arizona carries serious negative consequences for EL students stemming from the excessive amount of time dedicated to a sole focus on English instruction, the de-emphasis on grade level academic curriculum, the discrete skills approach it employs, and the segregation of EL students from mainstream peers. Moreover, the paper argues that there are, in fact, strategies that can ameliorate these problems as well as provide an additive, rather than a subtractive, educational experience for English learner and mainstream students alike. [More] Descriptors: Educational Strategies, Program Effectiveness, Teaching Methods, Bilingual Education
(2012). A Legacy of Neglect: George I. Sanchez, Mexican American Education, and the Ideal of Integration, 1940-1970, Teachers College Record. This biographical study of Dr. George I. Sanchez, a leading Mexican American educator, intellectual, and activist from the 1930s through the 1960s, opens up the idea of compensatory education–the prevalent notion of the 1960s that schools use specialized instructional programs to combat the alleged cultural deprivation of some children, particularly minorities–to a wider focus. While George Sanchez addressed key themes of compensatory education in critical and even predictive ways since at least the 1940s, he was not known to the compensatory education movement, nor was his most passionate subject, Mexican Americans, much of a factor in compensatory education thinking. And this was most unfortunate. No one captured more forcefully the tension between liberal sympathy to offer special schooling to Mexican Americans and how such innovative educational programs maintained and perpetuated the widespread practice of racial segregation. I focus on several discrete, illustrative episodes of Sanchez's life and activism over a three-decade period: first, Sanchez's New Deal-era idealism from the late 1930s and early 1940s in which he used stricter sociological definitions of Mexican American culture as deficient and in need of government action; second, his efforts of the 1940s and 1950s to desegregate public schools in Texas and the Southwest on behalf of the nascent Mexican American civil rights movement; third, his support for bilingual education in the 1960s for reasons of civic and political equality, but not from the perspective of sociolinguistic theory; and finally, Sanchez's surprisingly persistent and pugnacious opposition throughout the 1960s to a preschool compensatory program that originated from within the Mexican American community. These four phases of Sanchez's career illustrate the degree to which Sanchez wrestled with, and even predicted, some key points of later criticism of the entire compensatory education intellectual project. These aspects of Sanchez's work also document just how invisible Mexican American struggles were to national intellectual and policy circles. But most of all, George I. Sanchez recognized that the Mexican American people in the United States, his people, suffered greatly from a sad legacy of neglect. One of the central consistencies to his pedagogical thinking regardless of the decade was his willingness to call attention to that tragic legacy in the hopes of correcting it. This underlying principle to Sanchez's life and work, as well as his sharp diagnosis of the leading educational theories of the day, makes his marginal, almost invisible position among compensatory education thinkers of the 1960s, who also sought to correct legacies of injustice, just as tragic. Educational thinkers today should know more about George I. Sanchez as well as his perspectives on Mexican Americans, schools, and justice. [More] Descriptors: Mexican American Education, Educational History, Biographies, Compensatory Education
(2001). More than Empty Footprints in the Sand: Educating Immigrant Children, Harvard Educational Review. Attempts to eliminate bilingual education and English as a second language programs marginalize children at risk and fuel antiimmigrant sentiments. Educators should strongly advocate schooling for immigrant children. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Children, Educational Opportunities, English (Second Language)
(2006). Integrated Bilingual Education: An Alternative Approach, Bilingual Research Journal. Despite the importance of the integration of English language learners with native English speakers for social, academic, and linguistic purposes, few models of integrated bilingual education, other than two-way immersion programs, exist. This article describes one district's effort to design a K-5 late-exit bilingual program with an integration component. The study focused on the experiences of 35 bilingual and standard curriculum teachers who integrated their students for content area instruction. Analysis of written reflections submitted over 1 school year illustrates the positive influence of integration on social relationships and program status, and highlights teacher collaboration as a condition for success. The study also stresses that issues of language status and unequal student participation must receive explicit attention in integrated classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Immersion Programs, Integrated Curriculum, Mainstreaming
(2000). Case Studies of Expectation Climate at Two Bilingual Education Schools, Bilingual Research Journal. In two Texas elementary schools with similar student demographics but different school and district environments, teacher expectations about bilingual education students were influenced by differing bilingual education goals, beliefs about the value of student native language, teacher beliefs and district expectations about curriculum, and the use of the accelerated school model (in one school). (Contains 22 references.) Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Teachers, Educational Environment, Educational Practices
(2005). Girls, Educational Equity and Mother Tongue-Based Teaching, UNESCO Bangkok. Mother tongue-based education perpetuates equity in education, especially among girls who are often regarded as disadvantaged in access to education. The Asia and Pacific region is characterized by its rich ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity. Such diversity is found missing in many school systems in the region which often leads to gaps in accessibility and inclusiveness in education regardless of wealth, background or sex. Marginal groups such as ethnic minorities (also referred to as linguistic minorities) are often deprived of access to the "prestige language" used in education and governance. In some countries, speakers of mother tongue languages outnumber the speakers of "prestige language". For linguistically diverse countries such as Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and India, studies found that the poorest groups are only engaging in the informal sector which makes their access to the dominant language unfeasible. Girls and women being confined to their social roles and responsibilities are also disadvantaged in the context of equity in education even if they come from advantaged social groups. In many instances, the female population is restricted to household activities when only the local language is used. As a result, they have fewer opportunities to learn the dominant language unless they are working in the market or factories. Some girls are simply never given the opportunity to receive formal schooling due to their gender or a family decision. A mother tongue-based bilingual education is proposed that will encourage more girls to go to school. Mother tongue-based bilingual education aims to develop the learner's knowledge through reading, writing and thinking skills in the mother tongue (L1) while teaching a second or foreign language (L2) as a separate subject. Apart from encouraging more girls into formal schooling, bilingual education that starts with the mother tongue also addresses other issues. First, girls learning less intimidating using their mother tongue. Second, instruction in the mother tongue encourages parents' participation and influence. Finally, teachers in mother tongue would gain the trust of girls and reduce the risk of abuse. Case examples from the Philippines and Papua New Guinea confirm the proposition that girls stay longer in formal schooling and get positive results from mother tongue bilingual education. [More] Descriptors: Reading Skills, Writing Skills, Second Language Instruction, Case Studies
(2005). Bilingual Education Students Reflect on Their Language Education: Reinventing a Classroom 10 Years Later, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Ten years ago, an ethnographic study in a bilingual whole-language third-grade classroom identified conditions that defined the classroom as a learning community: a high level of intellectual expectation, symmetric power and trust relationships, authenticity, and additive bilingualism and biliteracy. The students' insights strengthened the authors' determination to advocate for authentic, holistic, and transformative language and literacy instruction. This article reports findings from follow-up interviews with those third graders, now young adults, who reflect on their experiences. A particular finding is the indication that nonschool contexts for language and literacy (e-mail, television, communication with friends and family in Mexico, and restaurant work) had more influence on these students' Spanish maintenance than did school contexts. This study compels us to renew the fight for bilingual education for all students beyond the point when English-language learners are deemed to have acquired sufficient English competence to participate in school. The voices of the four students and their parents that are reported here affirm for the authors the benefits of whole language theory and pedagogy, the critical value of bilingual education for all students (not just English-language learners), and the essential nature of fostering community in classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Grade 3, Young Adults, Cultural Awareness
(2010). Going Global: Can Dual-Language Programs Save Bilingual Education?, Journal of Latinos and Education. In this commentary, we extend the cautionary tales regarding dual-language programs raised by several scholars by considering the interface of such programs with global education. We consider the possible pitfalls of uncritically framing dual-language programs within the global education movement in the United States, especially in light of how this new framing will affect the educational opportunities and experiences of Latino/a students throughout the country. [More] Descriptors: Global Education, Bilingual Education, Educational Opportunities, Hispanic American Students
(1977). Bilingual Education–A Perspective, IRCD Bulletin. Discusses the nature of bilingual education, the four types of bilingual education programs, the rationale for bilingual education, the possible influence of bilingual education upon language teaching and language learning, extra societal and external societal influences upon language teaching, the relationship of bilingual education to compensatory education, etc. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, Compensatory Education, Educational Objectives
(2008). Bilingual Education in the Basque Autonomous Community: Achievements and Challenges, Language, Culture and Curriculum. This paper focuses on the situation of Basque in education in the Basque Autonomous Community. First, it provides statistical information about four crucial aspects of bilingual education: (1) Parental choice regarding the linguistic model, that is, the use of Basque, Spanish or both Basque and Spanish as languages of instruction over the last 20 years; (2) teachers' proficiency in Basque and the special programmes for teachers to learn Basque; (3) teaching and learning materials including audiovisual and software materials; (4) promotion of the use of Basque at school including some special projects. The second part of the paper compares the situation and challenges Basque was facing in the 1970s before Basque became an official language and nowadays. This comparison shows that even though there have been important achievements regarding the use of Basque as the language of instruction and the number of Basque-speaking teachers at school, Basque continues to be a "small" language. In the last part of the paper the possible ways to overcome current and future challenges are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Official Languages, Language of Instruction, Indo European Languages
(2012). Teacher Change in Elementary Science Instruction with English Language Learners: Results of a Multiyear Professional Development Intervention across Multiple Grades, Teachers College Record. Background: Current classroom practices have largely been shaped by changing student demographics, including English language learners (ELLs), and evolving accountability policies. The teacher professional development intervention in this study takes place against this backdrop. Research Questions: This study examined change in teachers' knowledge and practices while they participated in a 5-year teacher professional development intervention designed to improve science instruction while supporting literacy development of ELLs in the context of accountability policy in science. The study also examined whether teacher change was associated with predictor variables. Setting and Participants: The study involved all science teachers (a total of 198 teachers) in Grades 3-5 from six urban elementary schools in a large school district. Over the 5-year period of the study, each teacher could participate in the intervention for 3 years, although there were high rates of teacher mobility. Intervention: A series of curriculum units was developed that constituted the entire science curriculum for Grades 3-5 and replaced the district-adopted curriculum in the six participating schools. Over their 3-year participation in the intervention, teachers could attend a total of 14 full-day workshops during the summers and throughout the school years. Research Design: The study used a longitudinal design over the 5-year intervention with a treatment group consisting of six elementary schools. Data Collection and Analysis: Both questionnaire and classroom observations were used to measure reform-oriented practices in science and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL)/bilingual education in the following areas: (a) teacher knowledge of science content, (b) teaching practices to promote scientific understanding, (c) teaching practices to promote scientific inquiry, and (d) teaching practices to support English language development. During the 3-year period of their participation, teachers completed the questionnaire prior to beginning the intervention and at the end of each school year and were observed once in the fall and once in the spring each year. A series of multilevel models was used to examine change in the questionnaire and observation scales. Conclusions: The results from the questionnaire (what teachers reported) and classroom observations (what teachers were observed doing) indicated some improvements in teachers' knowledge and practices in teaching science to ELLs over the intervention. Grade taught was the most pronounced predictor variable and distinguished the fifth grade, the grade at which science counted toward the state accountability policy. Despite improvements, teachers' knowledge and practices generally did not meet the goal of reform-oriented practices. [More] Descriptors: Accountability, Intervention, Literacy, Teaching Methods