This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Nitza Schwabsky, Carol Booth, Tom Meyer, Anja Kurki, Julia Lopez-Robertson, Oi-man Kwok, Mary Jane Gomez, Frank C. Nascimento, Kathryn Lindholm-Leary, and Irshat Madyarov.
(2012). Romney Hones Pitch on Education Policy, Education Week. As the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, Mitt Romney championed aggressive education policies later embraced by the Obama administration and by other states. But for most of his second run at the Republican presidential nomination, voters have heard little about his education record in Massachusetts or initiatives that Mr. Romney was largely unable to sell to that state's Democratic-controlled legislature. Instead, in a high-profile May 23 speech on education, Mr. Romney spoke at length about school choice, pushing a bold–but administratively tricky–plan to let disadvantaged students and those in special education take their federal aid to any campus, including a private school. Mr. Romney, who secured enough delegates to clinch the 2012 GOP nomination, is pushing hard to distinguish his education policies from those President Barack Obama espouses. The former business executive has floated market-based proposals that appeal to a conservative electorate, and leveled criticism of teachers' union influence on school policy–and with the Obama administration. At the same time, Mr. Romney continues to share some administration policy priorities, particularly Mr. Obama's fondness for charter schools and insistence on tying teacher evaluation in part to students' outcomes on standardized tests, both of which have rattled union leaders. Mr. Romney's decade-long evolution on education issues also has seen him move away from some of the most extreme positions taken by some in his party, including abolition of the U.S. Department of Education and repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act, which he nonetheless would like to overhaul. The policy overlap between Mr. Romney and the man he is seeking to replace comes as no surprise to William H. Guenther, the president of MassInsight, a nonpartisan research organization in Boston that advised Mr. Romney on K-12 issues during his tenure as governor. He places Mr. Romney among a set of "liberal and conservative education reformers" focused on a combination of "excellent goals and no excuses." [More] Descriptors: Educational Policy, Political Candidates, Politics of Education, Elementary Secondary Education
(2004). The Teaching of Language Arts to Limited English Proficient/English Language Learners: Learning Standards for English as a Second Language. Building the Bridge, New York State Department of Education. The English as a Second Language (ESL) standards articulate the abilities and competencies that Limited English Proficient (LEP) and English Language Learners (ELLs) must demonstrate to successfully integrate into the English academic mainstream. The standards combine the principles of second language learning with the language development necessary for success in the academic content areas. Proficiency in the English language, which is essential to meet the standards in other academic content areas, is made explicit as a developmental goal. The report is divided by grade levels, and provides Learning Standards and Performance Indicators, Sample Classroom Tasks, and Sample Learning Experiences for pre-K through grade 12 students. A list of performance indicators organized by grade level is also included. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, State Standards, Elementary Secondary Education, Second Language Instruction
(2012). Differences in Achievement between Students Enrolled in a Transitional, Early Exit Bilingual Program and in a Dual Language: Two-Way Immersion Bilingual Program–A Pilot Study, ProQuest LLC. The current pilot study compares the overall academic achievement in the area of language arts literacy among elementary bilingual students enrolled in either a Dual Language: Two-Way Immersion program or in an Early Exit, Transitional Bilingual program in a large urban public school district. By analyzing the results of curriculum based measures in the areas of word decoding and overall reading comprehension, this study shows that students who have been continuously enrolled in a Dual Language: Two-Way Immersion Bilingual Program reveal higher academic achievement than students enrolled in an Early Exit, Transitional Bilingual program, from kindergarten to third grade. The results of the present study appear to support previous research and previous similar studies on this topic. [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: Academic Achievement, Reading Comprehension, Bilingualism, Bilingual Students
(2012). Conducting Rigorous Research in Multilingual Context: A Randomized Field Trial of the Good Behavior Game, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. This paper describes the design and preliminary results regarding the testing of the Good Behavior Game in schools that vary in their proportion of Latinos and the use of bilingual instruction. The authors discuss how working with multicultural schools/school district has influenced the design, intervention and training, data collection, and analytic approaches of a randomized field trial testing the impact of GBG under various models of professional development for teachers. They will also present preliminary impact results from the first cohort (from school year 2010-2011). (Contains 4 tables.) [This work is jointly supported by IES grant R305A090446 (PI Poduska), NIDA grant R01 DA030452 (PI Poduska), NIMH grant R01MH040859 (PI Brown), and NIDA grant P30DA027828 (PI Brown).] [More] Descriptors: Student Behavior, Games, Multilingualism, Bilingual Education
(2012). Use of Vietnamese in English Language Teaching in Vietnam: Attitudes of Vietnamese University Teachers, English Language Teaching. Drawing upon the literature on the history of the language teaching methods focusing on the use of L1 in L2 teaching, the debate surrounding the role of L1 in the L2 classroom in general and in the English classroom in particular and recent studies of the issue, this article presents at its core a study that investigated the attitudes of Vietnamese university teachers toward the use of Vietnamese in English Language Teaching (ELT) in the context of Vietnam. A total of 12 teachers from three universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam participated in the study. The data was collected via questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The findings support the judicious use of Vietnamese in some situations in ELT. The results also highlight that the use of Vietnamese is not the same in all ELT classrooms. Instead, it should be adapted to suit the context of a specific classroom. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, English (Second Language), Second Language Instruction, Second Language Learning
(2012). Transformative Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Realizing Equity Praxis through Community Connections and Local Solutions, Journal of Latinos and Education. Schools serve as antidemocratic spaces where teacher, parent, community member, and student voices are typically disregarded. Instead, philanthropists and businesses are allowed to drive school and district agendas. An exploration of 3 local efforts that connect a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) with prekindergarten to Grade 12 students and their families confirms that community members themselves know the solutions to the problems schools face. Viable solutions cannot be divorced from society and the economy. HSIs can become transformative by employing an "equity praxis" that merges theory with practice for the purpose of achieving social and economic justice. [More] Descriptors: Equal Education, Social Justice, Educational Change, Theory Practice Relationship
(2012). Recognition of Langue des Signes Quebecoise in Eastern Canada, Sign Language Studies. This article presents a portrait of two community-level and legal efforts in Canada to obtain official recognition of ASL and LSQ (Langue des signes quebecoise), both of which are recognized as official languages by the Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD). In order to situate this issue in the Canadian linguistic context, the authors first present an overview of the legal framework of language policy and planning (LPP) for Canada's official languages. As Canada is officially a bilingual country, only federal institutions are subject to the Official Languages Act (e.g., Canadian Heritage), whereas questions related to the language of teaching are dealt with at the provincial level. Both cases that the authors discuss–Ontario and Quebec–are particularly interesting because they differ only in their formulation of the law on the language of teaching. Ontario is officially a bilingual province, whereas Quebec is officially monolingual and francophone, according to the Charter of the French Language (1977). Therefore the authors first discuss the different contexts of language policy surrounding both efforts to achieve recognition of ASL and LSQ within the same country. Then they present a demographic portrait of the distribution of the Canadian deaf population and of users of sign language. Finally, they discuss the two attempts to obtain recognition in terms of the impact of LPP on the bilingual teaching of deaf children. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, American Sign Language, Sign Language, Official Languages
(2012). "Esta pagina me recordo": Young Latinas Using Personal Life Stories as Tools for Meaning-Making, Bilingual Research Journal. Because schools place such high importance on text-based analysis often devoid of opportunities to draw on home knowledge, diverse ways of making meaning from books are often ignored. This qualitative study of a bilingual second-grade classroom examined the manner in which four young Latina students told stories about their life experiences in order to make meaning from the books they read for literature discussions. The findings illuminate that the stories told by the young Latinas were told for specific purposes; to make sense of their own and others' life's experiences, as responses to questions, connections to texts, and connections to each other. The study speaks to the necessity to include children's talk in all classrooms, particularly those with a high Latino population. [More] Descriptors: Reading Instruction, Hispanic American Students, Personal Narratives, Qualitative Research
(2012). Research for the Classroom: Lost in Translation–Assessing Writing of English Language Learners, English Journal. One of the most challenging aspects of the teaching profession, at all levels, is to identify and illuminate assumptions–one's students' and one's own. This article describes how three members of the Hudson Valley Writing Project (HVWP) at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz worked closely with the National Writing Project's Analytic Writing Continuum (AWC) to explore the question, "What if the writing rubrics we use don't make sense to our bilingual students or their teachers?" The 18-month process enabled the three members to articulate and think deeply about their ideas about writing and its assessment. Their discussions led to the realization that good writing had to be defined, as did their expectations of writing from different contexts representing different writing tasks and different moments of development. Perhaps most importantly, they developed a reflective scoring process that helped them to refine the Spanish-translated AWC before using it to score writing from the HVWP's Bilingual Youth Writing Program. The study of the English and the Spanish-translated AWC rubrics created opportunities for learning and also for rich teacher reflection on student writing, writing instruction, and writing assessment. Given the contemporary pressures to improve student writing for college and career readiness, they envision great promise in using these materials to foster discussion about writing in professional development settings and classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Writing Instruction, Second Language Learning, English Language Learners, Classroom Research
(2012). Curriculum-Based Measurement Yearly Growth Rates: An Examination of English Language Learners and Native English Speakers, Learning and Individual Differences. The use of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is supported by several decades of research regarding their technical adequacy, practical utility, and use with diverse populations. Questions remain regarding the measurement of growth using tri-annual reading CBM (R-CBM) assessment. Existing research on annual rates of growth is inconclusive with some studies suggesting that the most growth occurs from the fall to the winter and others finding growth accelerates from winter to spring. With a sample of students in third through fifth grades, consisting of a high percentage of English Language Learners (ELLs) and students exited from bilingual instruction, this study found that Non-ELL students demonstrated semester differences in R-CBM growth consistent with prior research in third and fourth grades, but not in fifth grade. However, this pattern was not always consistent for ELLs and students recently exited from bilingual instruction, suggesting that conclusions regarding semester differences in R-CBM growth rates should not be consistently extended to ELLs. [More] Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Bilingualism, Curriculum Based Assessment
(2012). Contradictions in a Distance Course for a Marginalized Population at a Middle Eastern University, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. This study explores six cases of non-native English speaking students engaged in a distance English-medium course on critical thinking at a university in Iran. Framed within activity theory, the study investigated students' course-related activity systems with a particular focus on contradictions that underlie any human activity. The construct of contradictions provides a theoretical lens to understand a web of relationships among a number of elements in course-related activities situated in a cultural-historical setting beset with political controversies, technological challenges, and needs for a bilingual curriculum. The findings indicate that all student participants had multiple activity systems within the course environment. Most participants had primary, secondary, and quaternary contradictions that had positive and negative consequences on the expansion of their activity systems. Discussion also includes practical implications for the distance university under study that could potentially be applied to similar distance schools. [More] Descriptors: English (Second Language), Foreign Countries, Distance Education, Second Language Learning
(2012). Demands and Opportunities: Analyzing Academic Language in a First Grade Dual Language Program, Linguistics and Education: An International Research Journal. Academic language, the register necessary to be successful in school, has been widely studied in recent years. Researchers have devoted much energy to defining the construct of academic language and identifying ways that teachers can support students–particularly those learning two languages simultaneously–as they develop it. Several scholars have suggested that identifying the academic language demands of content curricula and classroom contexts is a productive first step in demystifying academic language for teachers and students. In this article, therefore, I report findings from a yearlong qualitative case study in a first grade dual language program. My analysis centers on the explicit and implicit academic language demands of the curriculum, as well as teachers' understandings of and expectations about the role of academic language in their classrooms. These findings have implications that extend beyond dual language programs to mainstream classrooms with emergent bilingual students in them. [More] Descriptors: Academic Discourse, Bilingual Students, Grade 1, English (Second Language)
(2012). Success and Challenges in Dual Language Education, Theory Into Practice. This article presents research that highlights the success of dual language education for student participants, both native English speakers and English language learners, from a variety of demographic backgrounds at both the elementary and secondary levels. However, there are a number of challenges that can impede the quality of implementation in dual language programs. This article identifies and discusses some of these important challenges facing dual language programs, including issues related to program design, accountability, curriculum and instruction related to biliteracy, and bilingual language development. In addition, implications for practice are presented to address some of these challenges. [More] Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Bilingual Education, Program Design
(2013). Exploring Principals' Nonroutine Problems in Bilingual Immersion Schools: Lessons Learned for Multicultural Leadership, Journal of School Leadership. The present study examines the nonroutine problems that eight Anglo-American principals encountered in managing three elementary bilingual immersion schools in the Northwest United States. Using qualitative inquiry to collect data, I employed the multisited ethnographic research model. The principals reported nonroutine problems in the following educational areas: interpersonal communication, academic practices, organization and administration, and teaching and learning. The findings indicate that social and cultural factors are important in affecting the reporting of these problems. The discussion focuses on the exploration of what makes these problems nonroutine and what lessons are to be learned from these problems concerning leadership in multicultural educational settings. [More] Descriptors: Principals, Bilingual Education, Bilingual Education Programs, Immersion Programs
(2012). Bilingual Educational Policy in Higher Education in the Basque Country, Language, Culture and Curriculum. This paper examines issues related to the important impact of language policy in the Basque Country in recent decades. Basque, a minority language that was not allowed in the public space until the late 1970s, is an official language along with Spanish in the Basque Autonomous Community. The development of Basque has been most significant in education where it is not only a school subject but also the main language of instruction for most children. The paper briefly summarises this development and then moves to a focus on the use of Basque at the university level. The legal and organisational bases supporting the use of Basque are explained as well as the challenges faced by a minority language in higher education. The paper discusses the tension between internationalisation and the use of Basque for teaching and research in higher education. [More] Descriptors: Language Maintenance, Higher Education, Language Planning, Official Languages