This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Barbara Yonan, Marianne Ryan, Jerry C. Cavatta, Brooklyn. Office of Educational Assessment. New York City Board of Education, H. Wagemaker, Ruth Bennett, Madeleine Zuniga, Washington Congress of the U.S., Raymond S. Lolla, and William F. Mackey.
(1986). Project GET SET, 1985-1986. OEA Evaluation Report. This report evaluates the achievement of Project GET SET, a Bronx, New York, program designed to provide supportive and peer-tutorial services to Hispanic junior high school students for the following purposes: (1) to reinforce English language skills, especially reading and writing; (2) to reinforce native language arts skills; (3) to offer personal counseling services; and (4) to offer career guidance. Pupils from a local high school were used as tutors. Their services were to be offered to students as extra enrichment classes. The report describes the program, its participants, and staff. It discusses evaluation findings, draws conclusions and makes recommendations. Project GET SET began in 1983 with many funding, staffing, and site problems. The program survived, however, and results of student performance on tests for English proficiency in Spring 1986 showed that seventh graders made gains, but they were not statistically significant. The gains made by eighth- and ninth-grade students were large and statistically significant. Achievement in Spanish proficiency and career awareness could not be evaluated because tests were not given. It was recommended that the project director devote more time to visits on site and that career and guidance information be included in the program curriculum whenever possible. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education Programs, Career Awareness, Cross Age Teaching
(1986). Comprehensive Russian Instructional Program, 1983-1984: OEA Evaluation Report. In 1983-84, the second and final year of funding, Project CRIP (Comprehensive Russian Instructional Program) provided career orientation and support services to 430 Russian-speaking student of limited English proficiency (LEP) at three public and four private high schools in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. All of the students were foreign-born and varied in English language ability and overall academic preparedness. Stated program objectives included student achievement in bilingual skills classes, work experience in summer internships, regular meetings with a career counselor, visits to business offices, and workshops involving representatives of various businesses and occupations. The instructional program varied from site to site, but at each public school, students attended courses in English as a second language (ESL) and native language arts, as well as instruction in content-area subjects in English. At the private schools, the project's educational assistants provided tutorial support and small group instruction. Various staff development and parent participation activities were conducted. Quantitative analysis of student achievement data presented in this report indicates that: (1) project students did not meet the proposed objective in English language achievement; (2) overall, students met the passing rate in native language arts; and (3) the attendance rate of project participants exceeded the attendance rate of the general school population. The staff's demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with parents, and to orient school administrators and teachers to work more effectively with parents, contributed greatly to the project's overall success. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education Programs, Career Counseling, English (Second Language)
(1987). Problemes de l'enseignement de la langue seconde standard pour les minorites culturelles (Problems in Standard Second Language Teaching for Cultural Minorities). Second-language and native-language methodologies are equally inappropriate as a foundation for the language training of cultural minorities. Second-language methodologies are based on the assumption that the language is to be acquired in school, as either a subject or a school activity. The relationship between teaching and learning is taken for granted, as is the existence of levels of competence acquired in school and related to age-grade learning progression from year to year. Language minorities of the same age-grade level enter school with extra-scholastically acquired competence in the second language that ranges individually from incipient to native-like. However, few can be classed in the same age-grade level as unilinguals for whom the language is native, since entire areas of their conceptual universe may exist only in their other language. Yet their combined language repertoire may be sufficient in their bicultural environment. The function of the school may be to enrich each of these repertoires, making the bilinguals biliterate while teaching them to keep their two or more languages separate. (An English abstract accompanies this paper.) Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Classroom Techniques, Educational Objectives, Educational Strategies
(1987). Chapter 1/P.S.E.N. Remedial Reading and Mathematics Program 1985-86 End of the Year Report. OEA Evaluation Report. During 1985-86 the Division of Special Education of the New York Board of Education operated a Chapter 1/P.S.E.N. Remedial Reading and Mathematics Program which served approximately 11,500 English-speaking and limited English Proficient (LEP) students. Of these, 9,627 received reading instruction alone, and 119 received remedial instruction in Spanish. In the public schools, a total of 1,978 students received instruction in mathematics, some also receiving instruction in reading. To measure academic progress English language students took standardized pre- and posttests in reading or mathematics. Consultants observed a holistic approach to reading instruction at 89 percent of the sites visited. Teachers reported favorably on the use of the computer as a motivating learning tool. They requested more materials for LEP students. Reading and math instruction was integrated through the use of word problems and vocabulary study, and an emphasis on practical skills. The student achievement objective for reading in English was not met. However, the mean normal curve equivalent gain in reading comprehension from pretest to posttest was statistically significant. The program objective for the 119 students who were taught reading in Spanish was partially met. The program objective for the students receiving remedial instruction in math was also met. The following recommendations are made for the next program cycle: (1) increase the availability of materials in the LEP and mathematics programs; (2) continue staff development, including the use of innovative materials and a holistic approach to teaching; and (3) review the appropriateness of student assignments to test levels on the Metropolitan Achievement Tests. Data are presented in nine tables. [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Achievement Tests, Bilingual Education, Compensatory Education
(1987). Title VII Program, Final Technical Report: 1985-86. This report documents the 1985-86 Title VII Program of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. Major findings indicated the following: (1) three program components–staff training, tutoring, and curriculum development–were implemented as planned; (2) the staff training component included a series of English as a Second Language endorsement courses and teachers' checklist responses showed significant improvement in their ability to organize instruction and use audiovisuals with Limited English Proficient (LEP) students; (3) both tutored and nontutored project LEP students made significant gains on the Language Assessment Battery (LAB), but tutored students did not make significantly greater gains than nontutored students; (4) as part of the curriculum development component a resource collection of multilevel content area materials for four project schools were purchased and an annotated bibliography of multilevel instructional materials was developed; (5) Project LEP students at Murchison Junior High and Travis High Schools made significant gains in reading, language, mathematics, social studies, and science as measured by La Prueba Riverside de Realizacion en Espanol; and (6) proposed objectives that 85% of students involved in Title VII would make gains on the Prueba Riverside, LAB, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, or Tests of Achievement and Proficiency were not met. Seven appendices make up the majority of this document and are titled as follows: (1) Language Assessment Battery (LAB); (2) Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP); (3) La Prueba Riverside de Realizacion en Espanol; (4) Criterion-Referenced Teacher Competency Checklist; (5) Administrator Interviews; (6) Teacher Survey; and (7) Tutor Records. [More] Descriptors: Achievement Gains, Achievement Tests, Basic Skills, Bilingual Education Programs
(1985). The Development of Three (3) Information Brochures Describing the Basic Cultural Differences That Exist among the Prominent Bilingual Groups in Eastern Pennsylvania. Final Report. The purpose of this project was to develop three mailing brochures that would describe the basic cultural differences that exist among the prominent bilingual groups in Eastern Pennsylvania. These brochures could be used to enhance the vocational education environment by providing the vocational instructor working with limited English speaking (LES) students with information that could facilitate learning. A survey was conducted to identify the prominent bilingual groups in Eastern Pennsylvania. The project used an advisory committee. Consultants were identified to collect, write, and edit each of the brochures. Each consultant was commissioned to prepare a rough draft for each cultural area. The format of the brochures was standardized and approved by the Bureau of Vocational Education, and the rough drafts were reviewed by selected vocational education instructors. Once the brochures were finalized, an announcement of their availability was sent to each vocational director and adult vocational teacher in Eastern Pennsylvania. (This final report includes extensive appendixes that contain the discussion of format for the brochures; a list of the advisory committee; a list of the members of the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association; manuscripts and actual copies of the information brochures for Cambodians, Laotians, and Vietnamese; and a list of the project consultants.) Descriptors: Adult Basic Education, Bilingual Education Programs, Cambodians, Cultural Background
(1986). Seward Park High School Project CABES 1984-1985. OEA Evaluation Report. Career Advancement through Bilingual Educational Skills (Project CABES) completed the second year of a 3-year funding cycle at Seward Park High School on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Project CABES serves 233 recently immigrated, predominantly low-income, ninth through twelfth grade, Hispanic students of limited English proficiency (LEP). Included in the career-oriented curriculum are courses in employability skills, typing and word processing, and bilingual career workshops. Content-area courses, taught in the students' native language (Spanish), and intensive English as a second language (ESL) courses comprise the other curriculum components. Support services included counseling, peer tutoring, referrals to outside agencies, cultural and extracurricular programs, staff development and parental involvement activities. Primary objectives are increased achievement in English and Spanish proficiency, mathematics, science, social studies, and career advancement subjects; improved attendance; and lower dropout rates. Quantitative analysis indicates objectives were fully met for ESL, Spanish reading, career advancement courses, attendance and dropout rates, but not for content-area courses. Secondary objectives were partially met for staff development and parental involvement. Recommendations ask the school administration to increase space allocation and project administrators to consider alternatives to the current simultaneous translation model of bilingual instruction. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education Programs, Career Education, Dropout Prevention
(1987). Educacion en Poblaciones Indigenas: Politicas y Estrategias en America Latina. (Education for Indigenous Populations: Policies and Strategies in Latin America). This document is a compilation of 20 papers from a seminar on educational policy and strategy for educating the indigenous peoples of Latin America and Mexico. There is a growing awareness among linguistics and anthropology specialists and educators of the necessity to validate education that respects the values of an indigenous culture. This research covers the size of indigenous populations, existing government policies, literacy rates, national planning, and current programs, as well as various programs undertaken in the past. Education alone cannot resolve the economic and social problems of marginal peoples. One goal is the creation of a center for education and research on ethnic peoples and the Amazonian and Andean languages. Further study on the problems of linguistic pluralism and past government policies of establishing Spanish as the official language is recommended. Among the papers included are "Linguistic Research on Indigenous Languages of Colombia" (Jon Landaburu) and "Systematic Inventory of Indigenous Languages of Peru: Policies for the Preparation of an Elementary Bilingual Grammar and Dictionary" (Alberto Escobar). An alphabet of the Quechua and Aymara languages is appended. Descriptors: American Indian Languages, Anthropological Linguistics, Bilingual Education, Cultural Influences
(1986). Cooling Down the Melting Pot: Bilingualism and Multiculturalism. Harvesting the Harvesters. Book 10. The tenth of a series of 10 study units for a Migrant Educators' National Training OutReach (MENTOR) correspondence course discusses issues of bilingualism and multiculturalism as they relate to migrant students. Designed for use in preservice or inservice teacher education, the unit explores the metaphor and myth of the Melting Pot, legal and political dimensions of bilingualism and dual cultures, and definitions of bilingualism and limited English proficiency. It relates to migrant education the language development theory of James Cummins that there are two levels of language proficiency–one, involving use of language in social settings, informal situations, and with friends; the other, the language required by academic exercises and restricted to classrooms–and suggests ways to incorporate this theory into migrant education curriculum. Excerpts from books and research reports: illustrate creative bilingual programs, ethnic diversity, and class strife; encourage respect for cultural identities of all students; and offer perspectives on national policy issues concerning migrants. A 46-item list of readings and other resources and a list of state offices of migrant education are included. [More] Descriptors: Biculturalism, Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, Correspondence Study
(1987). Integration of Bilingual Emphasis Program into University Curriculum. Multiple Subjects Credential Program: Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, or Tolowa Emphasis. A description of the American Indian Bilingual Teacher Credential Program offered by Humboldt State University (California) provides background information on the linguistic groups served by the program. Accompanying the program descriptions are lists of lower and upper division requirements, descriptions of competency exam, program schedule, course descriptions, and student and fieldwork information and evaluation forms. The linguistic groups served include four tribes of northwestern California and southern Oregon–Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, and Tolowa. A map locates traditional tribal lands; charts provide recent population data and list public schools in the area with language of instruction and student population. Descriptions of ancestral languages and cultural characteristics emphasize basic similarities and differences of importance to education. A follow-up of 2 program graduates and data on 10 persons who have been in the program are included. [More] Descriptors: American Indian Education, American Indian Languages, American Indians, Bilingual Education
(1985). Fairview German Bilingual School: A Successful Model for Elementary-School, Second-Language Learning, Part II. Laying the Foundation: German in the First Grade. The first grade program of the Fairview German Bilingual School, the elementary (K-5) segment of the Cincinnati public school system's German bilingual alternative program, is described. The school provides intensive second-language instruction in German for monolingual English-speaking children with bilingualism as the objective. The school is racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse, a characteristic that is emphasized in the curriculum and in classroom interaction. In first grade, 50 minutes a day are devoted to language instruction. The entire class has 30 minutes of instruction each afternoon, and on alternating mornings, half the class has 40 minutes of immersion. The curriculum is entirely oral and fosters comprehension and speaking skills. The four first grade classes fill the entire teaching schedule of one German teacher, who has a classroom to which the students travel. The school's German specialists, who do not have elementary teaching certificates, use complete lesson-plan syllabi designed for each grade by the original program coordinators and giving precise directives for daily instructional activities. A curriculum designed in Germany for foreign-born immigrant children is used. Independent sentence construction emerges in mid-year among the ablest students. A solid foundation for comprehension and communication is laid in first grade. A five-page annotated bibliography concludes the document. Descriptors: Audiolingual Skills, Bilingual Education Programs, Cultural Background, Curriculum Design
(1987). Dialect Reduction and Accent Restructuring: Some Methods for the Bilingual Classroom. A guide to English pronunciation instruction for native Spanish speakers uses eight basic steps to find and use appropriate techniques to address a specific phonological problem. The steps are (1) calling the student's attention to the learning point; (2) focusing attention on the problem area; (3) sharpening student recognition of the sound in different consonant environments; (4) generalizing the significant features to be mastered; (5) producing new sounds by mimicry or by production of opposite sounds; (6) checking student perception of sounds within minimal sentences; (7) substitution and pattern drilling; and (8) reinforcing and stabilizing the sounds taught in the laboratory and/or at home. An actual lesson plan to teach a specific minimal contrast is outlined, with accompanying teacher notes. Descriptors: Acoustic Phonetics, Articulation (Speech), Bilingual Education, Classroom Techniques
(1987). Maori and Pakeha School Performance: The Challenge for Educational Policy and Research. It is suggested that significant differences remain between ethnic groups in New Zealand, specifically the Maori and the non-Maori, or "Pakeha" (a term used by the Maori for New Zealanders of European descent), in terms of educational achievement. This gap exists despite emphasis placed on education as a means of reducing social inequality. These differences, when combined with similar disparities in other social indicators such as life expectancy, employment, and composition of prison populations, pose a significant challenge to the belief in equality, social justice, and the potential attainment and maintenance of social harmony. Statistics reveal that over one-half of Maori students who took School Certificate examinations received grades below that required to proceed, whereas only 26.5 percent of non-Maori received a similar grade. Access to and progress through schools has been changed significantly due to curriculum modifications, and greater attention is being paid to Maori language and culture; yet, educational disparities continue. The development of: (1) educational programs aimed at the remediation of educational disadvantage and (2) research that seeks to discover clues to avoid entrenching educational disadvantage continue to be of the greatest importance. Efforts will be needed in other public sectors such as health and justice and the wider community if major changes are to result. Concluding the paper are 3 tables and 16 references. [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Bilingual Education Programs, Cross Cultural Studies, Cultural Differences
(1987). Trends and Status of Computers in Schools: Use in Chapter 1 Programs and Use with Limited English Proficient Students. Staff Paper. This examination of computer use in schools provides an overview of current trends, as well as detailed analyses of the use of computers in programs for disadvantaged learners funded by Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981, and programs for students with limited English proficiency. A summary of this report and a general overview of the trends and status of computers in American education are followed by an analysis of the use of technology by Chapter 1 programs. This analysis reviews early use of technology in such programs in both public and private schools and profiles their current use of computers. The analysis of technology use with students with limited English proficiency considers the current status of this population and describes ways in which technology (primarily the computer) is used in these programs. The implications of the findings of this study for federal policy are considered for both groups, and four areas that need attention to improve the use of educational technology are identified: (1) teacher training; (2) software development; (3) dissemination of information; and (4) evaluation and research. The text is supplemented with graphs and diagrams, and footnote citations are provided throughout the text. The primary sources of the data used are an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) survey of Chapter 1 directors and national surveys conducted by Market Data Retrieval, Inc., Quality Education Data, Inc., and the National Survey of Instructional Uses of School Computers (Henry Becker, Johns Hopkins University). [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Computer Assisted Instruction, Computer Managed Instruction, Disadvantaged
(1987). Las Cruces Public Schools: A View of Our Schools, 1986-87 School Year. Las Cruces Public Schools (Dona Ana County, New Mexico) is the second largest school district in New Mexico serving 6% of the state's public school students. Enrollment, declining in the late 1970s to a 1980-81 low of 15,349 students, has increased steadily through the 1986-87 school year, when 17,207 students were enrolled, primarily in grades K-5. The district includes 17 elementary schools, 4 junior high schools, 1 combined elementary-junior high school, 2 high schools, an alternative high school, and a night high school. Increased enrollments and educational requirements have led to an aggressive expansion and modernization effort funded through voter support for bond issues and tax levies. School population reflects a blend of ethnic/cultural backgrounds–45% Anglo, 52% Hispanic, and 3% Native American. Demographic samples show that the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills for 1983-84 through the 1986-87 school years given to 3rd, 5th, and 8th graders have been at or above the national average performance. Information on the proportions of teaching staff to administrative and support staff, pupil/teacher ratios, training and experience level of staff members, and percentage of students requiring special education and bilingual services is provided. The of teaching staff to administrative and support staff, pupil/teacher ratios, training and experience level of staff members, and percentage of students requiring special education and bilingual services is provided. The New Mexico High School Proficiency Exam is outlined. Scholarship and award winners are listed. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, American Indians, Basic Skills, Bilingual Education