Recommended Readings
Crawford, James."No Child Left Behind: Misguided Approach to School Accountability for English Language Learners." National Association for Bilingual Education (2004): 1-10. Web. Nov. 12. 2014.
James Crawford, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), criticizes the current law No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its negative impacts on schools with large English Language Learner (ELL) student populations. He claims that regulations of the policy has caused "resource inequities, critical shortages of teachers trained to serve ELL students, inadequate instructional materials, substandard school facilities, and poorly designed instructional programs." Schools must record the progress of students through constant standardized testing. As states set high standards for schools to reach, they are pressuring their students to do well on exams. ELL students are not assessed properly through standardized testing, and even translated test do not adequately test a child's acknowledge. Schools are accountable for the performances of students. Crawford explains how if a student fails, the school fails also. Schools should not be held accountable for ELL student's performances without the proper valid assessments that are adapted for students that are not proficient in English.
Jost, Kenneth. “Bilingual Education vs. English Immersion.” CQ Researcher. The CQ Researcher 16 Nov. 2001. Web. Nov. 12. 2014
Jost Kenneth describes the on-going debate of whether bilingual education or English immersion is the more beneficial for students with limited English. Jost provides a personal account of a mother and her experience with having her child placed into English immersion programs. The mother talks about how her daughter was able to read and write in Spanish and enjoying school, until she was placed in English-only classes where she could not understand what the teachers were saying. Jost objectively explores both sides of the debate, using statistics and personal accounts of teacher and parents to argue each side. Jost addresses the need for funding of schools to further develop English Language learning. Jost provides various graphs that present definitions and statistics that relate to English Language Learners (ELL). Through a colorful graph, Jost shows how More than 30 percent of the English-language learners are not making progress in 18 states, including those with big Hispanic populations, such as California, Florida, New York and Texas." Jost allows the reader to understand the pros and cons of both bilingual education and English immersion programs.
Nieto, David. "A Brief History of Bilingual Education in the United States." The Urban Journal (200): 61-72. Web. Nov. 12. 2014
In this online article, David Neito from the University of Massachusetts Boston, describes the history of bilingual education in the U.S. Neito introduces the topic of multiculturalism in the U.S, and explains the phenomena of immigration. He claims that "quick assimilation into English is another prevailing characteristic of U.S. history." The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 is emphasized to have been the "most important law in recognizing linguistic minority rights in the history of the United States." Neito takes the reader into an in depth look of the case of Massachusetts where the state was the first mandated transitional bilingual education in the U.S. In support of bilingual education, Neito highlights the triumphs and struggles of schools in implementing bilingual educational classes. He addresses critics of bilingual education in stating that "the inherent racist and oppressive discourses behind the anti-bilingual education argument need to be explicitly exposed and denounced." Neito ends his article in stating that bilingual education should further be developed to help students further improve their English proficiency, and increase their academic potential.
Porter, Rosalie. "The Case Against Bilingual Education." The Atlantic Online. The Atlantic Monthly Mag., May. 1998. Web. Nov. 12. 2014
Rosalie Porter, director of the Institute for Research in English Acquisition and Development (READ), argues against bilingual education in favor of English immersion programs. Porter provides background information about the topic and how it has become a heated debate among politicians and educators. Porter claims that "the accumulated research of the past thirty years reveals almost no justification for teaching children in their native languages to help them learn either English or other subjects." Bilingual education has been shown to be ineffective. Porter references to many court cases such where parents and teachers filed lawsuits against schools. In the cases against Brooklyn public schools in 1995, parents claimed that the school had held their children in bilingual classrooms for an excess amount of years and hindered their acquisition of English. Many view English as "the crucial skill that leads to equal opportunity in schooling, jobs, and public life in the United States." Porter believes that immigrant students must be put into English immersion classes because it is the most effective way they can learn English and become included into American society, not segregated.
Thomas, Wayne; and Collier, Virgina. “A National Study of School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students' Long-Term Academic Achievement.” Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence. UC Berkeley: Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (2002): 361-400. Web. Nov. 12. 2014
This study was conducted by Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier from George Mason University. The research was conducted from 1985 to 2001, with the primary focus on "analyzing the great variety of services provided for language minority students in the U.S." They concluded in their findings that ELL students with no proficiency in English should placed into long-term bilingual programs of at least four years, and not short-term programs of one to three years. Through their research they found that "bilingually schooled children outperformed comparable monolingual schooled children students in academic achievement in all subjects, after 4-7 years of dual education schooling." These findings, among others, by Thomas and Collier in their research support the use of bilingual education in schools.