This article, relying on a series of epiphanies throughout my journey as a researcher and scholar-activist, shares my relationship with criticality and how it has guided my research and teaching agendas. I share how critical theories have informed my main research areas and the questions and issues I have raised in my own work. The article also…

The United States is becoming a more culturally and linguistically diverse nation. This is especially true when we look at the youngest generation of learners. This growing diversity increases the need to accurately identify young children as dual language learners (DLLs) prior to kindergarten. Ensuring educators have a strong understanding of…

The author reports the proposed regulations in Illinois which would require that districts offer English-learners in preschool the same support as in K-12. Questions are being raised about the proposed regulations. The Illinois board of education is poised to adopt these regulations next month. Should the board do so, it is believed that Illinois…

The National Museum of Mexican Art was founded by a group of educators in 1987. Twenty-three years later, as the first and only Latino museum accredited by the American Association of Museums, it presents exhibition programming of the highest quality, and conserves an extensive and inclusive art collection. Unlike many museums, it places…

Maria was a fifth grade student when the authors met her in a study of immigrant child-language brokers. Her family immigrated from a farming community in Mexico to a Chicago suburb where there were limited bilingual resources. Maria's mother did not speak fluent English, and Maria's teachers did not speak Spanish, so Maria often served as a…

Many children experience lasting benefits from attending quality preschools, evident in stronger pre-literacy and social skills at school entry. These gains are larger for children raised in low-income homes, as well as for Latino youngsters from middle-class homes. This is likely due to exposure to rich language and engaging learning tasks in…

This paper will compare the uses of selected formal and informal assessments of English language learners (ELLs) in the Language Experience class [TRANSLANGEXP7(&8)-008] at Kimball Middle School, Illinois School District U-46, Elgin, Illinois, during school year 2007- 2008. See figure 1 (page 14) for a graphic display of these assessments…

Research opportunities for undergraduates in the social sciences remain relatively rare. If they exist at all they are usually in the natural sciences and engineering. In study abroad the situation is particularly pronounced: a semester or year abroad is still more a time for cultural and linguistic immersion than it is for building specific…

Describes the InterCultura Montessori School language immersion program in Oak Park, Illinois. Profiles the work of several children to illustrate important language learning strategies. Recommends that language immersion programs include: survival vocabulary skills; repetition of key grammatical forms; use of objects, pictures, and dramatization;…

This report describes eight exemplary schools serving minority students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in Texas, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Schools were chosen by nomination. The report is divided into 10 chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the report, and provides background information on how the eight schools…

The Computer Assisted Language Learning Outreach Project for Education (CALLIOPE) was established in 1985 to enhance foreign language instruction in Illinois elementary and secondary schools through inservice teacher education in the form of short workshops, intensive summer institutes, and an internship program. The specific approach is to…

This paper explores the range of ways in which school districts are using Title I funds for early education through kindergarten and examines how the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has impacted those investments. It also makes recommendations for local education agencies (LEAs) interested in creating Title I-funded early education…

Americanization is in the end a task for the individual citizen and not for the Government. The individual can be successful in so human a problem only by having a sympathetic knowledge of this task and of those with whom he must deal. To supply at least the foundations of this knowledge is the purpose of this book. The contents are taken largely…