This article reports the outcomes of a multiyear study comparing the English and Spanish language and reading performance of Spanish-dominant children randomly assigned, beginning in kindergarten, to transitional bilingual education (TBE) or structured English immersion (SEI) for periods of up to 5 years. On the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and…

The fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently and are thus labeled English learners. Although the federal government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states no policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing, or…

This paper reports the fifth-year results of a study comparing the English and Spanish language and reading performance of Spanish-dominant children randomly assigned beginning in kindergarten to Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) or Structured English Immersion (SEI). This is the first randomized study to compare TBE and SEI reading…

The Innovation Configurations approach is a way of measuring what aspects of a staff development training program are actually being put into practice. Unlike other methods of measuring implementation (and particularly those used in the evaluation of bilingual program implementation), it does not focus on outcomes but instead answers the…

Substantial evidence suggests that students working together in small cooperative groups can master material better than students working on their own, and that cooperative learning structures higher self-esteem and learning motivation. Cooperative learning (CL) has been proposed for use with language minority children, as well as with other…

A bilingual education teacher training packet (student's edition) on theories and research concerning bilingual education, second language acquisition, and communicative competence is presented. A theoretical framework for integrating these theories and a theoretical rationale for bilingual education are also presented. In addition to…

A bilingual education teacher training packet (teacher's edition) on theories and research concerning bilingual education, second language acquisition, and communicative competence is presented. A theoretical framework for integrating these theories and a theoretical rationale for bilingual education are also presented. In addition to…

A study examined the usefulness of one major strategy for helping teachers, administrators, and resource staff use research on bilingual instruction. The strategy studied was the Multi-District Trainer of Trainers Institute (MTTI) as implemented in California. The study's objectives were to: describe the MTTI design, content, delivery, and…

This digest presents recommendations for a staff development program for a multilingual multicultural teaching staff that has been tested and shown to be effective. Effective instruction in bilingual and multicultural schools requires that teachers combine a sophisticated knowledge of subject matter with a wide repertoire of teaching strategies…

Describes the design, content, and delivery strategies of the Multidistrict Trainer of Trainers Institute (MTTI), which helps educators apply research findings on bilingual instruction. Reports survey responses of MTTI trainers and participants concerning the impact of MTTI on participants' classroom practices and peer coaching skills. Contains 30…

As NAFTA opens the border between the United States and Mexico, the need for binational cooperation in education becomes ever more imperative. This chapter provides a rationale for binational education--the benefits of binational education both for language-minority students and for the majority culture--and describes a variety of cooperative…

The effects of a cooperative learning program, Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC), on the Spanish and English reading, writing, and language achievement of second and third graders of limited English proficiency in Spanish bilingual programs in El Paso (Texas) were studied. BCIRC was expected to improve student…

Three research-based theoretical frameworks on which educational programs for language minority students might be based are discussed, along with a composite framework. The frameworks, which coincide with California's frameworks (described in "Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework," 1981), are as follows: (1) a…

A teacher training packet (student's edition) on methods and techniques for communicative competence in bilingual education is presented. In addition to state-of-the-art reviews, the packet contains: a course syllabus, a pretest, a glossary, learning objectives, learning activities, a notional-functional taxonomy; diagrams of the…

A teacher training packet (teacher's edition) on methods and techniques for communicative competence in bilingual education is presented. In addition to state-of-the-art reviews, the packet contains: a course syllabus, a pretest and answer key, a glossary, learning objectives, learning activities, a notional-functional taxonomy, diagrams of the…