The two-way immersion dual language education program design includes the use of language labels to identify students as either the English speaker or the speaker of a language other than English. This paper examines four focal student and two teacher interviews to consider the ways in which the idea of a 'language expert' transpired during…

We examined whether English language proficiency (ELP) related to interim reading and math performance differently when academic assessments were administered to students in either English or Spanish. We also tested these effects with Spanish language proficiency (SLP) as well as jointly with ELP and SLP. Students from a midwestern suburban school…

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…

General measures of process quality are widely used in the early childhood education (ECE) field. However, the evidence regarding associations between the most widely used process quality measure, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta et al., 2008), and children's school readiness gains during the preschool year is mixed. Using…

This three-year longitudinal study investigated the role of language of instruction in moderating the relationships between initial levels of English oral language proficiency and Spanish reading comprehension and growth in English reading comprehension. The study followed Spanish-speaking English language learners in English-only literacy…

The purpose of this research was to better understand the bilingual and biliteracy skills of Spanish-speaking low-socio-economic status (low-SES) children who attended an English or a bilingual programme during preschool and kindergarten/first grade, and to determine whether their outcomes varied according to instructional language and primary…

The report examines 2012-2013 Austin Independent School District (AISD) student academic performance results on the state academic test (STAAR), on an early reading test (Tejas Lee), on the Language Assessment Scales (LAS) Links, and on the state's English language proficiency test (TELPAS) for English language learners in the AISD dual language…

Examines three English oral language proficiency tests in terms of whether the tests measure basic interpersonal communication skills or cognitive-academic language proficiency. Suggests that oral language proficiency tests should be academic in nature if their purpose is to determine whether language-minority students can meet the demands of…

Several English and Spanish language tests currently used in bilingual education and some less known tests are reviewed, looking at both historic and psychometric factors. It is suggested that practitioners have commonly assumed that all language tests are basically valid, which contributed to the commercial success of some tests of questionable…

The Bilingual Reading Study employs several measures of oral language proficiency: (1) a standardized oral language proficiency test, the Language Assessment Scales (LAS); (2) teacher ratings on the Student Operational Language Assessment Scale (SOLA); (3) teacher ratings on the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) Oral Language…

Comparability may be obtained for the Language Assessment Scale and the Bilingual Syntax Measure through a change in classification strategies which will also improve the equivalence of the tests and their correlation with achievement. Use of the tests along with teacher ratings should then provide meaningful criteria for classification.…

This Title VII program completed its second year of a 3 year continuation project to provide students with limited English proficiency instruction designed to help them achieve English language proficiency. The program also included a staff development component. Students were in Lau categories A, B, and C (non-English speaking, English as a…

The English language portions of appropriate levels of the Language Assessment Scales (LAS) were administered to 193 English-speaking monolingual elementary school students. The students were aged 5-14, and had average reading achievement scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. On the basis of the publisher's norms, maturational trends in scores…

The third year of the partial immersion program in grades one through three at Key Elementary School (Arlington, Virginia), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, is reported. The review includes classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, student assessment, and parent and staff interviews. Student assessments…

This Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII project was designed to increase English Language proficiency in limited English proficient students in Lau categories A, B, and C (non-English speaking, English as a second language, or bilingual). The intensive, 9-month program included both English language instruction and teacher training…