Describes the development of a Title VII bilingual program in a California community where Hispanics constitute 46 percent of the population. Examines change strategies used over a ten-year period of renewal. (NEC)

Hispanic children are often considered ineligible for participation in programs for the gifted and talented because of identification procedures that rely heavily on tests which are inappropriate for use with Spanish-speaking children and because of the widespread acceptance of an essentially inaccurate definition of giftedness as synonymous with…

Three bilingual Mexican-American children labeled language disordered were observed at home and school. Linguistic, discourse, and social competencies differed between the two children not judged language disordered by their parents and the one child who was, suggesting that only the latter was truly language disordered. (21 references) (SV)

Anglo, Black, Hispanic, and Vietnamese parents with children enrolled in school districts in northeast Texas responded to a questionnaire to determinie their perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge about bilingual education. Responses revealed differences according to ethnicity, source of information about bilingual education, and whether a child…

Finds that 25 Spanish-dominant Mexican-American students in a transitional bilingual program for grades one-three maintained Spanish reading achievement scores above national norms, and had English reading scores that equaled or surpassed those of 118 English-dominant Mexican-American students in regular classes. Contains 28 references. (SV)

The low birth weight criterion and other factors used for entry in 1971 into the Responsive Environment Program for Spanish-American Children (RESPAC), yielded predictions of school failure for nearly all RESPAC students. A significant finding of the 10-year follow-up study was that 86 percent of RESPAC students had normal school progress. (JHZ)

Finds that, among 117 Mexican-American second and fifth graders from Spanish-dominant homes, reading comprehension gains were proportionately much smaller in summer than the school year, while summer and school year gains in auditory vocabulary were similar. Discusses family, peer, and classroom influences on distinct language skills. (SV)