Research in bilingual education remains underdeveloped, and despite 20 years of classroom experience, curricular and methodological refinements, and gains in student achievement, there is continued skepticism about its effectiveness. Contends there has been overreliance on simplistic and ill-designed evaluation research and urges instead basic…

Reviews research literature on the effectiveness of bilingual education programs. Argues that scientifically valid evaluation studies offer no consistent support for transitional bilingual education as a superior practice for improving the English-language achievement of limited English proficient (LEP) children and, in fact, suggest evidence of…