[EDLING:99] Bilingual Education Grows in Texas, Declines in Some Other States

[Francis M. Hult]

Education Week

Bilingual Education Grows in Texas, Declines in Some Other States

Mary Ann Zehr:

I hear a lot of talk about how provisions for English-language learners in the 
the No Child Left Behind Act are indirectly making it more difficult for 
schools to offer bilingual education programs. I checked out this premise for 
an article that runs in Education Week this week.

What I found was that it varies greatly from state to state whether NCLB has 
put a damper on bilingual education programs, because state policies differ so 
much. For example, in states that offer some tests in students' native 
languages--which is permitted by the federal law--bilingual programs are having 
an easier time surviving than in states that administer their tests only in 
English. In Texas, which requires bilingual education at the elementary grades 
and provides math and reading tests in Spanish for those grades, bilingual 
education is growing. In Arizona and California, on the other hand, which 
passed ballot initiatives to curtail bilingual education and require testing to 
be in English, bilingual education has dramatically declined. 

Full story
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-
language/2007/05/bilingual_education_grows_in_t.html