This report presents information on the Connecting Worlds/Mundos Unidos Project and provides a general comparison overview of accomplishments during its five years of operation. The Connecting Worlds/Mundos Unidos Project has been operating in the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) for eleven years, but in the present format as a Jacob K.…

Issues related to the long-term problems of the teaching and learning of secondary ESL students are described and discussed. It is concluded that the National Literacy Panel rationale for selecting approved research demonstrates a significant misunderstanding of the realities of secondary teaching and learning. The paper concludes with the…

Diverse schools offer enriched academic and social environments, as students and families of different backgrounds and experiences provide a vibrant mosaic of insights, perspectives, and skills. To take advantage of the unique opportunities that diversity brings, schools must value and effectively connect with students and families of all…

The volume consists of twelve classroom studies concerned with the implementation of learner autonomy in English classes. The individual studies range from primary school level to university level. They include studies on multi-media dictionary work, reading logs, peer correction, communication strategies, vocabulary learning strategies, oral…

This study examined the relationships between the evaluations obtained from standard setting panelists and changes in ratings between different rounds of a standard setting study that involved setting standards on different language versions of an exam. We investigated panelists' evaluations to determine if their perceptions of the standard…

What makes people, in shifting power positions of a post-independence period, plan on disusing an already known L2 or learn a new L2? What are the reasons for such shifts and what outcomes can, therefore, be predicted for the future of societal bilingualism surviving alongside ongoing efforts at monolingual unification in a newly independent…

Each year, Austin Independent School District Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) staff develop a plan of work to describe the scope of work for the coming year. The plans that make up this document identify programs to be evaluated and services to be provided by DRE staff and provide the blueprints for evaluation that staff will follow…

This action research study examined the role of the Migrant Graduation Specialists in public middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools participating in a special project called HOPE (Honing in On Post-secondary Education); and analyzed the viewpoint of migrant students participating in this project in order to determine their…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a dual language immersion program had a significant effect on the reading literacy achievement of Spanish and English speaking seventh and eighth graders who were in the program for three years. The research design was a quasi-experimental, nonrandom quantitative research using ex-post facto data.…

This article recounts a community's struggle for access to biliteracy in one of the largest urban school districts in the country. The authors examine the roles school personnel assume, the symbols they employ, and the scripts they follow in their efforts to deny English Learners (ELs) access to quality programs and due process of rights. At a…

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training,…

In New York they say that the architecture of the new "Lycee francais" (serving French students from kindergarten through upper secondary education) was inspired by the rationalism of Descartes. What is beyond doubt, however, is that the design and materials chosen by the American firm of architects, "Polshek Partnership…

This case study investigated spontaneous interpersonal communication in a high school Spanish classroom, using instructional conversation as a framework for analysis. Instructional conversations are collaborative, extended verbal exchanges in which students develop a coherent topic, supported by the teacher's contingent questions and feedback. The…

This practitioner issue brief outlines successful strategies and recommendations for state-level policymakers, administrators, schools, and districts that are based on a 5-year evaluation study on the learning environment for ELLs in the state of California. This brief offers four critical building blocks that should be in place to effectively…

This report summarizes Austin ISD's bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) program for students during the 2006-2007 school year. The school district served 13,162 students in a bilingual program, 5,280 students in an ESL program, and 822 students whose parents refused bilingual or ESL programming. Most (77%) students served were in…