In 2016, California voters approved state Proposition 58, repealing an almost 20-year ban on bilingual education for English Learners (ELs), who represent nearly 20% of the state's public school students. The state's reversal on bilingual education reflects a national trend of promoting bilingualism and expanding bilingual (also referred to as…

Emerging from nearly two decades of language suppression wrought by Proposition 227, a "Bilingual Education Renaissance" is underway in California as new programs proliferate at a much faster clip than the state can produce certified bilingual teachers. California's policy shift is built upon an officially stated view of bilingualism as…

Drawing on 3 years of observational, survey, and interview data, this article highlights the importance of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) for school staff members supporting Spanish-speaking, newcomer students in large, comprehensive high schools that often lack the resources to directly support this population. We highlight how…

This qualitative study explored Spanish-speaking teacher credential students' beliefs about academic language that might promote or inhibit their decision to become bilingual teachers. Data includes interviews with 11 bilingual teacher candidates who were heritage Spanish speakers. Findings show that most were only aware of English-only…

This article examines the culminating activity--"la cosecha" or the harvest--in a yearlong project in which teachers at a bilingual afterschool program and staff from a citywide environmental advocacy group taught students to plant, harvest, and sell produce grown at the school site. The authors show how students are socialized to become…

A bilingual multicultural education program was implemented to solve the language and communication problems of the non-English and limited-English speaking students at Winton Junior High School. A needs assessment identified broad program goals as well as individual student performance objectives. The program evaluation and follow-up functions…

This position paper gives the results of informal surveys carried out by the Bilingual-Bicultural Task Force of the California State Department of Education. Only 60 to 65% of the teachers in the state bilingual programs are judged bilingual and 50% bilingual-biliterate. Almost all of the teacher aides are judged bilingual, and a large percentage…

The Bay Area Bilingual Education League (BABEL) is a merger of four districts concerned with bilingual education for Spanish-speaking, Chinese-speaking and English-speaking children. BABEL sponsored a Bilingual Methodologies Institute, designed to meet the needs of its teachers and teacher assistants in the classroom. The institute covered all…

Despite the ethnic and linguistic diversity found in California's public schools, or because of it, in 1998 voters approved Proposition 227, a ballot initiative designed to dismantle bilingual education programs in the state. By the 2003-2004 school year, the California Department of Education reports that statewide 8,908 teachers were providing…

Acculturation and biculturalism of four populations (first-, second-, and third-generation Mexican American school children, and a comparison group of Anglo American children) were measured by teacher ratings of classroom behavior, using the Bicultural Identity/Respect for Cultural Differences Scale, developed expressly for use in…

This speech provides an outline of the planning procedure and framework for the curriculum used in the bilingual education program, Project Frontier, at Chula Vista, California. It explains the goals of the project which is gradually being expanded to all grade levels, and it describes how the goals are interwoven into a framework made up of units…

This report was prepared for submission to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. It reviews the California State Department of Education's administration of state and federally funded bilingual programs and identifies specific Department policies and practices that may affect the success of district-level programs for language-minority students.…

This report discusses findings from a study that examined issues surrounding the collaborative relationship between Latino paraeducators and the classroom teachers with whom they worked. Specifically, the study examined the types of activities that the paraeducators engaged in, the input they had in classroom instructional activities, the…

This document contains the continuation proposal for the fourth grade Compton bilingual education program. A review of the third year is included with details on process evaluation, project personnel and duties, new vocabulary developed by the project for lexical references, and inservice training of teachers. Information concerning the proposed…