This paper is the first to examine the longitudinal results of six years of implementation of Literacy Squared, a biliteracy model for Spanish/English speaking emerging bilingual students. This model includes paired literacy instruction with grade-specific time allocations for Spanish literacy and literacy-based ELD. Furthermore, cross-language…

The purpose of this single-subject longitudinal study was to examine the Spanish and English biliterate development of U.S. Latino Spanish/English speaking students, who we call emerging bilingual students, as they participated in an innovative biliteracy instructional program titled Literacy Squared®. Findings indicate that across the three years…

Recent analyses of wide-scale writing assessment outcomes indicate that English writing achievement for fourth- and fifth-grade emerging bilingual learners continues to be an area of great concern. Utilizing the theory of holistic bilingualism and a mixed methods design, this study examines the writing skills of 44 emerging bilingual fourth and…

Data systems that use monolingual language frameworks to understand the reading achievement of third-grade students provide inadequate information about emerging bilingual (EB) learners. The authors of this research study apply two competing ideologies (parallel monolingualism and holistic bilingualism) to interpret one set of data. Their findings…

This study explored the application of a holistic bilingual view to assess the writing of emerging bilingual children. The study is part of a 5-year longitudinal research and intervention project that explores the biliteracy development of Spanish-English emerging bilingual students who are receiving instruction in both languages. Participants…

This article challenges the pervasive notion that linguistic and ethnic diversity are causes of the perceived gap in achievement in schools highly affected by Spanish-speaking students participating in programs of bilingual education. The study examines existing data from the state of Colorado with regard to student achievement and compares these…

Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) results in third- and fourth-grade reading and writing, 1999-2001, were compared for Latinos taking the English or Spanish CSAP and all Colorado students. Latino students had equivalent or higher scores on the Spanish CSAP compared to the English CSAP, but had lower scores than all students, regardless of…