Language diversity in the United States has always been part of its history, yet policy and funding have not always promoted bilingualism or multiculturalism. Throughout the history of bilingual education, administrators, politicians, and policymakers have changed their preferences and practices in response to trends and ideological shifts…

Many students visit writing centers to become better writers in the English language. One issue of considerable debate is whether students visiting writing centers along the border should be assisted in Spanish or English. This pilot study examined writing center tutors' and students' perceptions of speaking Spanish at the writing center. Most…

Hispanic college enrollment in the U.S. will surpass 4.4 million students by 2025, far exceeding the growth rate of any other racial or ethnic group. Hence, the number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) identified by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) increased to nearly 570 in 2020 and is likely to accelerate…

This report summarizes the academic performance of students in the AISD secondary dual language program during 2019-2020. Topics include program and student characteristics, performance on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), enrollment in advanced placement (AP) courses and performance on AP exams. Due to the…

This article examines the language ideologies associated with the sense of self-efficacy of bilingual preservice teachers about their Spanish-language skills. Current teacher shortages in the field of bilingual education and increased professional demands placed over pre- and in-service bilingual teachers compel teacher education programs to adapt…

This article describes the implementation process of a top-down dual-language bilingual education (DLBE) program in a large urban district, specifically examining the development of one-way (OW) and two-way (TW) DLBE programs. We explored how teachers made sense of, interpreted, and executed the educational language policy with these two distinct…

Ideologies regarding what is "good" teaching undergird common teaching practices and pedagogical decisions, which may support and/or run counter to the broader policy environment in which they occur (Gibson, 1998). Drawing from a six-month ethnography of 10th-grade newcomer students from Mexico and their teachers in a Central Texas…

This causal-comparative study analyzed the college readiness of Latino ELLs educated in two different bilingual education programs, Transitional Bilingual (TB) and Dual Language (DL), by examining science and mathematics scores on the nationally recognized college entrance exam, the ACT. A statistically significant difference was found in the…

This comparative study examines relationships between phonemic awareness and Spanish reading skill acquisition among three groups of Spanish-speaking first and second graders: children in Mexico receiving reading instruction in Spanish and children in the United States receiving reading instruction in either Spanish or English. Children were…

We examine how a third-grade bilingual teacher engaged in "translanguaging shifts"--the moment-to-moment changes in language practices--during instruction in response to students' language performances. We demonstrate how a teacher's high level of multilingual awareness connected to fostering classroom spaces with linguistic flexibility…

This autoethnography explores my experience as a bilingual teacher educator on the Texas, United States-Mexico border supporting the development of preservice teachers' pedagogical Spanish language competencies through a course that I have been developing over the last few years. To this aim, I look at my positionality and experiences developing…

Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs are framed to reflect pluralist discourses (de Jong, E. [2013]. "Policy Discourses and U.S. Language in Education Policies." "Peabody Journal of Education" 88 (1): 98-111) and affiliated language ideologies. The continued expansion of DLBE programs not surprisingly brings to…

In this descriptive study the efforts of a faculty to prepare a cohort of pre-service bilingual education teachers to pass a newly adopted state certification test of academic Spanish are presented. The faculty's efforts were aimed at offsetting a low pass rate on this test, but unfortunately efforts fell short. To unpack this outcome, the authors…

Language education policy has been a controversial and ongoing issue throughout the U.S., particularly in the state of Texas. This paper reports on a frame analysis of the five bills that amended the Texas Education Code to implement or expand bilingual education and English as a second language programs. Analysis focused on problems and solutions…

There are many types of programs for Spanish speaking students in the US, with varying methods and goals. Some preliminary work suggests that bilingual classrooms may differ widely in instruction, even under the same program labels. However, there are few studies which have compared the extent to which various bilingual program models differ in…