Impressive evidence shows individual bilingual Hispanic children from low-income backgrounds becoming biliterate in Spanish and English by first grade. Reading is presented to preschoolers as a game; they are first taught to read in Spanish and then in English. Parental participation is crucial. Impact differs according to starting age. (Author/CM)

The developing concern of Canadian Parents for French about the lack of opportunities for anglophone students fluent in French to pursue bilingual higher education, the organization's role in focusing attention on the issue, and the evolution of organizational policy through conferences, surveys, and reports are discussed. (Author/MSE)

The study of Individualized Education Programs developed for 203 limited English proficient Hispanic elementary students found that a student's bilingualism and level of English proficiency exerted little influence on selection of instructional goals. Native language or English-as-a-Second-Language instruction was infrequently incorporated into…

Describes how the retelling of stories and the creation of original stories assisted the language development and literacy of limited-English-speaking children in a British "early years" program for four- and five-year olds. The project culminated in individual books made by the students. (SLD)

This study aimed at comparing the performance of two bilingual groups of EFL students with that of a monolingual group on a controlled productive ability vocabulary test. Altogether 30 Turkish-Persian bilinguals, 30 Armenian-Persian bilinguals, and 30 Persian monolinguals participated in the study. The subjects in all three groups were homogeneous…

"Read Well" is a research-based reading curriculum designed to improve student literacy. This program includes explicit, systematic instruction in English decoding, sustained practice of decoding skills and fluency, and instruction in vocabulary and concepts presented in text. It also provides support for English language learner (ELL)…

The operation of "Encendiendo Una Llama," Hartford, Connecticut's program for bilingual gifted students, was evaluated for the 1981-82 school year. A total of 173 gifted children of limited English proficiency in grades 3 through 6 were served by the program at four locations. The program, staff, objectives, and target population are…

Is it possible to translate an existing test from the source language to a target language and then to empirically link the translated test to the source language standard? Some tests are amenable to translation of their content and some are not. Within tests, some items may be translatable and others may not. Some items may measure meaningful…

Demographic trends indicate that in the 21st century, second-language issues in early literacy development will remain a pressing concern. According to the 1990 U.S. census, over 6.3 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 spoke a language other than English at home (Crawford, 2001). This number has grown to over 9.7 million as estimated…

The development, administration, and scoring of a communicative test and its validation with tests of linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in English and Spanish are reported. Correlation with measures of home language use and school achievement are also presented, and issues of test validation for bilingual programs are discussed. (MSE)

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; A. T. Beck, R. A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996) is a widely used measure of depressive symptomatology originally authored in English and then translated to Spanish. However, there are very limited data available on the Spanish translation. This study compared the psychometric characteristics of the…

This is Illinois' first Report Card on Racial Equity, assessing the extent to which the General Assembly and Governor support policies that advance racial equity in order to close disparities, protect against discrimination, and promote civic participation for all residents of Illinois. Among the report highlights: (1) The House and Senate…

The 1981-82 external evaluation of the East Texas State University Elementary Secondary Eduation Act (ESEA) Title VII Bilingual Program is presented. This educational training program is designed to assist the State through the provision of well-prepared teachers, administrators, and specialists to upgrade the teaching of Texas' bilingual…

Learning to Read Through the Arts offers intensive reading instruction to Chapter I eligible students through the integration of a total reading program with a total arts program. In 1983-84, the program was offered to a total of 625 general education students, 140 bilingual students, and 100 special education students (all in grades 2-6). Reading…

This update summarizes the first 2 years of a 5-year evaluation of the implementation of California's Proposition 227 (which replaces the state's bilingual education programs with 1-year English immersion programs) and its effects on the education of English language learners (ELLs). Researchers used the percentage of ELLs receiving primary…