In 2016, California voters overturned a 1998 law that curtailed bilingual instruction throughout the state. After nearly 20 years of "English only" programs, what will it take to restore the schools' capacity to provide a broader range of services to English Learners, including dual language immersion and other forms of bilingual…

Brownsville Independent School District in Texas garnered the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2008 by narrowing the gap between its largely immigrant Hispanic enrollment and other low-income children in the state. Its efforts are notable for the district's ability to move English language learners to proficiency in a few years by its reliance…

Other nations' experience shows that reception programs and home language programs for immigrant children can become academic dead ends if not integrated with the school's overall program. The same is true of U.S. transitional bilingual education programs. Hard work, sensitivity, and commitment to newcomers' full participation are more important…

A commonly held notion of how earlier generations of immigrants were educated--often used as the chief argument supporting English immersion--is a myth. Far from succeeding by immersing themselves in English, immigrant groups did much worse than the native-born; some groups, particularly Italians, did much worse than others. Research findings are…

An unprecedented number of foreign-born children in California classrooms are forcing educators to rethink school programs, structures, policies, and staffing. Schools are largely overwhelmed by demographic changes, war-traumatized and undocumented children, tremendous academic gaps, and cultural and language diversity. Classroom methods and…