The study of motivation in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) contexts has hitherto one-sidedly been concerned with motivation to learn the foreign language, without regard for CLIL's eponymous focus on the inextricable connection between language and content. To fill this gap, this article focusses on CLIL learners' motivation not…

Dual-language immersion is an educational practice in which "literacy and content instruction" is provided in two languages at school (Howard et al., 2007, p.1). The students in these programs have been the center of many studies including student literacy development (Genesee & Jared, 2008), academic achievement (Lindholm-Leary,…

The article discusses how instead of being parts of a concerted educational reform effort, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the development of charter schools are in fact contradictory initiatives. Basing itself on a theoretical framework that brings together issues inherent to outcome-based school reform and arguments supporting and criticizing…

Though it is estimated that about half of the world's population is bilingual, the estimate for the United States is well below 20% (Grosjean, 2010). Amid growing recognition of the need for second language skills to facilitate international commerce and national security and to enhance learning opportunities for non-native speakers of English,…

Students whose first language is not English are the fastest-growing group in public schools in all regions of the United States. Almost 10 million children between the ages of five and 17 live in the homes and communities in which a language other than English in spoken and presently most schools in the U.S. are under-educating many English…

The Dearborn Public Schools, with 18,300 students, is located in the Detroit urban area with the largest concentration of Arabic-speaking people in the United States. In order to prepare the students for the 21st century skills and global awareness and in response to parents' requests, the author in collaboration with the school principal and…

The Center for School Success (CSS) at New Visions for Public Schools was founded in 1999 to document and disseminate innovative educational practices demonstrated by New Visions' schools that hold promise for increasing student achievement throughout New York City. Over the first year, CSS concentrated its initial documentation efforts on…

In this testimony, Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert talks on behalf of the National Indian Education Association with regard to the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and challenges facing BIE schools in improving student achievement. Founded in 1969, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) is the largest organization in the nation dedicated…

The United States has a long record of ambivalence toward recent immigrants. Nowhere is this love-hate relationship more evident than in the public school systems of high-immigration states like California, where pro- and anti-immigration advocates have waged a long-running battle over "bilingual" education versus "English…

The Language Immersion Magnet (LIM) program was established in five San Diego (California) city schools to "immerse" students in a second language by providing a strong emphasis on basic academic skills taught in that language. The primary language--English--is introduced later (as late as grade 3). This study attempted to describe the…

The third year of the partial immersion program in grades one through three at Key Elementary School (Arlington, Virginia), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, is reported. The review includes classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, student assessment, and parent and staff interviews. Student assessments…

The fourth year of the partial immersion program in grades one through four at Key Elementary School (Arlington, VA), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, is reported. Eight teachers and 85 students are involved in the 4 classes. As in other years, the "special" classes (music, physical education, and library) are…

A summative evaluation is presented of the 3 years of implementation of the Central Foreign Language Magnet School in Kansas City, Missouri. Two types of instruction are featured: language-only instruction and partial immersion instruction. All students in the program had daily language classes. The language-only students had their core courses…

The results of the achievement and enrollment study are reported for six elementary foreign language magnet programs that were implemented as part of the desegregation plan in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to the foundation curriculum, two goals are emphasized: teaching foreign language and exposing students to foreign cultures. Three strands…

The fifth year of the partial immersion program in grades 1-5 at Key Elementary School (Arlington, Virginia), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, is reported. The annual review, which included classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, student assessment, and parent and staff interviews, revealed a highly…