The dual-language bilingual program in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) is intended to facilitate emergent bilinguals (EBs) integration into the regular school curriculum and ensure access to equal educational opportunities, while promoting biliteracy and bilingualism for both EBs and native English speakers. The dual-language (DL)…

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…

This article examines the ways Latino/a bilingual teacher candidates (TCs) talk about their own and others' language practices and the ways this talk reflects and reproduces racialized notions of bilingualism. Drawing on data from a one-year critical ethnography at a Hispanic-serving institution in Southwest Texas, this article demonstrates that…

We present an analysis of bilingual pre-service teachers' translanguaging practices when co-teaching bilingual art gallery lessons as a field experience in a Spanish/English bilingual/bicultural teacher education program. Using a critical bilingual literacies approach, we posed an opportunity for bilingual/bicultural pre-service teachers to be…

In university bilingual educator preparation programs, we frequently discuss issues across and around language, culture, and teaching. Topics inevitably emerge regarding the dialogue first generation college students have with their family members about maintaining the 'purity' of a language vis-à-vis navigating the waters of a translanguaging…

This qualitative case study explored the use of Readers Theater through the experiences of emergent bilingual students in a first-grade bilingual classroom. Readers Theater is a strategy that has produced great results in helping the development of literacy in reading fluency, motivation, and comprehension. The research regarding the use of…

Drawing on life stories and classroom observations, this qualitative study examined how six bilingual maestras enacted and embodied critical biliteracies through bilanguaging love. These maestras were born, raised, and now teach bilingual education on the Texas-Mexico border. Their stories revealed contradictory and complex beliefs about literacy…

This research uses a descriptive quantitative statistical design to examine campus-level results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The focus is on describing the achievement disparities between campuses that implemented Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) programs and those implementing Dual Language (DL)…

This explanatory-sequential mix-methods study explored Northeast Texas rural educators' perceptions of language and emergent bilingual (EB) students, and educators' preparation and practices used in the classroom to meet this ever-growing and diverse multicultural group. Educators' ideologies and practices in the United States, especially in…

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…

Dual-language programs are becoming increasingly popular among educators and the public in general. In these programs, students aim at attaining full proficiency in English and another language while reaching an academic achievement at or above grade level. This article describes a series of pedagogical practices in the context of dual-language…

This article shares findings from the implementation of an ongoing National Professional Development (NPD) project that advances second language literacy and biliteracy in secondary content areas. The project is part of a research-practice partnership between a large public university and two school districts in south Texas that engages in-service…

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…

This study compared the performance of bilingual learners, educated in either a Transitional Bilingual (TB) or Dual Language (DL) program, on the Reading and English portions of the nationally recognized college entrance exam, the American College Test (ACT). A statistically significant difference was found on the t-tests run for the Reading (p…

Dual language programs are poised to produce bilingual/biliterate teacher candidates to alleviate bilingual educator shortages. Therefore, in search for ways to support the growing number of Spanish/English dual language programs in Texas, the authors of this paper analyzed the variations of Spanish language and proficiency levels of 9th grade…