Smooth early childhood transitions are key to ensuring positive outcomes for young children the world over--but in today's fragmented early education systems, it's difficult to ensure continuity among programs and services. Early childhood professionals will help change that with this book, the first to propose a comprehensive, practical framework…

Describes status of and need for bilingual education in the United States. Different educational options must be made available to enable students to participate in English instructional programs and American society. (BK)

Latinos now live and work in areas of the United States where they have not been before. These changes impact schools in a variety ways. This article reviews recent research on how communities have responded in the South, New England and the West with a primarily assimilationist approach including English-only policies. The article then provides a…

Outlines current bilingual provisions, practices, and programs for the teaching of Gaelic at the preschool, primary, secondary, and higher educational levels of Scotland. Discusses curriculum development, resources and support structures. Classifies government policy toward bilingual education as one of "benevolent neutrality." (NEC)

Presents a brief overview of historical developments and recent activity regarding the federal government's policy toward bilingual education. Focuses mainly on the Supreme Court's Lau v. Vichols decision of 1974, which lent support to bilingual education, and the Reagan Administration's challenges to current funding practices for such education.…

Thirteen Ecuadorian indigenous nationalities follow the Intercultural Bilingual Education Model in Ecuador (MOSEIB). This paper analyses the present situation of MOSEIB, the challenges to it and future prospects. First, in order to understand how MOSEIB today has relieved the intercultural tensions of the past it is necessary to look at the…

The goal of this brief, prepared jointly by the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) and the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI), is to bring to policy saliency--at the national, state, and local levels--to the educational crisis caused by the under-achievement of Hispanic youth. Specifically, this report addresses two issues of…

In Haitian and Capeverdean communities it is unclear which native language will occur in bilingual programs: Portuguese and French, respectively, or Creole. To empower children, they should be taught in their first language, Creole. Awareness and respect for other cultures can follow once the learner's self-concept is stable. (LHW)

In this article, the author comments on Peter Roos's article (this issue). The author sees a strong need to clarify whether the horse that is to be remounted is more and better English-as-a-second-language (ESL) programs or the goal of promoting bilingual education as a positive practice in the nation's schools or something else altogether. If the…

This paper argues that young Hispanic (or Latina/o) children (ages 3 to 8 years) should be of particular interest to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in education. Young Hispanic children constitute an urgent demographic imperative. Young Hispanic children are not only the largest racial/ethnic group in the U.S., but also the youngest…

The political and educational rationales for bilingual education in the United States and the implications of transitional and maintenance programs are examined. Following a period of adherence to English-only instruction which resulted in academic failure for minority children, support grew for the concept of bilingual education. The provisions…

The clarification of the April 8th memorandum is that "the Lau remedies are minimum requirements and that in cases depending on student language dominance, grade level, and academic achievement, a bilingual program 'is' the remedy, and the only educationally sound way of ensuring effective participation in the instructional program." (NQ)

Bilingual education is inherently political because it involves power relations between dominant and dominated groups. Effective anti-racist bilingual programs will be vehemently resisted by the dominant group despite research evidence because they threaten the power of the dominant group. (LHW)

Many problems--educational, legal, and political--remain in bilingual education. The history of bilingual education in the United States, its current status, and arguments of those representing various sides of the controversy over bilingual education are summarized. (PP)

This paper provides a critical analysis of the National Bilingual Programme in Colombia. It considers how and why it aims to extend the teaching of "a" foreign language in Primary and Secondary school in 1994, to the teaching of English to an internationally recognized standard in all sectors of education by 2019, while at the same time…