Emerging bilingual learners' biliteracy abilities are often underestimated when monolingual reading assessments, such as the DIBELS, are used to identify students as having difficulties in learning or to guide literacy instruction. The authors propose a holistic form of biliterate assessment that uses writing as a means to understand what emerging…

The purpose of this single-subject longitudinal study was to examine the Spanish and English biliterate development of U.S. Latino Spanish/English speaking students, who we call emerging bilingual students, as they participated in an innovative biliteracy instructional program titled Literacy Squared®. Findings indicate that across the three years…

A study investigated the utility of a set of Spanish-language instructional materials, "Decsubriendo la Lectura," in compensatory or remedial literacy education for Spanish-speaking elementary students. The reading recovery approach, used with English-speaking first-graders, was adapted for Spanish. Program development included…

Language differences in the United States are largely viewed as problems that schools must remedy. This paradigm has created the pervasive belief that Spanish is a root cause of underachievement for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). This article examines teacher beliefs systems with regard to the above paradigm. It also examines…

During the 1989-90 school year, Descubriendo la Lectura, a Spanish-language adaptation of the English Reading Recovery project was implemented in a large urban school district in Arizona. The program is designed to identify first-grade students at risk of becoming poor readers and to provide a series of intense short-term learning experiences that…

A research is conducted which lays emphasis on how teachers can use bilingual student's writing as a springboard for deeper exploration into societal inequities in particular by paying attention to both the ideas and the voices revealed in their written words. The goal is to create an empowering learning environment in which students are able to…

Studied the longitudinal impact of a maintenance bilingual education program on the development of English in Spanish-speaking Mexican-American children in grades K-2. Subjects who were limited in both Spanish and English proficiency gained more in English achievement than those who were fluent in Spanish but not in English. (KS)

This article challenges the pervasive notion that linguistic and ethnic diversity are causes of the perceived gap in achievement in schools highly affected by Spanish-speaking students participating in programs of bilingual education. The study examines existing data from the state of Colorado with regard to student achievement and compares these…

Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) results in third- and fourth-grade reading and writing, 1999-2001, were compared for Latinos taking the English or Spanish CSAP and all Colorado students. Latino students had equivalent or higher scores on the Spanish CSAP compared to the English CSAP, but had lower scores than all students, regardless of…

Among 187 Arizona Mexican-American children with limited proficiency in both Spanish and English, participation in a maintenance bilingual education program during grades K-2 produced significant gains in oral language acquisition for both languages. Students with the lowest proficiency scores in kindergarten showed the greatest gains. (SV)

Research suggests that use of a child's native language in initial literacy instruction is beneficial. The Descubriendo la Lectura (DLL) Spanish-language application of the English Reading Recovery Program is described as implemented for one Spanish-speaking first grade boy. The DLL program capitalizes on strengths children demonstrate in reading.…