One in a series on cultural pluralism and multicultural education, this collection of 10 brief articles focuses on bilingual education with much of the material specific to Spanish-English programs. Dennis Wilson discusses Indian self determination and the task of preserving Indian culture while solving contemporary Indian problems. Lorenzo…

A controlled experiment was conducted in 1980 with 117 first graders in two Southwestern schools near the Mexican border to determine the effects of direct instruction in teaching bilingual Hispanic children to read. Direct instruction has been defined as using modeling, reinforcement, prompting, discrimination learning, and correction/feedback…

A Houston, Texas, elementary bilingual program did not produce consistently equal or superior cognitive outcomes but was effective in facilitating second language learning. In order to ascertain the effects of the program on participants' self esteem, English reading level, and grade point average (GPA), the elementary and seventh grade GPAs of an…

The Spanish/English Language Performance Screening (S/ELPS) was designed to assist the preschool and early elementary classroom teacher in objectively determining each child's dominant oral language for initial instruction. This report summarizes the development and testing performed in order to revise and validate the measure. After an intensive…

The final evaluation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I Migrant Program in the Austin, Texas Independent School District is reported. The program consisted of instructional, student recruitment, parental involvement, health services, and clothing components. The instructional component included programs for pre-kindergarten…

This paper discusses some of the problems involved in the testing of minority group children, focusing on the testing of bilingual minorities and emphasizing the special problems involved in testing Hispanic children. Considered are a variety of ways in which tests have been misused and misinterpreted in working with these children. It is…

After discussing some of the complex problems related to the educational participation of the growing population of bilingual/bicultural adults in California, this paper explores the new importance and role of adult education and career development with respect to this group. The paper goes on to describe a bilingual/bicultural vocational training…

Special features of teaching Spanish to the Spanish speaking are identified and compared with objectives of teaching Spanish as a second language. Described are the (1) feasibility of achieving effective ability placement through a listening-comprehension test designed for use in Albuquerque Public Schools, (2) linguistic and motivational problems…

Synoptic reports on 16 selected educational and community programs for Spanish-speaking people are presented in this document. Each report consists of a brief description of the project, an assessment of the program, and recommendations for dissemination and implementation of the project model. Programs reviewed include: (1) The Good Samaritan…

Summer educational programs held in 7 California school districts and funded by Title I, ESEA, are described in this issue of Focus on Innovation. Programs of remedial instruction and enrichment were developed to assist the educationally disadvantaged, primarily in the area of communication skills. Selection of students, framework of the programs,…

The recruitment and training of competent teachers for Spanish-speaking children is but one phase of the overall staffing problem facing schools nationally. Generally, the teacher shortage could be reduced by increasing wages, improving facilities and equipment, reducing the teacher's work load through employment of teaching assistants and…

This workshop was convened by the Office of Child Development (OCD) to identify research issues and to set priorities for research related to bilingual/bicultural early childhood development programs proposed by OCD. Workshop participants were researchers and persons with expertise in the development of bilingual/bicultural preschool programs. The…

Research over the last ten years provides overwhelming evidence that the most successful students have strong positive self-concepts. This booklet reviews literature on self-concept and describes many programs designed to improve student self-esteem. The paper begins by noting that although no one understands the order of the cause and effect…

This paper presents a brief historical overview and summary of the various approaches and recent developments in the field of bilingual education. The controversy that exists with respect to the different approaches to bilingual education has prevented the development of national goals and guidelines and the preparation of adequate evaluation…

This paper presents a "Language Background Questionnaire" designed for use in gathering information on the home linguistic environment of bilingual children. The questionnaire probes a series of demographic and environmental variables which define a bilingual child's sociolinguistic milieu. Instructions are given for calculating the overall…