The Sustained Primary Program for Bilingual Students is an ESEA/Title III program which emphasizes understanding and appreciating the Spanish, Mexican, Anglo heritage of the Mesilia Valley and southwestern New Mexico, discovering the structure of the language, recognizing how learning occurs, identifying the methodology and strategy needed to…

This paper discusses some of the background rationale for bilingual education and raises issues concerning personnel training, with indications as to how these issues have been dealt with in the program at SUNY-Albany. In the preparation of bilingual educators, the relationship between the educator's cultural, linguistic, and ethnic background and…

This report discusses the development of bilingual/bicultural education models. Included is information concerning the goals of bilingual education, six models of program realization, and problems and possibilities in implementing the models. Also included are footnotes and a bibliography. The appendixes present various articles: "A Brief…

Project ABRAZO is a bilingual research program designed to investigate strategies which might enhance the self-concept of Mexican-American children. A portion of the baseline data collected for ABRAZO is considered with three purposes in view: (1) Is there any difference between the self-concept of Mexican-American children, non-Mexican-American…

This article investigates the acquisition of a variety of standard English (SE) by children whose first language is Hawaii Creole English (HCE). The hypothesis was made that, in a speech community with high prestige and low prestige codes, learning the dominant code would not adversely affect performance in the first language. The subjects, in…

This paper reviews two theoretical approaches (cognitive-developmental and functional-interactive) to the study of the writing of bilingual exceptional children and discusses their implications for effective writing instruction. Also described are two illustrative research projects, one employing the dialogue-journal technique on a microcomputer…

This study analyzed a public school prekindergarten Montessori bilingual program, investigating second grade reading achievement scores on Spanish and English norm-referenced tests and comparing students who had participated in the Montessori program with those who had participated in a prekindergarten traditional bilingual program. Participants…

Voters in California will vote June 2, 1998 to decide the fate of Proposition 227, a measure proposed by businessman Ron Unz that would substantially change the way that students who are not proficient in English are taught. If approved by the voters, Proposition 227, the Unz Initiative, would essentially eliminate bilingual education programs in…

California's Proposition 227 requires that all children be taught English by being taught in English. This proposition, which basically outlaws bilingual education, is the newest chapter in the history of how non-English speaking and limited English proficient (LEP) students should be educated. After presenting the historical, social, political,…

In the rush to implement world-class standards supported by systems of accountability in public schools, education leaders have compromised the educational future of Hispanic students by making high-stakes decisions based on inaccurate and inadequate testing information. State policies often require that Hispanic students be assessed in English…

The U.S.-Mexican border is an extensive geographical region that is socially and economically distinct from either the United States or Mexico. It has always been a multilingual and multicultural place. This book examines the social and cultural complexities of life in one small rural border town and its high school. Chapter 1 describes Havens,…

This issue contains eight articles that represent information on a variety of highly specialized topics involving communicative sciences. Articles include: (1) "The Reliability of the Kay Elemetrics Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP) for Acoustic Analysis of the Normal Voice" (Ann Marie Cimino and Christine M. Sapienza), which focuses on the…

Contains information on incidence of handicapping conditions among Texas Hispanic students; delivery of special education services to handicapped Texas Hispanics; a specific example of the application of a human resource planning model to bilingual handicapped students; significant staffing needs associated with serving exceptional Hispanics.…

Preschool teachers from Texas school districts with high and low Hispanic populations completed surveys examining their knowledge and beliefs about early childhood bilingualism and developmentally appropriate practice. Positive beliefs about the use of native language to develop emergent cognitive-academic language proficiency through active…

Four teachers from diverse early childhood environments formed a teacher research group to learn more about children's language and literacy development. This article discusses the formation of the group, the value of teacher research for understanding children's language, and the lessons learned by the participating teachers that enhanced their…