Leonard A. Valverde Guest Editor
When Josué González approached me about doing a special issue of the Bilingual Research Journal, I quickly accepted, giving thought to what progress there has been in understanding the knowledge base and skills needed to administer bilingual programs. Since I had spent the past 12 years as an academic vice president and College of Education dean, I was most curious to learn of any advancements made. In conceiving the journal's focus, I hypothesized that, while much research and study had advanced the body of literature regarding bilingual education in general, the specific components of administration and supervision were under-developed and stagnant. Unfortunately, through my research for this article, and in reviewing other articles, it became clear that my hypothesis was more than just a presumption. The major contribution in developing a body of knowledge regarding the administration of bilingual programs has come from doctoral dissertation studies. However, these dissertations are few in number because there are few faculty in departments of educational administration and policy studies who are available to stimulate and direct doctoral dissertations in this area. In addition, there are even fewer doctoral students in educational leadership departments who are interested in the management and leadership of bilingual programs. Most of the bilingual faculty are in curriculum and instruction departments, and their graduates who assume research positions in private centers or public organizations, such as the Center for Applied Linguistics, are specialists in learning, curriculum, and instructional aspects, not administration, supervision, or campus leadership.
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Research in Practice: The Voice of the Practitioner
Research publications are often based on the premise that research precedes practice. Indeed, a corollary is that practice uninformed by research is less worthy than practice that is solely derived from research. This hierarchical placement of research on a higher plane than practice is problematic. The Bilingual Research Journal embraces a bi-directional conception of these two notions: research informs practice, but, practice is the operational base on which research is built. Practice, in short informs the researcher about the field often revealing the questions to be explored.
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Understanding Bilingual Program Designs
Leonard A. Valverde
Gloria J. Armendáriz
Arizona State University
This article explores the many facets of the most commonly implemented bilingual program designs in today's schools: pull-out, structured immersion, transitional, maintenance, and dual language. We examine distinct characteristics within each program that contribute to its overall effectiveness, whether it be weak or strong. In addition, we incorporate teacher opinion on what support they feel is needed at the local and district level to promote success within the classroom. By shedding light on the frameworks and intricacies of these programs, we hope to enlighten administrators and educators alike to the extreme effects these programs can produce so that they are better suited to determine which program design will best fit their needs and the educational needs of their students.
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Rethinking
the Education of English Language
Learners: Transitional Bilingual Education Programs
Abelardo Villarreal
Intercultural Development Research Association
Abstract
School reform initiatives have become the hope for upgrading the achievement levels of all students. Of concern to many administrators are the English language learners who remain the most neglected and shortchanged in the school reform movement with little significant increases, if any, on their achievement levels (Moss & Puma, 1995). The struggle to achieve equitybased excellence in education points to a need for rethinking the educational goals, strategies, and processes that presently shape these educational programs. The author identifies two contextual dimensions that are primarily responsible for the success or demise of the transitional bilingual education program. These dimensions are (1) support of the program at all levels of the school hierarchy, and (2) level of knowledge of bilingual education as evidenced through curriculum and instructional activities implemented in the program. Using these two dimensions, the author describes a framework for classifying transitional bilingual education programs. The purpose of this article is to provide campus principals, in particular, insights about the impact of an inappropriate transitional bilingual education program for English language learners, in an effort to demonstrate how negative attitudes, prejudices, biases, and misinformation about bilingual education programs lead to inappropriate practices and unfounded, unsubstantiated, and misinformed policies. In addition, it attempts to provide wellintentioned principals with ideas and strategies that can enhance the quality of their transitional bilingual education programs.
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Administration
of Two-Way Bilingual Elementary
Schools: Building on Strength
Rosa Castro Feinberg
Florida International University
Abstract
Does the administration of two-way bilingual elementary schools differ from the administration of other schools? This article summarizes the opinions on this question offered by present and past administrators of two-way bilingual schools in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). It also explores the administrative activities and skills they identify as essential and the characteristics and historical context of their arena for action. This account contributes to an understanding of leadership functions that foster program longevity.
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System Wide Reform:
The San Francisco Unified School District Case
Veronica D. Fern
In consultation with
Rosa E. Apodaca,
Waldemar Rojas
San Francisco Unified School District
Abstract
The Language Academy initiative enabled the district to redesign remedial, compliance-based programs for English Language Learners and transform them into standards-based language learning programs for all students in the district. Administrators relied on stakeholder involvement, coherent policy, and quality program design to achieve their goal of fluency in English and another language for all students.
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Research-Informed
Teaching in Bilingual Education:
Does It Happen? How Does It Help?
Adela Solís
Intercultural Development Research Associates
Abstract
This article summarizes a study that investigated research-to-practice linkages in bilingual education to demonstrate that such efforts do exist and to examine how these linkages can be improved and continued. The study focused on Natural Approach theory and research because knowledge of second language acquisition processes has been considered among the most enlightening and useful to teachers in the field of bilingual education. The author's intent here is to demonstrate how the translation of research to practice can occur, to show how teachers' perceptions about research influence their use of research, and, most importantly, to show that research and theory in bilingual education can lead to tailor-made teaching strategies for second language learners. In providing this summary the author invites the reader to an in-depth examination of the study in which examples of use of Natural Approach Teaching Model and other insights about research-to-practice linkages are provided.
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Lucas, Tamara (1997). Into, Through, and Beyond Secondary School: Critical transitions for immigrant youth. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics. ( 294 pages)
Reviewed by:
M. Beatriz Arias
Arizona State University
In 1990 Tamara Lucas, along with others, published an important study which identified the structural mismatches between secondary schools and the needs of immigrant students (Lucas, Henze, & Donato, 1990). Almost a decade later, she returns with a framework for the processes necessary to reform secondary schooling for immigrant students. In the intervening years, Lucas has been an avid student of secondary programs and reforms focused on second language learners and immigrant students. In this volume, the author distills her considerable knowledge and experience into four operating principles that are necessary to provide access and educational opportunity for immigrant students.
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