Reviewing Bilingual-Education Research for Congress

Frederick Mulhauser

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1990, vol. 508, issue 1, 107-118

Abstract: What does research say about how to teach the large number of young people in U.S. schools who have limited proficiency in English—should they be taught in their native language or not? Former Education Secretary William Bennett read the evidence as negative and beginning in 1985 proposed to eliminate any native-language requirement from the federal bilingual program. Others read the evidence differently. At the request of Congress, the U.S. General Accounting Office assessed the validity of the department's interpretation of the research, using an expert panel to examine published reviews. The experts generally believed there was evidence for the legal requirement that native language be used to the extent necessary to meet two goals, learning English and keeping up in schoolwork in all subjects. Feasibility, not effectiveness, proved to be the main issue, however, when Congress acted to broaden potential funding for non-native-language programs in 1988.

Date: 1990
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:508:y:1990:i:1:p:107-118

DOI: 10.1177/0002716290508001009

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