Extending the Sample to Evaluate a National Bilingual Program

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In order to learn about students’ competency level, it is essential to collect reliable data that enable the analysis of performance and the contextual background in which that learning has taken place. Countries and regions periodically take part in large-scale assessments designed by them and/or participate in international evaluation programs in order to obtain valuable information about students’ achievement and inform policy-making. The Community of Madrid has pioneered in Spain the implementation of a bilingual program since 2004–2005 which aims to improve students’ communication competency in English and which reached, during the academic year 2015–2016, 353 public primary schools and 181 subsidized private schools. In order to analyze the effectiveness and impact that this program implemented nearly 15 years ago has had in education, the Community of Madrid has decided to benefit from their participation as “benchmarking participant” in PIRLS 2016 to evaluate it by extending their sample. One thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven students from 80 schools involved in the bilingual program from the Community of Madrid participated in PIRLS 2016. This sample gives us the opportunity to analyze which variables have an impact on reading performance, both in English and Spanish. Their academic achievement in Reading was evaluated by administering booklets from the PIRLS test in English and Spanish to the same students and comparing their performance in both tests in relation to a group of predictor variables obtained from the background questionnaires using multilevel regression models. Evidence show that certain variables related to the school and students’ context such as the school emphasis on academic success, students’ self confidence in Reading, and the resources available contribute to the success in the implementation of these programs. This chapter shows that the implementation of the bilingual program in the community of Madrid can be considered positive in general terms although its success depends to a great extent on the students’ personal characteristics and their school and family context.KeywordsPIRLSReading comprehensionMultilevel analysisBilingual programContextual background