Language minority achievement, family inequality, and the impact of bilingual education

Abstract

Language minority students experience depressed patterns of achievement, on average, compared to their native, English-speaking counterparts—a pattern that bilingual education programs enacted since the 1960s have attempted to address. In this paper, we extend the literature by considering the background disadvantages language minority students face and the impact of bilingual education involvement. Our analyses of eighth graders, drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS), suggest that a significant portion of the achievement gap between language minority students and the more general student population is explained by family background inequalities. Deficits in achievement persist, however, even once family attributes are considered. Further analyses of our language minority subsample demonstrate a strong, positive influence of early elementary bilingual program involvement on both math and reading achievement. In contrast, enrollment in later elementary grades has no apparent impact while prolonged involvement has a weak, negative influence. These findings, which are consistent for Latino, Asian, Black, Native American, and White language minority students, are discussed relative to educational stratification theory and in light of current demographic trends and federal cutbacks in bilingual education spending.