Rethinking the Education of English Language Learners: Transitional Bilingual Education Programs

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 equity-based 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 well-intentioned principals with ideas and strategies that can enhance the quality of their transitional bilingual education programs.