| The purpose of the study was to provide longitudinal evidence of the effectiveness of individualized bilingual instruction, preschool through third grade, for Spanish dominant monolingual and bilingual migrant children. The study measures proficiency in Spanish vocabulary, English vocabulary, math, and English reading. The sample included 1,020 sets of test scores for children ages 5 to 9, obtained between 1974-79. The analysis assesses the impact of the program for five attendance groups: 0 attendance, and after 1/2 year, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years in the bilingual program.; Standard scores in English and Spanish vocabulary, math and English reading were analyzed for years 1974-75, 1976-77, 1978-79 and for the combined 6-year period. With almost perfect consistency the pattern found on all tests throughout the 6-year period was for the mean standard score of children to increase with each period of attendance in the bilingual program. For the combined 6-year period the differences between groups based on attendance was statistically significant beyond the .01 level on all tests.; Contrary to the expectation that children in a bilingual program might initially show lower scores than traditionally instructed children, the superiority of children in the bilingual program over the baseline comparison group was statistically significant at the .01 level after 1/2 year of program attendance for English vocabulary, math and English reading, and after 2 years program attendance in Spanish vocabulary. Children were divided into comparative ability groupings based on pretest scores in Spanish vocabulary. Differences between groups based on both attendance and ability were statistically significant at the .01 level. The range of scores from low to high on all tests was different for each ability group, but the effect of attendance in the bilingual program was approximately the same with each ability level, except in Spanish vocabulary where the low ability group made the greatest gains.; Differences between test scores of boys and girls were not statistically significant for either English vocabulary or math. Differences were significant at the .01 level favoring boys in Spanish vocabulary, and favoring girls in English reading.; Based on the ratio between Spanish and English vocabulary pretest scores, children were classified as monolingual, partial bilingual, or balanced bilingual. Differences between the groups based on both attendance and initial bilingual classification were significant beyond the .01 level. Balanced bilingual children scored highest on all tests, partial bilingual next and monolingual children had the lowest scores. This included Spanish vocabulary and math both of which were given in Spanish and would be assumed to be unrelated to second language skills which determined the classifications. The average scores of children in all classifications were at or above national norms in math and reading by 3 years attendance in the bilingual program, with the monolingual group showing the greatest difference since their initial scores were lowest.; The program goes by the title "Individualized Bilingual Instruction" or IBI, and operates in Washington State and Texas. Scores were analyzed by location to see if differences in community attitudes and language usage interacting with the bilingual education program would produce different educational outcomes. Differences based on location were statistically significant at the .01 level for English vocabulary, favoring Washington, and for Spanish vocabulary and math, favoring Texas. Attendance in the bilingual program seemed to account for most of the differences in scores in both locations, indicating that a bilingual education program can produce significant academic gains for children despite differences in the status of the minority language in given communities. |
