The effects of bilingual education on academic achievement, language development, and self-esteem of Hispanic children

This study assessed the effects of Bilingual Education Programs on (1) the academic achievement of Hispanic children who attend Bilingual and Regular School Programs in the United States, (2) the ability and proficiency of these students to speak Spanish and English, and (3) the Self-Esteem of these students.; The general hypothesis of the study is that the Hispanic children who attend Bilingual Education School Programs have higher academic achievement, better language maintenance and proficiency than those who attend Regular School Programs. Hispanic children who attend Regular School Programs have higher self-esteem than those who do not.; The major purpose of the study was to determine whether Bilingual Education Programs can prove effective in increasing the Hispanic students' knowledge, bettering language maintenance and proficiency and fostering positive self-esteem.; The study took place in Dade County, Miami, Florida. The instruments of the study were a language development test in Spanish and English versions and self-esteem test. The first test was the Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey Test-English (LS-E) and Spanish (LS-S) versions; it was used to measure the Hispanic students' language development (proficiency and maintenance).; The second test was the Self-Esteem Index Test; it was used to measure the students' perceptions of their traits ships with others. The instruments were administered to 60 students of fifth grade who attend Bilingual Elementary Schools and to 60 students of fifth grade who attend Regular Elementary Schools.; Also, student school records were obtained to ascertain the academic achievement of students with parents authorization. By using the Academic Achievement Test Scores and the National Standardized Test Scores, the investigator was able to obtain the score of each student in his/her basic courses such as Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts.; The size of the sample was exactly 120 Hispanic students of fifth grade. The schools' socioeconomic status were between lower-middle to middle class levels. The collected data were analyzed through quantitative procedures such as completely randomized design analysis and Analysis of Variance. The computer program used was data coded by the SPSS Analysis System.; The findings of the study indicated that there were both significant and no significant differences between Hispanic students who attend bilingual schools and Hispanic students who attend regular schools. Furthermore, Hispanic students who attend bilingual schools have higher academic achievement in all the academic areas of study: Math, English, Social Studies, Science, Reading, Language Arts, and Language Mechanics. Also, they have better maintenance of the Hispanic language and English/Spanish proficiency than Hispanic children who do not attend bilingual schools.; Finally, Hispanic students who attend regular schools have higher mean scores in self-esteem than Hispanic students who attend bilingual schools. A significant finding is that bilingual education has positive effects on children's educational knowledge and development. This study was a skewed sample. All the four schools had students from all social classes, most of them came from low and low middle class.