This material consists of a series of cultural presentations designed for elementary school assemblies or special programs. The activities are intended to strengthen Mexican-American children's awareness of their cultural heritage. Program scripts, poems, songs, historical narratives and skits are included to illustrate and celebrate Mexican and…

The purpose of this 1967 report sponsored by the Colorado Commission on Spanish-Surnamed Citizens was to study statistical, sociological, and psychological data pertaining to current problems, conditions, and needs of Spanish-surnamed residents of Colorado. The data were derived primarily from analysis of existing studies and the 1950 and 1960…

The major goals of the Responsive Environment Program for Spanish American Children (REPSAC) are early intervention to prevent placement of Spanish American children in special education classes, provision of media and learning activities which enhance and develop a favorable self-concept and attitude toward his own and other cultural groups, and…

This information dissemination report presents a brief introduction to the Building Bridges to Better Bilingual Education Program of the Central Board of Education of the City of New York. The primary aim of the program is to promote the linguistic and academic progress of those Title I eligible Spanish-speaking children whose achievement levels…

The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of a monolingual versus a bilingual approach to the education of second-grade, Spanish-speaking children in New York City. The results were determined by measuring achievement in reading, which showed that the bilingual approach was indeed the more effective. The report includes an…

This textbook develops a cross-cultural portrait of Latin America. Four major sections are concerned with the cultural blueprint, historical and social foundations, the social structure, and intellectual and economic life. Subchapters include: (1) the rise of the Spanish people, (2) administration and jurisprudence, (3) the church, (4) the…

This book was written to facilitate the learning and teaching of phonetic and vocabulary skills important for the development of reading. The book uses the manipulative approach to the usage of words. Words are presented with corresponding pictures in order to enhance the child's comprehension. In addition to the words, the book includes a…

The Sunflower/Girasol program is a Spanish/English bilingual science discovery program for Hispanic children in grades 2-6, designed to improve science instruction and educational opportunity for this group. The report describes the program's proposed activities and products, progress to date, and results of an evaluation of the first two units of…

This document, comprising volume 5, issues 1-3 of Learning Languages: The Journal of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), includes the following articles: "Poverty, Race, and Foreign Language Immersion: Predictors of Math and English Language Arts Performance" (Stephen J. Caldas, Nicole Boudreaux); "Meet a…

Word lists spoken in Castillian, Caribbean, and Mexican dialects were compared to identify speech reception thresholds in 12 Spanish-speaking, Puerto Rican children (ages 6-7). No statistically significant differences were found among the dialects. (Author/DB)

Analysis of the first 10 years of the newsletter, "US ENGLISH Update," reveals that its main focus is restricting the use of Spanish in the United States out of fear for the status of English. This policy objective is rooted in language attitudes based on impressions and hearsay. It blames bilingual education for an unwillingness of…

Presented at the Annual National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) in New York in March 2008. This presentation explores how different item weighting can affect the effective weights, validity coefficents and test reliability of composite scores among test takers.

The purpose of this study was to explore the comparison between American and Taiwanese parents' views on their young children learning a second/foreign language, the ideal language and learning age, and parents' perceptions regarding language. There were 24 U.S. and 44 Taiwanese participants who had at least one child studying in the day-care…

This report summarizes survey results from 112 newly hired AISD bilingual education elementary-level teachers who attended the August 2009 New Bilingual Teacher Institute.

Following the mandates of state and national accreditation bodies and in keeping with what is considered best practices, teacher education programs nationwide require students to engage in early field experiences as part of preservice preparation. Accreditation bodies such as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE,…