How do bilingual education programs compare with other methods such as immersion and sheltered English?
Research comparing program types and academic achievement suggests that there are modest-sized benefits in favor of bilingual education programs. However, the evaluation of bilingual education programs is often limited by the narrowness of the outcome measures used. This problem is further compounded by the vast differences in program implementation across the United States, which has a highly decentralized educational system. Finally, the disadvantages of poverty are known to exert a large negative effect on educational achievement independent of language ability.
