How effective is bilingual education?
Elizabeth Howard, Center for Applied Linguistics The effectiveness of bilingual education is a strongly debated topic in the United States. Evaluation studies attempt to determine how the English acquisition and academic achievement of students in bilingual education programs compare with those of students in other types of programs. These evaluations are complicated, however, by the difficulties in formulating a strong research design. For example, it is difficult, if not impossible, to randomly assign children to different types of programs. In addition, there is a great deal of variation among bilingual education programs, just as there is among mainstream programs. These research design issues seriously limit the ability of large comparative studies to make definitive claims about the effectiveness of bilingual education. Some research reviews of bilingual program evaluations have concluded that bilingual education makes no difference in the English language development and academi
