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The purpose of the study was to compare the writing achievement of fourth grade English language learners participating in either a Dual-Language Bilingual Program or in a Transitional Bilingual Program. Two-hundred and fifty-five students participated in this study.
A causal-comparative research design was used to test the hypothesis in the study. The independent variable was instruction in writing: writing instruction in a Dual-Language Program and writing instruction in a Transitional Program. The dependent variable was writing achievement.
A t-test was used to analyze the data obtained from the Dual-Language and Transitional Bilingual Programs. The 95 percent confidence level was used as the criterion level for determining statistical significance of the means. An effect size, Cohen's d, was used to determine educational meaningfulness. A Pearson chi-square test was used with the Dual-Language and the Transitional Bilingual Program to determine statistical significance based of the difference between the observed frequencies of pass and fail rates. The 95 percent confidence level was used as the criterion level for determining statistical significance. The t-test for unpaired samples yielded a t that was not statistically significant. The effect size between students in the Dual-Language Bilingual Program and the Transitional Program yielded an effect size, Cohen's d, that was not educationally meaningful. The results of the Pearson chi-square test indicated that there was a statistically significance difference between the pass rate of students who had participated in Dual-Language Bilingual Program and in a Transitional Bilingual Program. Both groups obtained a commended performance rate higher than the state commended performance rate for the English language learner population as well as for all students.