Dual Language Program Evaluation: Developmental Bilingual & Two-Way Bilingual Immersion, 2012-2013. Research Educational Program Report

Abstract

The Texas Education Code requires school districts to provide every language minority student with the opportunity to participate in either a bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) program. This evaluation report summarizes the performance of students who participated in two of the bilingual programs offered by the district during the 2012-2013 school year. These are the Developmental Bilingual Program (DBP) and a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Program (TWBIP). Included in the report are findings from assessments of academic achievement and English language proficiency for all students classified as English Language Learners (ELL) who participated in these two programs. In addition, the report includes performance results of fluent English-speakers enrolled in the Two-Way Bilingual program. A total of 39,801 ELL students participated in bilingual programs in 2012-2013, with 14,468 of these in the DBP and 2,011 in the TWBIP. Results showed that current two-way students performed better than developmental students on all subjects of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) (English version) and Stanford 10. Current dual language students showed declines in performance on both the STAAR and Stanford 10 compared to the previous year, but they performed better than all students districtwide in mathematics, while showing some performance gaps in reading and language assessments. In contrast, students who used to be in a dual language program but who had exited ELL status did better than the district in all subjects of the STAAR, STAAR End-of-course (EOC), Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), and Stanford 10. Finally, two-way students had higher overall English proficiency, and showed more improvement, than did students in the developmental bilingual program.