English Language Learner Boys and Girls Reading and Math Achievement as a Function of Early-Exit and Late-Exit Bilingual Programs: A Multiyear, Statewide Analysis
We examined the reading and math performance of English Language Learner boys and girls in Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 as a function of early-exit or late-exit transitional bilingual education program. Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Reading and Mathematics scores of all English Language Learner boys and girls who were enrolled in either early-exit or late-exit bilingual education programs were analyzed for the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011 school years. Results were not consistent across reading and math, across the 4 grade levels, and across the 3 school years. On the TAKS Reading test, 5 instances were present in which statistically significant differences were revealed for boys and 11 for girls. On the TAKS Mathematics test, 8 statistically significant results were revealed for boys and 6 for girls. These statistically significant differences were not consistently in favor of either the early-exit or the late-exit bilingual education programs. Moreover, the differences that were present reflected small to trivial effect sizes. As such, neither the early-exit nor the late-exit bilingual education program was demonstrated to be more effective than its counterpart. 1. Introduction Transitional bilingual education can be an early-exit or a late-exit bilingual program designed to help students acquire and improve English skills [1, 2] and to encourage a language shift for language minority students [3]. In the United States, the transitional bilingual education program is the instructional model most utilized in schools for English language development [2]. The transitional bilingual education instructional model provides students’ instruction in the first language in literacy and content areas and transition instruction to English [2]. In an early-exit bilingual program, students study subject matter in their primary language and English [4]. The primary purpose of the program is to facilitate the transition of English Language Learners to an English-only instructional classroom, while receiving academic subject instruction in the primary language to the extent necessary [1, 5]. In early-exit bilingual programs, students transition into English-only classroom within 2 to 3 years of achieving English language proficiency and all students are of the same linguistic background [2, 6]. Students in transitional bilingual programs learn to read in their home language and then in English [4]. The duration of the program and amount of native language instruction vary in each classroom, school, and district. Most campuses follow the 90/10 model, in
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