A longitudinal evaluation of the Edinburg Bilingual Reading Project

Abstract

Purpose. Federal funding and the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 have provided for numerous bilingual education programs. The rationale for bilingual education is well supported by scholars who have studied language maintenance and acculturation as well as language acquisition and concept formation. A major problem encountered in bilingual education this fat has been program evaluation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate one of these bilingual programs using a method of longitudinal evaluation. Procedures. A class of students who received instruction in grades K-2 in the Region I Bilingual Reading Project in Texas comprised the experimental group. The control group was composed of 27 older siblings of the experimental group. The control group received instruction in the traditional school curriculum. Both groups had been administered the California Achievement Test biannually each year they were in school. CAT test data were reconstructed for both groups. The first CAT test that each S took at the beginning of his schooling was considered the pretest. The last test that each S took prior to January 20, 1974, was considered the posttest. Transformation of grade equivalent scores made comparisons possible. The five subject areas of the CAT analyzed are included in the following: (1) Vocabulary, (2) Comprehension, (3) Total Reading, (4) Language Usage and Structure, and (5) Spelling. A series of graphs was constructed. Grade equivalent scores for the two groups were plotted in order to provide a visual comparison of the educational growth of the Ss..