“School within a school”: Examining implementation barriers in a Spanish/English transitional bilingual education program

Abstract

This article explores the ways that general education and bilingual teachers make sense of a Spanish/English transitional bilingual program housed at one elementary school in a Midwestern school district. An in-depth examination of perceptions and attitudes unmasks key factors regarding the implementation and interpretation of bilingual programs and how these factors impact school climate and the overall functioning of the program. Primary themes indicated that the use of specific terms, such as "school within a school," exacerbated the sense of division between the general education and bilingual programs, adding to the challenges of achieving opportunities for bringing students together across programs.

Reimagining Critical Care and Problematizing Sense of School Belonging as a Response to Inequality for Immigrants and Children of Immigrants

“…School districts, in urban and culturally diverse contexts, as well rural new growth communities (Lichter, 2012) often lack teachers who reflect the cultures and languages of students (Quiñones, 2016; Valenzuela, 1999) and who are trained to meet students’ linguistic learning needs (Faltis, 2013; Téllez & Varghese, 2013). For school districts experiencing shifts in student populations, program implementation may be negatively affected by lack of time dedicated to disrupting underlying ideologies (DeNicolo, 2016). For example, immigrant youth attending schools with bilingual programs may benefit from instruction in their home language; however, if their teachers hold deficit perceptions regarding their knowledge and abilities, students and parents will not feel a part of the school.…”

A Case Study of Novice Bilingual Education Teachers Conducting Action Research and Diffusing Teaching Innovations

“…And sometimes that's kind of taken [by others] really wrong. (I. Olmedo) These patterns of isolation (Amos, 2016;DeNicolo, 2016) and the absence of colleagues knowledgeable about bilingual education or second language acquisition pedagogy (Franco-Fuenmayor, Padrón, & Waxman, 2015;Torres, 2001) are also present in studies on bilingual education teachers and their school communities.…”

The Literacy Development of English Language Learners in Transitional Bilingual Education Program

“…As the currently most popular bilingual program utilized in the United States, transitional bilingual education (TBE) programs "provide students with English as a second language instruction and academic support in the students' native language, with native language instruction gradually decreasing and eventually eliminated as ELLs acquire more and more English" [2] . Among the bilingual programs, TBE programs are acknowledged as the most common type of bilingual education program that has been funded in the United States and the most used in the United States [3] .…”