The Great Debate Over Bilingual Education, Essay Example

Describe the great debate over Bilingual Education. Is the bilingual education program given high status or at least seen as important as any other successful program in a school? Why/Why not! What can Administrators do about supporting and promoting bilingual education?

Bilingual education in the United States focuses on students with limited English proficiency, thus it refers to teaching non-English speaking students in their native languages. Consequently, billions of dollars has been spent on bilingual education, but all these programs have failed to accomplish the goal of teaching English. Over the last decade, bilingual education has created as much controversy as any other educational program or issue. The predominant number of parents and educators agrees that the major goals of student education with a native language other than English should be mastery of content in academic area and mastery of English. However, the main debate arises over how best to reach those goals and how sufficient it is to maintain the students’ native language in the process. In fact, very small number of students meets the goal of transitioning out of the bilingual education program. Furthermore, such students score relatively lower on standard achievement tests, and appear to be socially isolated and frequently drop out of school. Most of such students, who do graduate, do not possess basic English skills. On the other hand, the opposition supports state initiatives to cut the program and stop funding it, claiming that children should be taught English in schools to communicate in a society. To solve the issue, school administrators could hire more qualified teachers, and ensure that students do not stay in the program longer than necessary.