ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that bilingual education programs that educate students separately have become a problem for school systems and for thousands of language-minority children, and that integrated bilingual education is the solution. Millions of children have passed through separate bilingual programs in the United States over the last thirty years. Bilingual education advocates argue that learning academic subjects in the home language first leads students to greater academic success once they enter English-only classes. A number of educational and social objectives have been identified as justification for providing separate bilingual education programs. The more significant issue is the competence of the teachers who work with language-minority pupils. It is impossible to make an accurate assessment of how proficient bilingual program staffs are in English, but there is considerable anecdotal evidence that many are inadequate models of speaking and even writing for the pupils they teach.
