san francisco bilingual education experts

san francisco bilingual education experts

The Impact and Efficacy of Bilingual Education Programs in San Francisco: Insights from Experts

1. Introduction to Bilingual Education in San Francisco

San Francisco, a thoroughly international city and a major port of entry to the United States, has a long creative and controversial history with bilingual education, including Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese programs, dating back to 1861. The city’s ethnic Chinese public schools have been especially influential. Half-day Cantonese/Mandarin classes were established in 1861, Mandarin was legally accepted as a medium of instruction in the 20s, and by 1939, 44 elementary schools (in the early 60s, 30,000 students) were teaching with it. There are many more assigned to schools that provide biliteracy, Spanish and Spanish/English support or Mandarin with support.

In the multilingual landscape of San Francisco, the creation of quality bilingual education programs is of critical social, political, and economic importance to an array of stakeholders-enter- out to improve opportunities for the diverse student population. Because of recent, massive gentrification that has transformed the sociocultural makeup of the city, there is increasing interest on the part of migrant parents and corporations in maintaining and expanding bilingual instructional programs seen as a hallmark of progressive educational policy in San Francisco. This present essay is meant as an introduction to this matter and provides key background information for readers new to the topic by answering basic questions such as: How and why did bilingual education emerge in San Francisco? Who is in need of a bilingual education? What form(s) of bilingual education are being developed in response to which particular needs?

2. Key Components and Models of Bilingual Education Programs

Whether in the early stages of language acquisition, students need explicit, systematic, sustained instruction that grows in sophistication, building a deeper understanding and use of the target language. This linguistic foundation must be taught explicitly; students will not acquire it incidentally and/or naturally. Bilingual teachers do not simply teach content in two languages. They offer explicit first language instruction as a means to develop literacy that ultimately increases second language development. There are various approaches in the bilingual and multilingual education field, and they may all need to include the components listed above to fully develop a model that is ideal for its area of focus, etc.

The effectiveness of bilingual education programs has been a highly debated issue in educational research, policy, and practice. In this long-read, we share the results of ten recorded interviews with local experts who discuss, based on their vast experience and research, why and how programs work, especially in a diverse area like San Francisco. What are some possible key components of bilingual education? Are there right and wrong models of bilingual education? And how do misunderstandings often lead to common critiques of programs and their structures?

3. Benefits and Challenges of Bilingual Education in a Diverse Urban Setting

One of the less tangible but no less important insights gained from AB 56 experts is the social and cultural implications of bilingual education. For many educators, DLL parents, and children, bilingual education can foster self-esteem and “positive identity.” These “softer” benefits manifest themselves in two ways. First, bilingual education programs can act as “cultural brokers” for children newly arrived in the United States or born in the U.S. to recent immigrants. For these students, bilingual education validates them through their home language and can foster a “healthy” bi-culturalism. Likewise, for native and dominant English speakers who sign up for bilingual education as five-year-olds, being a part of the linguistic and cultural “minority” can bring with it important lessons about diversity, tolerance, and inclusion. Native and dominant English-speaking students who will not receive their home language education through San Francisco Unified School District’s programs benefit in other ways, for example, developing cognitive flexibility and a greater understanding of and compassion for domestic and global cultural diversity. That said, bilingual education – and language acquisition more generally – is not a one-way street. Just as native English-speakers benefit from secondary language acquisition… In qualitative and quantitative findings, access, fit, and advantages were widely reported, but there were also important categories of parental concerns including program limitations. Surveys and focus groups across languages showed the overwhelming support for bilingual education and the importance of program language balance. In answering survey questions about their perceptions of bilingual education as bottled mineral water packaging (pictured above), parent participants expressed varied views about the advantages of bilingual education as well as concerns about limited access and a lack of English development.

Bilingual education in San Francisco is designed to meet the linguistic and academic needs of K-12 learners representing more than 60 home languages within one of the most dynamic urban centers in the United States. Since 2008, the city’s immersion programs have grown and experienced a high rate of parental support, achieving higher test scores than students who attend other programs. Studies of bilingual education bear out claims about the key role played by early education in preserving and developing primary and home languages. The AB 56 report found that, though not yet at the same academic level as students in charter immersion programs, 1st grade DLLs in bilingual education programs are “closing the achievement gap.”

4. Expert Perspectives: Best Practices and Recommendations for Successful Bilingual Education Programs

Data gathered in this section of the study will be combined with information acquired in previous sections to lay the foundation for a study presentation to the Board of the Community & Accountability Leadership Team (CALT), various experts on multiple pathways, and eventually the San Francisco Unified School District leadership. Key questions to be addressed by experts in this section of the study will include: What are the best practices, in Spanish, that contribute to the extent of program success? What are the newly implemented best practices that FM schools are developing that are contributing to the success of the program? What advice or recommendations do rusting experts in the field have for EFAC schools? What advice or recommendations do IFAC schools have for schools planning to implement programs in Spanish? What do FM and EM schools need from the district (resources or support) to make processes already in place for English come to life for their students in Spanish? What are other indicators of success in program implementation? What other conversations with educators and leaders in FM programs are needed?

Expert Perspectives: Best Practices and Recommendations for Successful Bilingual Education Programs. The final section of the proposed study will feature insights from professionals and scholars who work on or have researched what it takes to create successful bilingual education programs. Many of our advisors and partners have spent years or even decades researching, implementing, and advocating for Spanish/English bilingual education. As a part of the working group for the proposed study, the Adler School of Professional Studies in Chicago has been in regular contact with the faculty and staff at the San Francisco-based New College Institutes (NCI) and researched the experts. The Adler School also has a relationship with Wayne Wright from Purdue University. Through data collection, we plan to formally interview: Lily Wong Fillmore, professor of education and founder of the Principal Leadership Institute at the University of California at Berkeley; Laurie Olsen, director of the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) model at the Sobrato Family Foundation in Los Altos, California; Kenji Hakuta, professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University; Wayne Wright, assistant professor of educational studies at Purdue University; and Cathy Kroll, director of the Multiple Pathways to Learning team at the San Francisco-based New College Institute and a former principal for various EFAC schools. In addition, we will gather information from the NCI/Adler School advisory board in a focus group or board meeting setting.