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Essay on Needs Assessment for Mainstreaming vs. Bilingual Education
The United States is one the world’s most ethnically diverse nations; the U.S. attracts immigrants from several countries. One of the most frequent asked questions are: how we accommodate immigrants and whether to try to fully blend them into the U.S. culture? There is a huge controversy over the Bilingual Education issue. After many years of bilingual education in the United States, one thing is certain that it doesn’t work and it’s failing America’s immigrants but many might disagree with this statement and may think that Bilingual Education is a successful program.
Opponents of bilingual education have long argued that the goal of the schools is to get students into the mainstream as soon as possible. According to this view, the faster the children are exposed to English and the more English they are exposed to, the more immediate the acquisition of the language and the more rapidly they can move into the mainstream with fellow students. However, bilingual education supporters contend that the goal of schools should place effectiveness over speed. A bilingual education, proponent’s state, would allow students to learn English without sacrificing content knowledge. It may take longer for students to master the English language, but it is more important for students to retain the material than it is to speak proficient English without remembering learned material (Krashen, 1999).
Population Targeting
"Prospects," a national longitudinal study of elementary and secondary education, in its interim report (Michael et al 2003) finds that:
- Students classified as LEP comprise 7 percent of the first grade cohort, about 6 percent of the third grade cohort, and about 3 percent of the seventh grade cohort.
LEP students are disproportionately represented in schools with high concentrations of poor children. The proportion of LEP first grade-students in high poverty schools (21.6 percent) is three times the proportion found in low-poverty schools (7.2 percent)............
