We’re pleased to share a new open-access encyclopedia entry, “Bilingual Education in the United States,” published in the journal Encyclopedia, co-authored by researchers at the Cornwall Center—Swati Dontamsetti (Doctoral Candidate), Claudia Castillo-Lavergne (Postdoctoral Associate – Research Practice Partnerships), and Vandeen Campbell (Assistant Research Professor and Associate Director).
The entry provides an overview of how bilingual education in the U.S. has developed over time, examining changes in terminology, policy, program models, and research. It traces the history of bilingual education from English-only approaches to contemporary dual language models that incorporate students’ home languages, and reviews how federal and state policies have shaped these shifts. It also summarizes research on the academic and social outcomes associated with bilingual education, discusses limitations of English-only assessment systems, and identifies gaps in how bilingual programs are evaluated and implemented across states.
This work was developed as part of the Cornwall Center’s educational equity research series and supported in part by funding from the Institute for Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University – Newark.
We hope this article will be useful for colleagues in New Jersey and beyond who are engaged in research and policy discussions related to bilingual education of emergent bilingual and multilingual learners.