Gibson Ferguson Language Planning and Education Edinburgh ...

50 Language Planning and Education
3.2.1 Research on the effectiveness of bilingual education programs
One of the most influential of the early program evaluations was the Baker and
De Kanter (1981) study. Federally funded to inform policy decision-making, this,
like other early studies, was narrowly focused on the comparative effectiveness of
Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) and English-only program models, and
on a limited range of outcomes – specifically English language attainment and
performance on certain non-language subjects tested in English.
Working within a positivist research paradigm, Baker and De Kanter (1981)
reviewed well over 100 primary studies, identifying only 28 as methodologically
sound on the basis of such criteria as the presence of a comparison group, random
assignment between treatment and comparison groups and adjustment for preexisting
differences between groups. Having surveyed these 28, they concluded that
there was no consistent evidence for the effectiveness of bilingual education and
advised that ‘exclusive reliance on this instructional method is clearly not justified’
(Baker and De Kanter 1981: 1). They did, however, support experimentation with
‘structured immersion’ approaches.
Shortly after its publication, 23 of the 28 studies in the Baker and de Kanter
(1981) review were reanalysed by Willig (1985), 15 employing the statistical technique
of meta-analysis to measure and combine the size of program effects, even when
these were not statistically significant, and to adjust for methodological flaws in some
of the studies reviewed. She concluded, in sharp contrast to Baker and de Kanter,
that there were ‘positive effects for bilingual programs … for all academic areas’
(Willig 1985: 287), and that bilingual education using the native language was better
than the alternative of no special treatment (that is, ‘sink or swim’).
Unsurprisingly, given the politicised climate of program evaluation, these
contrasting findings have been strongly contested. Supporters of BE note the
questionable ‘vote counting’ technique of the Baker and De Kanter study, the narrow
range of outcomes it considers and the decisions to exclude certain studies. Opponents,
meanwhile, point to the small number of studies reviewed by Willig (1985)
and the mechanistic nature of the meta-analysis procedures.
The details of these criticisms need not detain us, however, as it may be more
useful here to consider more recent studies in the same tradition, namely those by
Ramirez et al. (1991), Rossell and Baker (1996) and Greene (1997).
3.2.1.1 The Ramirez et al. study (1991)
The Ramirez study is significant both for its quasi-experimental longitudinal design
and for including – in a three-way comparison – the less commonly evaluated late
exit bilingual program (bilingual instruction up to sixth grade). 16 A total of 2,300
Spanish-speaking pupils enrolled in English-only ‘structured immersion’, early exit
TBE (65–75 per cent use of English) as well as late exit bilingual programs were
followed at nine sites over four years. Efforts were made to match comparison groups
for background characteristics, to establish fidelity of program implementation and