The effectiveness of bilingual education

Abstract

The recent growth of the school effectiveness research movement is analysed in relation to research on bilingual education. Following a portrayal of school effectiveness studies and an outline of the development of hierarchical linear regression, the article examines ways in which bilingual education research may develop. An argument is made for the adoption of research designs which incorporate a multi‐level model of pupils, classrooms and schools, a wide variety of cognitive and non‐cognitive outcome variables which concentrate on the progress made by children rather than on absolute attainment and a careful selection of input variables particularly so that initial differences between schools can properly be taken into account. It is suggested that bilingual education research moves away from the question of whether or not bilingual education is more or less effective than monolingual education to focussing on the optimal circumstances under which a variety of forms of bilingual education should operate.