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The authors of this chapter review empirical studies that have been conducted in bilingual education to propose a future research agenda that incorporates the most recent evidence on the effectiveness of bilingual programs, advances in neuroscience, and the body of evidence of the benefits of being bilingual and biliterate. They first describe the historical and sociopolitical precedent of how bilingual education came to play a determinant role in U.S. education. Next, they summarize reviews that have been conducted examining the effects of bilingual education on the academic performance of English learners from 1985 until 2003. They then review the research on bilingual education since 2003. Although the majority of studies reviewed focused on reading, the authors also found studies that compared the effects of bilingual programs on other academic outcomes such as writing, science, and mathematics, inside and outside the United States. In addition, they address the benefits of bilingualism on cognition and discuss the research on cross-linguistic transfer to help the reader better understand the transfer of skills between the native language and the second language within the context of bilingual programs. They end the chapter with recommendations for future research.

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The purpose of this review is to provide a comparison of reading outcomes of the two most popular bilingual programs in the United States: Transitional Bilingual Education and Two-way Bilingual programs. To provide context, we present a theoretical framework and a brief historical perspective on how these programs came to gain popularity. We explored two questions. The first one asks whether there are differences in student outcomes between the programs and whether there are advantages of one program over the other. The second question looks into practical strategies that make these programs beneficial to English learners. For selection methods, we used the previous definition of high-quality articles that included clear outcomes and program definitions. For evaluation of the programs, we used a five-framework model that defines effective bilingual programs that incorporates components of second language literacy development, highquality instruction, and precise definition of the sample population. After the careful review of articles, academic outcomes are presented, indicating that while there might be non-significant differences on reading outcomes, bilingual programs are not detrimental to English learners and there are additional benefits to having a bilingual program beyond potentially enhancing reading outcomes. Also, we found that strategies that work well in a general education classroom for native speakers, also work well for English learners. Finally, we provide recommendations for program development and future research.

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