Special to Rice News: Kese Smith, Associate Director of Public Relations, Kinder Institute
As schools across Houston prepare to wrap up the academic year and districts evaluate what's working for students, a new study by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research suggests bilingual instruction may improve academic outcomes for emergent bilingual students.
The study of Pasadena Independent School District first and second grade students began with the 2023-24 school year when the district phased out traditional bilingual instruction in favor of the sustained bilingual model.
“The goal is to finish high school with a strong competency in both languages. That includes speaking, reading and writing,” said Gabriela Sanchez-Soto, one of the study’s researchers with the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium. “These skills have real-world implications for a student’s initial job prospects postgraduation and their professional development throughout their career.”
Historically, transitional bilingual education involved transitioning students from their home language to English-only instruction. Pasadena ISD’s recent one-way dual language program utilizes instruction in both Spanish and English.
Early results show the students in the dual-language program had higher academic achievement than their transitional bilingual peers, scoring 4 percentile points higher on both reading and math assessments.
“We expected implementing a brand-new program could come with growing pains,” Sanchez-Soto said. “We were pretty impressed to find a difference, to know the program did work as intended and that the students’ learning was not negatively impacted.”
Second grade transitional bilingual students did score higher in English proficiency, reflecting the slower-paced English language learning that is part of the design of the dual-language program. Research shows that over time these students catch up to their English-only learning peers.
Pasadena ISD comprises 50,000 students, 35% of whom are emergent bilingual — meaning they are acquiring English while maintaining another primary language. Of these, 83% are Hispanic with many speaking Spanish at home.