PDF available at http://www.lindholm-leary.com/articles/EducLeadership_TWI2.pdf
Key Quotes: (emphasis added)
"Research clearly shows that students in bilingual programs can develop academic skills on a par with, or superior to, the skills of comparison groups of their peers educated in English-only classrooms (Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Saunders, & Christian, in press; Howard, Sugarman, & Christian, 2003). Some research findings even show that highly bilingual students reach higher levels of academic and cognitive functioning than do monolingual students or students with poor bilingual skills. In addition, students who are bilingual will have skills that enable them to take advantage of more career opportunities (August & Hakuta, 1997)." (p. 56)
"The major goals of TWBI [two-way bilingual immersion] are for students to develop high levels of oral language skills and literacy in both English and the non-English languages, attain academic achievement at or above grade level as measured in both languages, hold positive attitudes toward school and themselves, and exhibit knowledge about and positive attitudes towards other cultures." (p. 57)
(p. 59)
"As Figure I illustrates, on norm-referenced standardized tests of reading and math achievement in English, native English-speaking 7th graders in California who had completed a two-way bilingual immersion program scored above the state average for 7th graders. Students who started out as English language learners and studied through bilingual immersion not only scored significantly higher than ELLs educated in English-only classrooms but also performed on a par with native English speakers educated in English-only classrooms (Lindholm-Leary, 2004; Linholm-Leary & Borsato, 2004, in press)." (p. 58)
