Activity 2: ASPIRA's Arguments in Favor of Bilingual Education

Document 2 is a position paper written by ASPIRA of New York, an advocacy group for bilingual education in the New York City public schools. It would be very difficult for students to read, but the teacher can choose excerpts from the article to be read together in class. The teacher should explain the important concepts, then students can discuss the issues raised in this document.

Vocabulary and concepts: class action lawsuit, consent decree, precedent, dominant medium of instruction, statistically significant

Who filed the lawsuit? Who did they represent? Who did they sue?

What reasons are given for having bilingual education? Why did ASPIRA believe early childhood reading instruction had to be in a child's native language?

How have students mentioned in the article benefited from bilingual education programs? What did statistics show?

Why was Secretary Bennett attacking bilingual education? What problem did ASPIRA see in the New York public schools?

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