In Southern New England as well as throughout the United States, middle school and high school aged language minority students are often found to be poor readers and writers of English despite their having received extensive English as a Second Language instruction in the primary grades. By and large, these are children who did not have the opportunity to fully develop literacy in their strongest language due to the school's policy that they be exposed to English as soon and as much as possible. Such a dilemma produces two negative possibilities to the secondary student which often contributes to a decision to drop out of school: the students' taking less demanding courses in which they do not wish to be enrolled, or the students' being enrolled in the program of their choice and finding the level of scholarship which is required to be overwhelming. This study measures the effects of varying degrees of native language literacy development on the mainland Portuguese immigrant child's later reading success in English as measured at the secondary school level. Specifically, it examines the impact of four to six years of participation in a community-operated, Portuguese language after-school program (in grades two through seven) on junior and senior high school English reading achievement as measured on the MAT6. The study also examines the relationship between participation in both this program and the primary grade (K-2) public school transitional bilingual education program in terms of later reading achievement in English. The results of the study indicate that a student's chances to be a good reader in English increased proportionally with the degree of development he/she had attained in literacy in the native language. The most successful group consisted of students who had been enrolled in both the bilingual education program and the after-school, Escola Portuguesa program. Conclusions. That public schools consider either providing late-exit bilingual education programs instead of early-exit programs currently in use, or that they work to help community groups to design and implement their own structured, after-school programs whereby native literacy can develop beyond the level which is provided in the early-exit, TBE model.

This study was a qualitative research study dedicated to the deep investigation of a regular and advanced seventh grade mathematics textbook used in Florida and the United Kingdom. A questionnaire was created for a teacher in both locations, along with the researcher, to rate the textbooks according to different characteristics. The two research questions that were answered through the research include: 1. In what ways, if any, is diversity represented in the pages of each seventh grade mathematics textbooks examined? a. In what ways is the diversity of each textbook comparable to the observed diversity of the country in which it is used? 2. How do the seventh grade mathematics textbooks in the United States and the United Kingdom compare with aspects of appearance, readability, illustrations, content, the teacher's guide/resources, and EL accommodations? These research questions were answered through the questionnaire, follow up interview, as well as the observed environment. The conclusion to the research was that although these textbooks are from two different countries, they have qualities each teacher liked and disliked. When I completed the questionnaire I was only able to rate the textbooks according to visual perspectives, while the teachers in each location were able to base their ratings on tangible classroom experiences. To further my research, I would enjoy being able to teach for a year in each location and then complete the questionnaire again to compare the differences between my first time completing it and the second time.

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Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01