Rosalie Pedalino Porter

About the author: Rosalie Pedalino Porter is the director of the Institute for Research in English Acquisition and Development (READ) in Amherst, Massachusetts, and editor of the organization's publication, Perspectives. She is the author of the book Forked Tongue: the Politics of Bilingual Education, which refutes the assumptions and claims of bilingual education.

Since the official adoption of bilingual education in 1968, bilingual education, in most instances, has meant teaching language minority students their native languages before they are taught English. As a result, these students are taught in their native language (most often Spanish) for as long as six years, delaying their acquisition of English. This process has segregated non-Englishspeaking students from English-speaking students, with gaps in learning and achievement between them. The...