Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier

About the author: Wayne P. Thomas is professor of research and evaluation methods at the Graduate School of Education at George Mason University. Virginia P. Collier is professor of bilingual/multicultural/ESL education in the same department and university. The authors are also researchers with the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE), funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

In a two-way bilingual education program, language-minority students and native English speakers receive schooling through each other's languages. For example, native Spanish-speakers and native English-speakers are grouped in a class, where they both learn to speak the two languages proficiently. Such a program uses the students' linguistic and cultural experiences as resources for learning...