Jeff MacSwan

Hispanic students learning English benefit from bilingual education, argues Jeff MacSwan in the following viewpoint. Intensive “English-immersion” programs, which some have lauded as a replacement for bilingual education, result in lower graduation rates for Latino youths, MacSwan points out. It takes years for children whose native language is not English to learn the language well enough to handle subjects that are taught in English—a concern that is taken seriously by bilingual education programs. MacSwan is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at Arizona State University.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. During Tucson’s “English Immersion Era,” what percentage of Hispanic youths graduated from high school each year?
2. According to MacSwan, bilingual education has helped to boost Tucson’s Latino graduation rate to what...