Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 65

Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership 63 some type of support given through a linguistic program to be successful even though the data show that bilingual pro - grams are more effective than ESL (Genesee et al, 2005). Mora, Wink, and Wink (2001) also examined programs ranging from those that provided English immersion only, transitional bilingual education that provided some in- structional support in the native language, and the extreme enrichment additive nature of bilingual two-way dual lan - guage immersion. Through their research and the research of many others, they recognized that the goal of a dual lan- guage program is bilingualism and enrichment, but also produces higher academic gains for all students who partic - ipate in the program. Collier and Thomas (2004) reported that dual language is the only program that closes the achievement gap for ELLs and is considered enrichment as opposed to remedi- ation because of the intentional benefits built into the pro - gram to cultivate two languages (Collier & Thomas, 2004; Estrada, Gomez, & Ruiz-Escalante, 2009; Jong & Howard, 2009). Dual language programs are commonly referred to as enrichment or additive models that respect and cultivate the language minority student’s first and second language. Transitional bilingual programs or other models of main- stream bilingual education are recognized as deficiency or subtractive models because the goals of these programs are to eradicate the first language while replacing it with En - glish (Ray, 2009). There are multiple researchers in the field of bilingual education who are recognized for their research in regard to the benefits of two-way dual language education and have presented longitudinal data that supports the prem- ise that two-way dual language programs effectively close the academic gap of native Spanish speakers in comparison with their English speaking peers (Collier & Thomas, 2004; Lindholm-Leary, 2001; Lindholm-Leary & Block, 2010; Lind - holm-Leary & Hernandez, 2011; Sanders, 2010; Thomas & Collier, 2002). Summary of Study The study was conducted based on the recommendations from noted researchers and the desire to critically evaluate the two-way dual language program that has been imple - mented in a north Texas school district for 12 years. With the transition in Texas to a new assessment instrument, there was little research regarding the effectiveness of dual lan - guage as measured by STAAR. The setting for the study was a large urban school district, which was located in north Texas between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. The district enrollment was 34,961, in 2012-2013 with 81.5% of students identified as economically disadvantaged and 39.4% ELL (Texas Education Agency, 2013d). The researcher analyzed three years of math and reading STAAR data (2012, 2013, 2014) to determine achievement dif- ferences for three student groups at the two campuses where the 50:50 two-way dual language program was offered. The three fifth grade student groups included English language learners (ELLs) participating in dual language, non-English language learners (non-ELLs) also known as the language majority group or native English speakers participating in dual language, and students who receive all instruction in English (monolingual) which also includes a small number of English as a second language (ESL) students. Data analysis sought to answer the following re - search questions: 1. Are students who participate in dual language (ELLs and/or non-ELLs) in a large north Texas school dis - trict more successful academically in reading and math than their peers who receive all instruction in English as measured by the STAAR test? 2. Are ELLs who participate in dual language more successful in reading and math than ELLs who participate in other bilingual models in a large north Texas school district as measured by the STAAR test? 3. Are non-ELLs (language majority) who participate in dual language in a large north Texas school district more successful in reading and math than non-ELLs in the district who receive all instruction in English as measured by the STAAR test? Description of the Population It is imperative to have an understanding of the students in the population of the north Texas school district that in- cluded all fifth grade students from the two dual language