Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

The First Of The Firsts: Leadership And Legislation For Bilingual Preschools In Illinois, Samina Hadi-Tabassum, Idalia Gutiérrez

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

With the rising numbers of bilingual children, particularly young Latinos, in 2010 Illinois was the first state to pass legislation requiring preschool sites that serve 20 or more emergent bilinguals to offer home language instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the responses of early childhood directors to the changes required by the 2010 policy through an online survey. The results indicate that the directors do not have a background in bilingual education and are mixed philosophically regarding the benefits of bilingualism—highlighting the silo effect between the discipline of bilingual education and early childhood education. Anxiety and frustration …