Impact of bilingual education programs on limited English proficient students and their peers: Regression discontinuity evidence from Texas

Aimee Chin*, N. Meltem Daysal, Scott A. Imberman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Texas requires a school district to offer bilingual education when its enrollment of limited English proficient (LEP) students in a particular elementary grade and language is twenty or higher. Using school panel data, we find a significant increase in the probability that a district provides bilingual education above this 20-student cutoff. Using this discontinuity as an instrument for district bilingual education provision, we find that providing bilingual education programs (relative to providing only English as a Second Language programs) does not significantly impact the standardized test scores of students with Spanish as their home language (comprised primarily of ever-LEP students). However, we find significant positive impacts on non-LEP students' achievement, which indicates that education programs for LEP students have spillover effects to non-LEP students.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Public Economics
Volume107
Pages (from-to)63-78
Number of pages16
ISSN0047-2727
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2013

Keywords

  • Bilingual education
  • Limited English proficient (LEP) students
  • Peer effects

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