STUDY OF PARENT FACTORS INFLUENCING THE SELECTION OF A BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROTOTYPE

This study was designed to determine which prototype of bilingual education parents would most favor and which prototype parents would least favor. Subjects were randomly selected from a population of English language dominant parents and Hispanic non-English dominant parents taken from eighteen schools which had a bilingual center as well as a regular program and eighteen schools which were similar but did not have a bilingual center. Ninety parents were chosen at random from grade levels three, six and nine in twenty-four sample elementary, middle and high schools. The parents were divided into three groups: (1) those who were Spanish dominant and who had children in bilingual centers, (2) those who were English dominant and who had children who attended schools with a bilingual center and who did not participate in the bilingual program, and (3) those who were English dominant and whose children attended schools which did not have a bilingual center. The assessment instrument was a questionnaire which asked parents to rank order five bilingual prototypes with one being the most favored program and five being the least favored program. Statistical treatment of the data included an examination of frequency percentages and chi-square analyses. Analysis of data revealed that group membership had no relationship to the three levels of parents' choices of the most favored program, yet there was a significant difference revealed in the chi-square analysis of the least favored program at the .05 alpha level. The variable which proved to be significant was language dominance. Although there was no statistical significance, the study showed that 49 percent of the combined English speaking parent groups would agree to have their children involved in a Bilingual/Second Language program. The research also indicated that although English dominant parents disagreed on the type of program which should be offered to limited English proficient students, 89 percent agreed that some program should be available in the public school system.