Crossing the home-school boundary: bilingual education in a Colorado kindergarten

Abstract

Within the United States school systems, there are many children who are considered "at-risk," "deficient," and "unlikely to succeed." Numerous of them are minority and poor children who come from cultural backgrounds unlike those of the middle and upper class. For many Hispanic students, school embodies a foreign culture with which they are unfamiliar. This can cause serious incongruities for the Hispanic students between their home and school boundaries which hinders their ability to transition into the boundaries of school and experience success. The present research examines the Mezcla Elementary Kindergarten in Colorado to evaluate its bilingual program. The school provides support for the Hispanic students who are new to the norms and expectations of school. The three main supports discussed are "Slow to go Fast," Language, and Home Visits. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, I suggest that Mezcla Elementary is successful in reducing some barriers to entering school for poor Hispanic kindergarteners.