Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Coral Way Bilingual Program
    The Coral Way Bilingual Program
    The Coral Way Bilingual Program
    Ebook281 pages3 hours

    The Coral Way Bilingual Program

    By Maria R. Coady

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This book introduces readers to the first publicly funded, two-way bilingual program in the United States, Coral Way Elementary School. It details the historical, social and political origins of the school; reviews the various discussions and conceptualization of the bilingual education program as a 50:50 model; and describes the training of the teachers and their work in designing curriculum for the bilingual students. Finally, it reviews whether the program was a success and outlines what lessons can be learned from the Coral Way Experiment for future bilingual programs. It is essential reading for all scholars of dual language education, for educational historians, for students of language policy and planning, and for teachers and educators who work in the context of dual language education in the US and worldwide.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMultilingual Matters
    Release dateNov 4, 2019
    ISBN9781788924597
    The Coral Way Bilingual Program
    Author

    Maria R. Coady

    Maria R. Coady is Irving and Rose Fien Endowed Professor and Associate Professor of ESOL/Bilingual Education at the University of Florida, USA. Her research specialises in English Language Learners and multilingual students, especially those in rural settings. Her most recent publication is Connecting School and the Multilingual Home (Multilingual Matters, 2019).

    Read more from Maria R. Coady

    Related to The Coral Way Bilingual Program

    Titles in the series (80)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Linguistics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Coral Way Bilingual Program

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Coral Way Bilingual Program - Maria R. Coady

      The Coral Way

      Bilingual Program

      BILINGUAL EDUCATION & BILINGUALISM

      Series Editors: Nancy H. Hornberger (University of Pennsylvania, USA) and Wayne E. Wright (Purdue University, USA)

      Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is an international, multidisciplinary series publishing research on the philosophy, politics, policy, provision and practice of language planning, indigenous and minority language education, multilingualism, multiculturalism, biliteracy, bilingualism and bilingual education. The series aims to mirror current debates and discussions. New proposals for single-authored, multiple-authored or edited books in the series are warmly welcomed in any of the following categories or others authors may propose: overview or introductory texts; course readers or general reference texts; focus books on particular multilingual education program types; school-based case studies; national case studies; collected cases with a clear programmatic or conceptual theme; and professional education manuals.

      All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed.

      Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

      BILINGUAL EDUCATION & BILINGUALISM: 120

      The Coral Way

      Bilingual Program

      Maria R. Coady

      MULTILINGUAL MATTERS

      Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

      DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/COADY4573

      Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

      A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

      Names: Coady, Maria R., author.

      Title: The Coral Way Bilingual Program/Maria R. Coady.

      Description: Bristol, UK; Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Multilingual Matters, 2020. | Series: Bilingual education & Bilingualism: 120 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: This book introduces readers to the first publicly funded, two-way bilingual program in the United States, Coral Way Elementary School. It provides an accurate, clear and accessible examination of the program, its historical, social and political origins, its successes and its relevance for future bilingual programs— Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019029671 (print) | LCCN 2019029672 (ebook) | ISBN 9781788924573 (hardback) | ISBN 9781788924566 (paperback) | ISBN 9781788924580 (pdf) | ISBN 9781788924597 (epub) | ISBN 9781788924603 (kindle edition)

      Subjects: LCSH: Education, Bilingual—Florida—Miami. | Education, Elementary—Florida—Miami. | Coral Way K-8 Center (Miami, Fla.)

      Classification: LCC LC3733.M5 C63 2020 (print) | LCC LC3733.M5 (ebook) | DDC 370.11709759/381—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029671

      LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029672

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-457-3 (hbk)

      ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-456-6 (pbk)

      Multilingual Matters

      UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

      USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA.

      Website: www.multilingual-matters.com

      Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat

      Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters

      Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com

      Copyright © 2020 Maria R. Coady.

      All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

      The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned.

      Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India.

      Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd.

      Printed and bound in the US by NBN.

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Foreword by Dr Lourdes Rovira

      Overview

      Prologue

      Fall 2018

      Why is the History of Coral Way Important?

      Contributions of Dr Richard Ruiz

      Conclusion

      1 Origin of the Experiment

      Cuban Exodus to the United States

      Operation Pedro Pan

      Early Bilingual Educators of the Coral Way Bilingual Program

      The Emergence of a Visionary

      The Orientation Program: Foreground to the Bilingual Program

      The Plan for the Bilingual Program

      Funding for the Bilingual Program

      The Coral Way Bilingual Program

      The Coral Way Community

      Cuban Aides

      Coral Way Elementary as the Bilingual Program Site

      Will it Work? An Experimental Design

      Seven goals of the bilingual program

      Quantitative measures

      2 The ‘50:50’ Two-Way Model

      The Instructional Model

      Instructional time

      Planning time for teachers

      Staging

      Separation of languages and students

      Identifying and placing students

      Demographic and Instructional Changes

      Assessment of Languages

      Student Report Cards

      Phases II and III of the Model

      3 Cuban Educators: Aides, ‘The Marines’ and Teachers

      ‘Cuban Aides’

      Cuban aides’ schedule

      ‘The Marines’

      Cuban teacher retraining program

      Teacher Education

      Summer 1963

      Summer 1964

      4 The Miami Linguistic Readers and Curriculum Development

      Audiolingual Method

      The Miami Linguistic Readers

      Cultural References

      Curriculum for English-Speaking Students

      5 Did it Work? Findings from the Coral Way Experiment

      Goals 1 and 2

      Richardson’s Findings on Academic Achievement

      Language Proficiency

      What Richardson’s Achievement Data Did Not Show

      Re-Presenting Richardson’s Data (1962–1966)

      Goal Numbers 3–7: Culture, Community, Vocation and Social Contributions

      Teachers, students and parents

      Long-Term Social Outcomes

      6 The Building of a Bilingual Network

      Dissent

      Affirmation

      A Second Bilingual Program in Miami

      Bilingual Programs and Visitors

      Graduates of the Coral Way Bilingual Program

      Epilogue

      Revisiting the Sociopolitical Context of Coral Way

      The Florida Language Context

      Findings from the Coral Way Archives

      Coral Way Changes Over Time

      Listening to the Past and Moving into the Future

      Challenges in bilingual education

      Lessons from Coral Way

      Opportunities for bilingual education

      Index

      Acknowledgements

      This book has been a sheer joy to write. Listening to the stories of former bilingual educators and their commitment to Coral Way has rejuvenated my advocacy for bilingual education, particularly in today’s increasingly restrictive sociopolitical environment. I also believe that as we get older, we increasingly realize how important the past is. Thus, for me, writing The Coral Way Bilingual Program has been a journey that transcended time – from past to present and into the future.

      First and foremost, I wish to thank Richard Ruiz who began the work on Coral Way in the late 2000s and whose inspiration and contribution to bilingual education in the United States cannot be underestimated. Alongside Richard, I wish to thank Bess de Farber, a colleague and now friend, who approached me with this work and who trusted me with the words and experiences of the former teachers of Coral Way between 1963 and 1968. I also wish to thank the former students and current educators of Coral Way who agreed to participate in this ongoing, longitudinal work. Their names are speckled throughout this book, but I especially wish to note Susana Martín from the Coral Way K-8 Bilingual Center who helped me gain access to the school and teachers. She is a true champion for bilingual education.

      Others who have supported this work over the past two years include Dr Rosie Castro Feinberg, Dr Deon Heffington, Shuzhan Li, Andrew Long, Dr Mark Preston Lopez, Nidza Marichal, Aleksandra Olszewska, and Dr Lourdes Rovira who shared her wisdom and stories. The University of Florida librarians Brittany Kester and Perry Collins in the digital collections are simply amazing and assisted with obtaining permissions for use of archival data. Thank you to the Ford Foundation whose archives, approximately 280 pages, were accessed from the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York.

      I also thank the series editors Dr Nancy Hornberger and Dr Wayne Wright who agreed that Coral Way was a story worth telling. To that end, Tommi Grover, Laura Longworth, Sarah Williams and Flo McClelland from the Multilingual Matters team also provided the best professional support an author could ask for. Multilingual Matters is a true ally in bilingual education worldwide.

      My husband Tom, daughter Rae, stepchildren Austin and Emily, and pup Nori were willing to listen to me mumble around the house as I wrote and spoke endlessly about this exciting project. Rae provided professional graphic design support for the book cover and for reproduction of original materials in the book – thank you! Finally, this work is dedicated to my son, Thomas, whose absence from my life is ever present, a reminder that life is precious, and that although time passes by, we are forever changed by those who share our journey.

      Foreword

      I left my home country of Cuba on 22 July 1961, at the age of 9. Fortunately, I came with my parents and two brothers (ages 11 and 1), a luxury many other children did not enjoy, having to come by themselves through the Peter Pan initiative. The 22 July was to become a day of mixed emotions for our family; it was my father’s birthday, my parents wedding anniversary and the day I said goodbye to everything I had known up to then.

      In Miami, I was enrolled in a Catholic school where no special help was provided to the tens of Cuban students entering on a daily basis. However, I had attended The Phillips School in Cuba, a school owned by a Canadian couple where we had the morning session in English and the afternoon session in Spanish; thus, I had some knowledge of English. What I never foresaw as I started fifth grade in Miami is that throughout my teenage years I would sacrifice knowledge of my home language to join the bandwagon of the 1960s generation. I eventually graduated from the University of Miami in 1973 with limited academic Spanish and a degree in elementary education, at a time when teachers were a dime a dozen.

      I recall sitting at home fully dressed and ready to leave on a minute’s notice as I called school after school asking if they had a teaching position. Remember, we didn’t even have faxes at the time! One ‘no after another’ scared me, until a clerk who answered the phone asked if I was bilingual. A very emphatic ‘yes’ got me an interview at Coral Way Elementary, a school about which I knew nothing.

      I was hired to teach the English block to a fourth-grade group of students, but fate always takes its turns and two days before starting school, a teacher had emergency surgery and my assignment was changed to one block of English and one block of Spanish. My first day as a Spanish teacher at Coral Way was a turning point in my personal and professional life. Within the first 20 minutes of the school day, I had already written a huge mistake on the board to be quickly corrected by a student who not only pointed out my spelling mistake but gave me the grammatical rule for what I had done. Convinced that I was about to lose my job, as soon as school was dismissed, I drove to the only bookstore that sold Spanish books and bought every third-, fourth- and fifth-grade language book that I could find. When I got home, I had to sit through enough ‘I told you so’ from my mother who had insisted that we speak and study Spanish. There began my journey into the world of bilingualism, language and identity. I started studying Spanish to reappropriate myself with the language and culture I had lost.

      Although I did not attend Coral Way Elementary as a student, Coral Way Elementary transformed my life. It took me from writing ‘lapizes’ with a ‘z’ on the board to becoming passionate about the Coral Way experience and an advocate for dual-language education. Little did I know that September day in 1973 that I would one day be the director of bilingual and world language education in Miami-Dade County Public Schools and, in 2009, be awarded the Cruz de Oficial de la Orden de Isabel la Católica for my work on behalf of the promotion of the Spanish language in the United States.

      My experience is not unique. For hundreds of students that were fortunate to attend Coral Way, both English and Spanish speakers, their elementary experience was unlike any other at the time. Half a day in English, half a day in Spanish, ‘acentos, diéresis’, schwa sound, long vowels, square dancing one day and the cha cha cha the next during PE class. Students were exposed to two languages, two cultures and two different ways of reading the world.

      Although Coral Way was to shape the landscape of bilingual education in the United States in the 20th century, little has been written about this transformative school with its Mediterranean architecture and beautiful central patio. For those who are immersed in the world of bilingual education, Coral Way Elementary (now Coral Way K-8 Center) is no stranger. However, what Coral Way contributed, and continues to contribute to the educational arena is worthy of being shouted from a mountain top (disseminated across the world).

      Dr Maria Coady has done just that. With the publication of The Coral Way Bilingual Program, Dr Coady takes us on a journey from gestation and birth in the early 1960s to present-day implementation 56 years later. We learn that at the root of the Coral Way experiment was the Cuban exodus caused by the Castro revolution. We are introduced to the visionaries who dared to dream and challenge the establishment at a time when bilingual education was unheard of in a public school: Pauline Rojas, Paul Bell, Ralph Robinett, Joe Hall, Rosa Guas Inclán, Lee Logan and ‘the Marines’, the teachers, the trailblazers who ‘bajo capa y espada’ (against all odds…) made sure that the program was implemented with fidelity.

      Dr Coady’s book provides detailed descriptions and an in-depth study of the Coral Way program never before compiled under one cover. Her research is exhaustive and includes the political climate of Miami in the early years of the Cuban exodus, including the Peter Pan program, oral interviews with former students, teachers and administrators, and statistics that support the tenets behind the need to establish a bilingual program. We are afforded the opportunity to see the report cards that were used, images of the daily schedules, sample letters to parents, evaluations submitted to the Ford Foundation and so much more.

      The Coral Way Bilingual Program offers something for everyone. For the English-speaking parents who took the risk to trust what the educators promised, this book reassures them that they gave their children a lifelong gift. For the students themselves, both English and Spanish speakers, who participated in the program, the book will help them to relive the days when without knowing what was being done, they were acquiring a new language and culture that would forever enrich their lives. For the academic, the researcher, Dr Coady dedicates a chapter to describing the research design, the data and the findings. For those of us who worked at Coral Way Elementary at one time or another, we can continue to take pride in knowing that we were part of a school whose contributions to education resonate across the world.

      The education community, and more specifically the bilingual community, applaud Dr Coady for this important publication. It sheds light on the beginnings of a movement that today continues to be misunderstood and undervalued. In studying and learning about the success of the first two-way immersion program in a public school, we can continue to forge the future based on proven experiences and research.

      Lourdes Rovira

      Miami, FL

      Overview

      This book is about Coral Way Elementary school and the events that took place between 1961–1968, seven years that changed the landscape of education in the United States and arguably around the world. These six years allow readers to experience the social, political and educational context in which the Coral Way bilingual program was conceptualized (1961–1963), how the early two-way immersion model of bilingual education in the United States was implemented and subsequently changed (1963–1968) and the outcomes of the Coral Way ‘experiment’ based on student achievement data and interview data from the program’s participants. For readers’ reference, I build the context of the program based on political events that took place in Cuba and the United States between 1960 and 1962, and describe the Cuban refugee context and Operation Pedro Pan, which brought more than 14,000 unaccompanied youth to the United States by late 1962 (Conde, 1999). I also discuss the larger field and context of bilingual education in the United States, noting that although Coral Way is believed to be the first two-way immersion bilingual education program in the United States, bilingual education programs were not uncommon in the United States and were especially prevalent for German and Dutch speakers up until World War II (Baker & Wright, 2017; Ovando, 2003).

      Based in its historical context and the model of bilingual education

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1