This research examines the reading performance in English of Cape Verdean students who received three years of Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) in comparison to the performance of Cape Verdean students who did not receive TBE or other bilingual language services. It also compares the performance of Cape Verdean students in grade five to their performance in grade six. Lastly, it compares the students' performance with that of the district-wide population at the same grade levels.
Results on the reading subtest of the California Achievement Test, Fifth Edition (CAT/5) administered in grades five and six are used for comparisons. ANOVA is applied for analysis of treatment and comparison groups. Z -tests are used for group to population comparisons.
Findings suggest that there is no reliable difference in the reading scores in English of Cape Verdean students who received three years of TBE and Cape Verdean students who received no bilingual language services. Since students who qualified for TBE scored lower on an initial English proficiency assessment than students who did not qualify for TBE, these findings imply that TBE Cape Verdean students demonstrate greater gains in reading performance in English than Cape Verdean students who do not qualify for services. However this comparison is limited by a small sample size and a lack of documented reliability of the initial English proficiency assessment. Scores of the combined groups of TBE and Non TBE Cape Verdean students revealed reliably higher performance in reading in English in grade six than in grade five. This implies that the students make reliable gains in performance between grades five and six. Lastly, comparisons of reading test performance in English between Cape Verdean students and district-wide populations at grades five and six reveal that Cape Verdean students score consistently lower than the district-wide population at the same grade levels. This implies that although Cape Verdean students demonstrate gains in reading in English, they lag behind the reading performance of all students in the district at grade levels five and six.
