VALIDITY OF THE ATTITUDES TOWARD BILINGUAL EDUCATION SCALE WITH RESPECT TO GROUP DISCRIMINATION

The Attitudes toward Bilingual Education (ABE) scale was vali-dated with respect to its ability to discriminate between an explicitly defined group of proponents of bilingual education and a “persons-in-general ” group of subjects. The obtained difference in measured attitudes were discussed within the framework of the societal implications of bilingual education programs. IN contemporary research, bilingual education has consistently been evaluated and debated on the basis of its contribution to the educational and cognitive development of bilingual students. In general, there are two positions that address the educational gains issue. One perspective, expressed by proponents of bilingual educa-tion, assumes that bilingual education is necessary because it is easier for persons to communicate in and to learn from an education-al system that presents information in their own language. Further-more, bilingual education preserves the cultural heritage of minority populations. Some of the evidence for this position stressing the advantages of bilingual education comes from studies that support the notions’of cognitive gain (Cummins, 1979), the need for different teaching strategies for bilingual children (Knight and Kagan, 19771, and discussions about the benefits of individual educational pro-grams for the bilingual child, such as immersion or submersion programs (Genesee, 1976). The other perspective, generally espoused by opponents to bilin-’ The authors would like to express their gratitude to Albert Gutierrez for his help with the collection of data