Published: October 1, 1990

Bilingual Education Works

By Gloria Zamora

I began my teaching career in the west side barrios of San Antonio more than 30 years ago. I was full of enthusiasm and proud in the 1950s. In those years, 80 percent of us failed to graduate from high school, let alone attend college.

I began my bilingual-education teaching career without curriculum materials or language tests. I had no training and little research to guide me. But these obstacles were nothing compared with what our students had endured for years: low achievement levels, repeated failures, damaged self-concept, and...