Evaluating bilingual education programs requires assessing students bilingualism, biliteracy and sociocultural competence. This book documents how dual language programs in the United States implement institutional policies and instructional practices for evaluating program quality and measuring student achievement. Literature consistently identifies seven guiding principles, with associated criteria, for implementing quality dual language programs: (a) program structure, (b) curriculum, (c) instruction, (d) assessment and accountability, (e) staff quality and professional development, (f) family and community and (g) support and resources. Emphasizing the assessment and accountability strand of quality dual language programs, this book provides policymakers, practitioners, as well as family and community members, explicit guidance around assessment and evaluation in bilingual/dual language settings.

Margarita Machado-Casas, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair in the Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education at San Diego State University. Machado-Casas investigates: (a) family and community multiliteracies, (b) migration and immigration, (c) bilingual teacher education, (d) technology in educational spaces and (d) assessment and evaluation. Saúl Isaac Maldonado, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education at San Diego State University; Co-director of the Developing Effective Bilingual Educators with Resources Project; and Co-director of the American Evaluation Association GEDI Scholars Program. Belinda Bustos Flores, Ph.D., is Associate Dean and Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2019, Flores received the AERA Bilingual Education Research SIG Lifetime Achievement Award.