TABE JOURNAL
Spring 2010, Volume 12, Number 1
Invitation to Submit Manuscripts


Editors:
Dr. Josefina Villamil Tinajero & Dr. Judith Munter,
The University of Texas at El Paso


The TABE (Texas Association for Bilingual Education) Journal, a peer-reviewed
publication, is distributed by TABE for the purpose of improving practice and advancing the knowledge base in bilingual education. The Journal seeks articles that examine policies, theoretical constructs, cultural issues or practices impacting bilingual teaching and learning. Review of books and other media and descriptions of successful classroom practices will also be considered. The TABE Journal will publish articles written in either English or Spanish. The Editorial Board will consider clarity of presentation and timeliness of the content in judging the quality of the manuscripts.

Focus: This issue invites researchers and practitioners to submit articles and essays on bilingual education in Texas with a special focus on data-driven decision-making in bilingual education. Qualitative and quantitative studies that can contribute to the growing knowledge base on bilingual education models and best practices are especially welcome. Other issues to be addressed include assessment and evaluation, social justice concerns, and the challenges of bilingual education in the context of high stakes accountability.

Who Should Submit: Higher education faculty, graduate students and staff with
experience planning/designing/implementing and conducting research on bilingual
education programs; K-12 teachers and administrators with bilingual education
knowledge and experiences.

Procedure, Requirements, Deadlines and Editing Policy: Manuscripts are to
be submitted electronically as a Word Document.

Send e-mail attachment, MS-Word-doc-file type, to tinajero@utep.edu with copy to
jmunter@utep.edu, and tabe@sbcglobal.net. We do not accept zipped or compressed
files. To ensure reviews are "blind," the author(s) must include a separate MS-Word-doc-file with name(s), address, telephone number, E-mail address and institutional affiliation.

E-mail will be our way to communicate with you. It is further requested that a brief
abstract of no more than 150 words describing the essence of the article be included. Manuscripts are due by March 30, 2010. Early submission is encouraged; it
facilitates the journal's double-blind-peer reviewed process and provides longer time for revisions.

Format and Style Requirements: Authors should follow APA (5th edition) guidelines
for citations and references. Manuscripts accepted for the publication are subject to editing. Manuscripts should be between 15-25 pages, double-spaced, standard 12" fon, one-inch margins. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that any stylistic and grammatical errors are corrected prior to publication. Papers accepted for publication in TABE Journal become the copyright of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education. Manuscripts will be accepted with the understanding that they are the originals and not, in any way, in breach of copyright. Manuscripts for possible publication in the TABE Journal should be sent to:

TABE Journal Editors: tinajero@utep.edu and jmunter@utep.edu
with copy to tabe@sbcglobal.net and jmmacias3@miners.utep.edu

I was contacted by an international colleague yesterday who had questions about the School of Tomorrow, which is run by Accelerated Christian Education.  I urgently need to know the program fo my project.

My colleague wrote:

According to the site, the program has 40 year history…. So, my questions are related to

1. program quality
2. reputation
3. evidence of student success  (how many students entered universities, and they can easily get SAT scores, etc.)

Personally, I know nothing about this organization – in some quick Google searching, I came across the Wikipedia page about the organization (not the school), which included the following information:

Many aspects of the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum have come under criticism from educational researchers.

• D. Flemming and T Hunt of the educational journal Phi Delta Kappa wrote in a 1987 article regarding the emphasis on rote learning.

“If parents want their children to obtain a very limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world — one that ignores thinking above the level of rote recall — then the ACE materials do the job very well. The world of the ACE materials is quite a different one from that of scholarship and critical thinking”[14]

• Former President of the Division of Educational Psychology for the American Psychology Association and former President of the American Educational Research Association, David Berliner cites a study by Speck and Prideaux (1993) which notes the wide use of association and recall activities in the ACE curriculum, as well as other workbook based curriculum. “[15]

Speck and Prideau (1993) state,”The work consists of low-level cognitive tasks that emphasize simple association and recall activities, as is typical of instruction from workbooks. Despite the reviling of B. F. Skinner by the Christian Right, the materials make heavy use of behavioral objectives, programmed learning, and rewards.[16] “

• Having researched comparative performance on the ACT between public school students from one school and ACE students from another, private school in the same geographic area, one college student wrote in her thesis in 2005,

“a significant difference was found between the public school graduates’ scores and the ACE graduates’ scores in all areas of the ACT (English, Math, Reading, and Composite Score), except the area of Science Reasoning. Overall, the ACT scores of the ACE graduates were consistently lower than those of the public school students.”[17]

• In the past, ACE has included controversial material in its curriculum. For example, a section from a high school packet regarding Apartheid in South Africa states as follows:

“Although apartheid appears to allow the unfair treatment of blacks, the system has worked well in South Africa . . . . Although white businessmen and developers are guilty of some unfair treatment of blacks, they turned South Africa into a modern industrialized nation, which the poor, uneducated blacks couldn’t have accomplished in several more decades. If more blacks were suddenly given control of the nation, its economy and business, as Mandela wished, they could have destroyed what they have waited and worked so hard for.”[18]

But this was really all I was able to find in terms of independent evidence. Any one else out there have any additional leads or personal experience?