Fordham Faculty in the Field: Serving Bilingual Education Classrooms

Diane Rodriguez

The High School for Health Careers and Sciences in the Washington Heights section of New York City offers students the opportunity to learn in their native language.

Diane Rodriguez, Ph.D., associate professor at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education (GSE), researches bilingual education, and in this video, she observes a class in action at the northern Manhattan school. In the video, she says that programs like this affirm the diversity of the students, develop critical thinking skills in two languages, manifest a positive classroom environment, and foster inclusion and participation of all students.

The high school’s Transitional Bilingual Program provides students with instruction in their native language in order to ensure students don’t fall behind in content areas while learning English.

“When schools promote the development of bilingual students’ first language,” says Rodriguez, “students tend to experience academic success.”

Watch the entire video below, and for more on multilingual education programs at GSE, visit the Fordham website.

-Rachel Roman