The relationship between a bilingual federal grant program and student academic achievement in public schools

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between grant funding and student academic achievement. The research was designed to determine if a relationship exists between a federal Title VII grant program and student academic achievement and the distribution of grant funds and student academic achievement.; Methods. Five Texas public school districts that received a federal bilingual education grant for the same award period were selected, and within this sample, 17 elementary schools were nested within the districts with 11,478 students nested within the 17 elementary schools. All students were on campuses that received federal grant money to implement a two-way dual language program. All campuses had high numbers of Hispanic, English language learner (ELL), and economically disadvantaged students. The research design included qualitative and quantitative data collection with analyses completed using a triangulation of data methods and sources.; Data were collected from the school districts and the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Grant proposals as well as three to four years of annual grant evaluations were obtained from each school district. District administrators facilitating the grant program completed a five-question survey. Data were retrieved from TEA of district and campus characteristics and state student testing scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests.; Findings. All districts' grant programs proposed to implement a 50/50, two-way dual language program on elementary campuses. The grant proposals described grant programs that implemented similar staff development and parent components. District facilitators and evaluators described successful components of the dual language grant program.; The results indicated that this federal Title VII grant program increased student academic achievement as measured by the TAAS and the TAKS. Furthermore, a relationship was found between the distribution of grant funds and student academic achievement. Two models were developed as a result of the study: The Grant Program Data Diagnostic (GPDD) that relates to the probability of grant program effectiveness and the Grant Award Program Process (GAPP) which relates to the level at which a grant award can support a program.