TY  - JOUR
AU  - Angrist,Joshua
AU  - Chin,Aimee
AU  - Godoy,Ricardo
TI  - Is Spanish-Only Schooling Responsible for the Puerto Rican Language Gap?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12005
PY  - 2006
Y2  - February 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12005
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12005.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joshua Angrist
Department of Economics
MIT, E52-353
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA  02142-1347
Tel: 617/253-8909
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: angrist@mit.edu

Aimee Chin
University of Houston
Department of Economics
204 McElhinney Hall
Houston, TX 77204-5019
Tel: 713/743-3761
Fax: 713/743-3798
E-Mail: achin@uh.edu

Ricardo Godoy
AB  - Between 1898 and 1948, English was the language of instruction for most post-primary grades in Puerto Rican public schools. Since 1949, the language of instruction in all grades has been Spanish. We use this policy change to estimate the effect of English-intensive instruction on the English-language skills of Puerto Ricans. Although naive estimates suggest that English instruction increased English-speaking ability among Puerto Rican natives, estimates that allow for education-specific cohort trends show no effect. This result is surprising in light of the strong presumption by American policymakers at the time that instruction in English was the best way to raise English proficiency. This has implications for medium of instruction policy in former colonies as well as U.S. education policy toward immigrant children.
ER  -