SALEM, Mass. – The Graduate School at Salem State College will host a roundtable discussion on the pros and cons of bilingual education from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19 in the Martin Luther King Room of the college's Ellison Campus Center.

Participants are: Ana Marha Hanton, principal of the Nathaniel Bowditch School in Salem, Wilfredo LaBoy, superintendent of the Lawrence Public Schools, and Ellen Rintell, a professor at Salem State College.

The public is invited to participate.

In November 2002, the citizens of Massachusetts voted to eliminate bilingual education and replace it with one year of Sheltered English instruction. While the outcome of the 2002 election is now settled, controversy about how to educate second language learners, and about the effectiveness of the state's new approach, continues. “Our discussants, all involved in this issue at different levels -- a superintendent, a principal, and a professor -- will discuss their perspectives on the implementation of the state's new voter-mandated approach to bilingual education,” said Salem State College professor Clarke Fowler.

For more information, contact Salem State College professors Greg Carroll at (978) 542-7082 or Clarke Fowler at (978) 542-7041.