Over Thirty Years of Language-in-Education Policy and Planning: Potter Thomas Bilingual School in Philadelphia

Changes in politics, the economy, demographics, and local leadership all led to the establishment of the Potter Thomas Bilingual School in Philadelphia in 1969. This paper examines the school’s history and how it has created, implemented, and sustained various language policies that have constituted its bilingual program over the last 30 years. Using Kaplan and Baldauf’s (1997) model, I will identify how Potter Thomas reconfigured its language-in-education policies to challenge “deficit” discourse and promote “resource” discourse (Ruiz, 1984) toward language diversity and speakers of languages other than English. I conclude with present and future challenges to Potter Thomas’ bilingual education program, including a critique of the role Title VII funding has played in the program’s development.