The impact of bilingual education in academic achievement of students enrolled in public schools in the Autonomous Community of Madrid

The purpose of this study is to analyze if there are differences in academic achievement among students in the second and third cycles of Primary Education in bilingual or non- bilingual public schools in Madrid. A quasi- experimental approach has been adopted with nonequivalent control group. The sample consisted of 2.153 students, Years 3 to 6 Primary Education enrolled in 12 public schools located in the eastern part of Madrid. The academic achievement is measured by Grade Point Average (GPA) and external examinations (Diagnosis Test for Year 4 and CDI Test for Year 6). From the results, the external tests show significant differences in favour of bilingual schools in Language and Mathematics in Year 6. But there were no significant differences in Year 4. However, in the GPA, there are significant differences in favour of non-bilingual schools in Science and English.