Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education is a professional, nonprofit Association whose purposes relate primarily to bilingual education and include: (1) Recognizing the value of all languages as assets to Oklahoma and the United States of America, to the exclusion of none; (2) Promoting the value of a multilingual citizenry (3) Recognizing, promoting and publicizing programs of excellence; (4) Promoting efforts to assure equal educational opportunity; (5) Promoting the provision of linguistically and culturally appropriate education services to children, youth, and adults; (6) Promoting public understanding and appreciation of the linguistic and cultural needs of language-minority children, youth, and adults; (7) Promoting the development of standards of professional excellence in bilingual education; (8) Conducting educational workshops and conferences; (9) Encouraging research and publications; (10) Promoting the inclusion of English language learners/language-minority students in assessment systems that assess students in a language and form most likely to yield accurate and reliable information; (11) Serving as an advocate for language-minority children and families; and 12) Cooperating in appropriate ways with other groups and associations having similar concerns.
Membership
The privilege of membership in OABE is voluntary and is available to all persons that are interested in bilingual education, supportive of OABE's purposes, willing to abide by its Constitution and Bylaws, and make payment of annual membership dues. Nonvoting membership is open to institutions, agencies and commercial organizations. Those persons and organizations who have paid dues for the current membership year shall be considered members in good standing.