Peña, Álbar Antonio (1931–1993)

Álbar Antonio Peña, first director of bilingual education programs in the United States at the national level, was born in 1931, in Ciudad Mier, Mexico, and died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1993. His family, which included four older siblings, moved to Falfurrias, Texas, following the death of his father. Peña completed high school in Falfurrias and then served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, rising to the rank of sergeant. Upon completion of his military service, Peña attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed a BA degree in foreign languages in 1957. Following college graduation, he married Englantina Canales, and the couple moved to Brownsville, Texas, where they worked as teachers in the Brownsville Independent School District. Subsequently, Peña completed an MA degree in Spanish and educational administration from Texas A&I University in 1961 and a PhD in curriculum and instruction, with specialization in bilingual education and English as a Second Language (ESL), from the University of Texas at Austin in 1967.

Peña became nationally known in the field of bilingual education following passage of the 1968 Bilingual Education Act (Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), when he was asked to head the office created to administer the act. Between 1969 and 1973, Peña served as director of the Bilingual Education Programs Branch in the U.S. Office of Education, at a time when very little infrastructure existed to support the creation of bilingual education programs in school districts across the nation. Title VII legislation represented an attempt to respond to a wide array of needs, providing initial funding for demonstration bilingual education projects within participating school districts. Peña was responsible for planning, funding, and initial implementation of over 200 Title VII bilingual education projects throughout the nation that focused on development of bilingual instructional models as well as curriculum materials in non-English languages. In these programs, 24 languages were represented, and over 4,000 professional educators were directly involved in the initial funded experimentation of bilingual education projects at the local school district level. During his tenure in the U.S. Office of Education, in addition to guiding implementation of the first federally funded bilingual education projects, Peña also helped lay the groundwork for future enhancements in Title VII, including funding for relevant research as well as fellowships and teacher training grants designed to increase capacity in schools and universities to provide support in critical areas.

Peña's professional life was marked by a number of significant firsts. In addition to heading the first bilingual education office at the national level, he also served as the founding president of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), a professional organization whose mission included advocacy on behalf of language minority students and support for bilingual educators through a broad range of professional activities. During its initial year of existence in 1974, Peña administered NABE out of his office in San Antonio, Texas, with the help of a secretary and a small group of volunteers. At the time of his death almost 20 years later, the organization had developed into a full-fledged professional organization with thousands of members and a recognized national profile.

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