Immersion in English Proving Its Superiority
Editorial
California voters were accused of a xenophobic backlash against waves of Mexican immigrants when they elected to banish bilingual education in 1998. Backers of Proposition 227 knew that the opposite was true, that their measure would benefit non-English speaking children, but the educational establishment would hear none of it. Now, after two years, the evidence is coming in. Tests have documented a remarkable improvement - in reading and all subjects - among Spanish-speaking children who have been through English immersion. The evidence is preliminary but compelling. Across the state of California, second-graders classified as limited in English rose from the 19th percentile to the 28th percentile on national reading tests and from the 27th to the 41st percentile in math. Other changes have occurred during the period, including a reduction in class size and the revival of phonics in place of ''whole language'' instruction. But the change that is unique to California was the official abolition of native-language instruction. This is a lesson for the rest of the country, including North Carolina with its rising immigrant populations. Two neighboring Southern California school systems examined by The New York Times tell the tale. One, Oceanside, embraced English immersion wholeheartedly for its 5,000 limited English proficient students. Only a handful of waivers were granted. In nearby Vista, a system of comparable size and demographics, the administration bent to parental pressure and granted all waiver requests. About half its limited English students stayed in bilingual classes. In each grade, Oceanside's children outperformed Vista's by a substantial margin. The test scores made a believer out of Oceanside Superintendent Ken Noonan, an ardent Proposition 227 opponent. ''I thought it would hurt kids,'' he told the Times. ''The exact reverse occurred, totally unexpected by me. The kids began to learn - not pick up, but learn - formal English, oral and written, far more quickly than I ever thought they would. ''You read the research, and they tell you it takes seven years. Here are kids, within nine months in the first year, and they literally learned to read.'' History suggests that vested interests in bilingual education are rooted less in experience and solid research than in 1960s federal subsidies that targeted impoverished Southwestern school systems. Fortunately, North Carolina's immigrant influx is recent enough that we have no entrenched system of native language instruction. State policy, while allowing bilingual education as an option, emphasizes English as a second language instruction and mainstreaming in regular classrooms. Bilingual classes do make sense for children who arrive in America as teenagers, having been taught in another language for years, but English immersion is just as clearly the answer for young children. It should remain the rule in this state. |