Calif. strikes blow against bilingual ed
Editorial
Hispanic students in California are giving concrete proof of a truth that drives the you're-no-good-unless-you're-a-victim crowd absolutely bonkers: Students who come to school without English do much better if taught in English from the start. Two years ago California voters approved a law requiring all school districts to teach "overwhelmingly" in English, but permitted superintendents to grant waivers. It inadvertently produced a rare controlled experiment: In Oceanside, Superintendent Ken Noonan, a strong supporter of the usual "transitional" bilingual education, granted only 12 waivers in 150 applications from 5,000 students with limited English; in the very similar community of Vista nearby half the eligible students sought waivers and all were granted. Noonan was stunned - and converted. His Spanish-speaking third- graders went from the 11th percentile in reading English to the 22nd in just two years; fifth-graders moved from the 10th to the 19th percentile. Yet in Vista the third-graders went from 13th to the 18th percentile and the fifth-graders did not gain at all, remaining at the 12th percentile. In the state as a whole, the gain in second-grade reading by limited-English students was almost as large as it was in Oceanside. For math, the gain was a leap from the 27th percentile to the 41st. "You read the research and they tell you it takes seven years," said Noonan, whose Mexican mother never learned English. "Here are kids, within nine months in the first year, and they literally learned to read." >From the revealing account in The New York Times, it appears that Oceanside practices the "immersion" method. From Day One the students start in English, and Spanish is reserved for helping them deal with frustration. How fine that predictions of educational disaster, accusations of heartless cruelty - not to mention the expectable slurs charging racism, ethnocentrism and classism - are all exploded. How satisfying that parents - up to 80 percent of whom always wanted their children to study in English, according to polls - have been vindicated at last. There was never any evidence, only hope, that it was better to do "transitional" instruction in history, math, science and so forth in the native language until the student learned English. The only reason for keeping these programs is to provide jobs for the victimology experts. It's time to close them down. California has shown the way. |