Bilingual education
Editorial
A recently reported rise in standardized test scores among California's Spanish-speaking students has led to heightened debate about bilingual education, to some changed minds and to a new exchange of rhetoric in the political realm. The educational debate, if based on rigorous research, will lead to sound conclusions about what manner of teaching works best for such students _ and, by extension, to sound policy. Heightened political rhetoric, however, will probably just further cloud an issue that for decades has been discussed in an atmosphere of dueling political ideologies, cultural fear and outright xenophobia. Reasons for the improved test scores are not yet understood; in the two years since bilingual education was banned in California, the state made other changes as well _ such as reducing class sizes. It seems pretty clear, however, that whatever factors improved students' learning, the act of banning bilingual education didn't create any sort of dire outcome. Among second-graders with limited English, the average score in reading rose from the 19th to the 28th percentile in national rankings; math scores went from the 27th percentile to the 41st. Those are striking gains, and it is important that researchers isolate the causes. They must also make certain to define "bilingual education" precisely, because the term is used to describe all sorts of teaching methods _ and combinations of methods. For example, Prof. Stephen Krashen of the University of Southern California says "the best bilingual education programs include all of these characteristics: ESL (English as a Second Language) instruction, sheltered subject matter teaching and instruction in the first language." It is also important to note the populations of students being taught, he says. Most students with limited English proficiency live in neighborhoods where Spanish or another non-English language prevails, and they have little access to books. A student who learns among many English-speaking classmates, who is an enthusiastic reader or who had considerable education in his or her primary language before arriving in U.S. schools has essentially already experienced many aspects of a bilingual education program and may do well without it now. It is Krashen's view that the biggest problem is the absence of books, in both their first and second languages, in the lives of bilingual-education students. As Arizona considers a California-style ban this fall, and as other entities consider their options, both citizens and educators need to separate educational outcomes from political agendas. Bilingual programs should not be jobs programs for bilingual teachers, as some argue they've become _ nor should they be considered the coddling of immigrants who are viewed as being unwilling to Americanize. Instead, they should be used when they are shown to work, and revised or scrapped if they don't. |