Panel Urges Pared-Down Bilingual Ed
A mayoral task force recommended sweeping changes to bilingual education in city schools yesterday, but retreated from an all-out assault that would have put more students on the fast track to English-only classes. Mayor Giuliani's bilingual education task force unveiled a compromise plan that recommended giving parents more control over the type and intensity of English-language instruction for their children. But the task force stopped short of insisting on controversial English immersion, preferred by Giuliani. The recommendations closely resemble a plan that Schools Chancellor Harold Levy is to present to the Board of Education today. Levy's plan, an amalgam of suggestions made by board President William Thompson, board member Irving Hamer and others, includes creating a beefed-up version of English-as-a-second-language classes and limiting bilingual or ESL instruction to three years. The 18-month-old mayoral task force stopped short of calling for an end to bilingual ed, although task force chairman Randy Mastro previously had called bilingual education a failure that should be scrapped. Giuliani, who has described bilingual education as a job protection scheme for teachers, said the report does not go far enough. "The report is a consensus. A consensus never goes far enough," Giuliani said, noting that the panel's recommendations represent "what could practically be done in New York City." Attempts to overhaul bilingual education accelerated after a Board of Education study released in September found that more than half the city's non-English-speaking students were still in bilingual classes after three years, and some even after nine years. Bilingual classes offer students instruction in major subjects in their native language. ESL classes are taught mostly in English. In unveiling the panel's report yesterday, Mastro added a separate opinion not endorsed by the four other members, urging the city challenge the 26-year-old court order that created the city's bilingual programs. Mastro called the court order "an outdated and inflexible constraint" on city schools. But even the pared-down plan offered by the task force and the chancellor may face legal challenges. "We want to make sure that the bilingual option does not get obliterated in the process," said Angelo Falcon, senior policy executive for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which sued the Board of Education in the early 1970s. That lawsuit led to the city creating bilingual education in 1974. Although plans to give parents an English-intensive option "sounds good," Falcon said, "we really have to see how it impacts the consent decree. "We're prepared to go to court on this." Recommended Changes Highlights of the emerging plan to overhaul bilingual education: Intensive English as a Second Language classes aimed at placing students in mainstream classes in one year. The program would join bilingual and ESL classes as a third option for parents. Informed parental choice. Many parents now do not know they can pull their children out of bilingual classes. Three-year limits on bilingual or ESL instruction, with extensions granted only when necessary and with parental consent. Students who do not make expected progress after one year would be urged to attend summer school and after-school programs. A summer school for English learners. Would require a change in state law to make summer school compulsory. New tests and standards to measure whether students are making progress in bilingual or ESL programs and determine whether they can be moved to a mainstream classroom. Intensified recruitment of better teachers and a requirement that they be certified. An end to switching students between bilingual and ESL. Assessment of special-education students' language ability to ensure they are not placed unnecessarily in bilingual or ESL classes. Source: Mayor's Task Force on Bilingual Education report; executive summary of Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's recommendations to Board of Education. |