Language barrier
With three competing bills on the legislative agenda, the hot-button issue of bilingual education reform is shaping up to be especially heated this year. Change clearly is overdue. Massachusetts' dominant transitional bilingual system attempts to be, in effect, a parallel educational track. Non-English speakers get some language instruction, but much of their time is spent studying a variety of subjects, taught in their native languages. By the time they have become proficient enough in English to make the transition'' their education often lags years behind that of their peers in mainstream classes. The harm to bilingual students can be seen in their low college admission rates, their high dropout rates and their low scores on achievement tests. All of the bills have some appealing elements. State Rep. Antonio F.D. Cabral, D-New Bedford, would require bilingual programs to meet the same standards required of all schools under the 1993 Education Reform Act. But it also includes a potpourri of fatally flawed gimmicks, including a scheme to teach all students in two languages- in effect, extending bilingual education to everyone. Scrapping the curriculum painstakingly developed under the Education Reform Act would be pure folly. State Rep. Mary Rogeness, R-Longmeadow, proposes requiring districts to establish bilingual classes only in grades with more than 15 non-English speakers, a sensible change. However, the deeply flawed transitional bilingual education program would remain essentially intact. Of the bills on the agenda, only the proposal of state Sen. Guy W. Glodis, D-Worcester, pursues what should be the No. 1 goal of reform: teaching students English so they can join mainstream classes with all possible speed. Non-English speakers would be placed in an intensive English-learning program for only as long as needed to succeed in regular classrooms. Normally, that would be about a year, but parents could ask that their child be mainstreamed more quickly or, if necessary, given further English instruction. Maximum parental choice and minimum instruction time outside the mainstream both are appealing. Generations of immigrants have demonstrated that the faster non-English speakers join mainstream classes, the better their chance of success. The Glodis bill is the most effective means to that end. |