Statewide academic test scores of California’s more than one million limited-English immigrant students continued to show large gains in the third year since the passage of Prop. 227, the June 1998 ballot initiative that replaced most bilingual education programs with English immersion.

This past year, immigrant students in the second grade, those most affected by the change in curriculum, raised their average scores by an additional three percentile points both in reading and in math. This increase was over twice as large as the statewide gains in those subjects of non-limited English students.

Since 1998, reading test scores of limited English second graders have now increased a total of 63% or 12 points, with math scores up 65% or 17 points. Across all the elementary school grades, the gains among immigrant students have averaged 46% in reading and 57% in math.

By comparison, California’s massive and widely touted multi-billion-dollar class size reduction program has apparently raised student test scores by just 2 to 3 points during this same period.

According to Ron Unz, Chairman of English for the Children, the organization that sponsored the ballot measure, even these dramatic results understate the true facts. "Those limited English students who do best on the tests are automatically removed from that category since they are no longer limited English, and if their scores were included the average obviously would be far higher. It’s like winning a game with all your best players kept off the field."

As school districts such as Los Angeles Unified gradually began full implementation of Prop. 227, their scores began to show major gains, a fact widely recognized by teachers and administrators. For example, Principal Martha Trevino Powell, told the Los Angeles Times that before English immersion was implemented, "the children were floundering. They couldn’t speak English. Now they have a base."

During the 1998 Prop. 227 campaign, bilingual advocates warned of academic disaster and plummeting test scores if the measure were passed and implemented, predictions which hardly seem to have been borne out. Today, bilingual advocates in Colorado and Massachusetts are making much the same arguments against proposed ballot measures in their states.

English for the Children---Proposition 227
555 Bryant St., #371, Palo Alto, CA 94301 Tel: 650-853-0365 Fax: 650-853-0362
Web: http://www.YesOn227.org E-Mail: info@YesOn227.org