Study hits bilingual classes
The Commonwealth's federally-funded bilingual education programs aren't boosting students' academic performance or moving them quickly enough into English-only classrooms, according to a new study by a conservative think tank. The report by the Lexington Institute comes as bilingual education opponents collect signatures for a November 2002 ballot initiative that would replace Massachusetts' 30-year-old bilingual education law - the nation's oldest - with one calling for a single year of English ''immersion.'' The Arlington, Va.-based think tank came to its conclusions after studying data that 14 of the 18 federally-supported Massachusetts programs submitted to the US Department of Education. The study did not examine the many bilingual programs in the state that aren't supported by federal dollars. The institute, which has been critical of bilingual education, says the data paint a ''devastating'' picture of programs that keep bilingual students lagging behind their English-speaking classmates. But educators in Boston, Cambridge, and Worcester, three of the school districts mentioned in the study, say the Lexington Institute marshaled the numbers - and omitted some data - to support its view. ''This report is agenda-driven,'' said Nydia Mendez, who is in charge of Boston's bilingual education programs. ''It has no other purpose but to deride bilingual education.'' Under current law, Massachusetts school districts that have 20 or more children with a limited grasp of English and speaking the same language must provide a transitional bilingual program of up to three years. Students study English, but they also learn math, science, and other subjects in their native tongue until their English improves. About 49,000 Massachusetts students are classified as ''limited English proficient.'' Supporters of bilingual education say it eases children into a new language while allowing them to retain their native languages. But critics contend such programs hurt students by coddling them and leaving them behind their English-speaking peers. Many, they say, spend more than three years in bilingual classes. Don Soifer of the Lexington Institute says its study confirms those fears. In one program at Boston's Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, for example, only 37 of 412 students moved from bilingual classes to English-only classes in three years. In Worcester, 58 percent of students tested as ''non-English readers'' in 2001, up from 51 percent in 2000. The institute even criticizes Cambridge's nationally-recognized AMIGOS program, which uses ''two-way immersion'' to teach all students both English and Spanish. The study notes that students who start out speaking Spanish do worse on a prominent English test than those who start out speaking English. But Rita Bonofilio, who heads Worcester's bilingual education programs, said the Lexington study ignored statistics as significant as the ones it included. ''Was [the student] a non-English reader in the first, second, or third year of the program? That's not in there,'' Bonofilio said. ''We're dealing with a very mobile population,'' she added. ''We're never comparing the same kids from one year to the next.'' Mary Cazabon, who heads Cambridge's bilingual programs, acknowledged that native Spanish speakers in AMIGOS lag behind their native English-speaking peers on exams. But she pointed out that the average scores of native Spanish speakers steadily increase as they move through the AMIGOS program between grades 2 and 8. By eighth grade, they're well above the ''competent'' level, she said. ''The important thing is to look and see that the kids are progressing,'' she said. |