Bilingual ed opponent cites MCAS scores
Lincoln Tamayo, the state leader of the initiative to end bilingual education in Massachusetts, is rebutting Framingham's claim to be a successful model of the practice, saying that recent state test scores show the town is a ''far cry'' from it. Update Tamayo said that results of the 2001 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams of Framingham's fourth- and eighth-graders with limited English proficiency showed the failure rates on the English and math portions of the exam in both grades rose at least 10 percentage points above the previous year's score. Furthermore, he said, Framingham students' failure rates this year surpassed the overall failure rate of students in the state. Tamayo added that the picture might have been bleaker had the town not waived the exam for a majority of students with limited English proficiency. ''If these test scores are any indication, then Framingham's claims are a far cry from what is actually happening in their classrooms,'' said Tamayo, the former principal of Chelsea High School who resigned in August to head the initiative in Massachusetts. ''If Framingham is going out there and touting themselves as a model of success, then they should have the numbers to back it up, and you can see they don't. ''These numbers just confirm the fact that bilingual education has been failing kids all over the state, even kids in Framingham,'' Tamayo said. Tamayo, the local leader of the ballot initiative, sponsored by California entrepreneur Ron Unz, would require school districts to place students who do not speak English into one-year immersion programs, instead of bilingual programs that are taught in both the students' native language and English. The effort led by Unz, who argues that bilingual programs have been a colossal failure, has succeeded in dismantling the program in his home state and in Arizona. He hopes to do the same in Massachusetts through a vote on the November 2002 ballot. Framingham educators, who said that the initiative takes a narrow approach for the complicated task of teaching immigrant children English, said that MCAS test scores do not tell the whole story, and said that Tamayo's assertions that Framingham is trying to hide the scores from the public is simply untrue. According to the Department of Education, the failure rate for fourth-graders in Framingham on the English portion of the test rose from 31 percent last year to 42 percent this year, comparable to the failure rate of 43 percent statewide this year. On the math portion of the exam, the failure rate rose from 42 percent to 57 percent, higher than the 53 percent statewide failure rate. The MCAS failure rates for eighth-graders on the English section rose from 6 percent to 16 percent, compared to the 35 percent statewide. On the math portion, the failure rate decreased from 85 percent to 75 percent, compared to 71 percent statewide. The school district's bilingual education director, Susan McGilvray-Rivet, who tracks the scores of the students from year to year, said the dip in test scores this past year does not accurately reflect the success of the program overall, and said it was unfair to compare the achievement of students with limited English proficiency to the achievement of all students statewide, which include native English speakers. She noted that MCAS scores among students in the bilingual education program have been rising steadily for the past several years, before taking a dip this year. She also said that the school follows state guidelines in choosing which students to waive from taking the exam. Students who have been in the United States for less than three years are exempt from taking the MCAS, and because Framingham is a growing immigrant community, with a large Brazilian and Hispanic population, the numbers vary from year to year. McGilvray-Rivet said that looking solely at Framingham's test scores was also misleading, because it did not give a context to how other students in bilingual education programs were doing across the state. She said Framingham's test scores are higher than those of other towns with similar demographics. ''You can't look at the scores from one year and conclude that the program is not working,'' McGilvray-Rivet said. ''Our ultimate goal is to have all the students pass the test, which means we will be analyzing and making improvements in the meantime. No program is perfect, but our program is one that has been tested and does give our students the tools they need to succeed.'' This story ran on page W2 of the Boston Globe on 11/18/2001. |