Scrutinizing Bilingual Ed Editorial June 4 - California, by a 70 percent majority that included strong Hispanic support, has voted to trade its hapless bilingual-education system for one that will immerse non-English-speaking students in intensive English for a year, then move them on to regular studies. The change is especially significant for Denver, where the schools are steering a course somewhere between the one California has rejected and the one it has endorsed. Both approaches have harsh critics. The bilingual program California began 30 years ago has been woefully short on results. Last year, 1,150 of that state's 5,800 bilingual schools failed to qualify even one student as proficient in English, and statewide only 6 percent of affected students reached the proficiency level. Something is obviously wrong, and the backers of the new system say the fault of the old one was instructing immigrant children in their native tongue for several years, which took too long and failed to rivet their attention on English, with the result that many attained proficiency in neither English nor their native language. Under the new plan, these children will get concentrated instruction in English for a year, then move on to regular classrooms where all subjects are taught in English. While educators argue hotly over the two systems, long experience has shown that young children can absorb new languages quickly - sometimes in a matter of months - if they are surrounded by them. But, as California's experience suggests, they can sit through years of classes without mastering the language if it is taught only sporadically in short sessions. Confirming that is the fact that in California, where 80 percent of children in bilingual classes are Hispanic, many leave school without learning to read or write English. As in Denver, bilingual education is a political lightning rod in California. Foes call it a "sink-or-swim'' approach that will leave many minority children at the bottom of the pond. Advocates counter that too many youngsters are already there, and so change is needed. The Denver schools, after nearly two decades of conflict with Hispanic groups over bilingual methods, this year revised the old program - which had many of the shortcomings of the one California has rejected. Denver's revised bilingual program, ignoring some federal guidelines, now allows leeway in teaching methods and carefully measures each student's progress, so that each can move on to English as soon as he or she is ready. As Denver schools evaluate this new program, they should also be carefully watching the new one in California to see if it brings benefits the rest of us could share. |