A Bilingual Debate Ahead

Educators want to ease requirements of state law

New Jersey’s 12-year-old law requiring bilingual education should be radically changed so that schools have more flexibility in how they teach students whose native tongue isn’t English, top state education officials have concluded.

The officials have agreed to back a drive by school administrators to make bilingual education optional, which could dramatically change the way thousands of students, most of them foreign-born, learn English in the state.

The legislation would amend the state’s Bilingual Education Act of 1975. The legislative effort, planned for after the fall election, is favored by the state Education Department, said Richard DiPatri, assistant commissioner of educational programs.

The proposal is sure to create a whirlwind of opposition. Advocates of bilingual education worry that the proposed changes would shortchange students.

Confusing the issue is a national debate over whether the United States should adopt English as its official language and discourage the use by government agencies of other languages.

The New Jersey Association of School Administrators (NJASA), which is spearheading the change, says it has no desire to make English the only language and is not seeking to dismantle bilingual education.

Instead, the association says, it believes that other teaching methods may better serve some students. One method citied: courses on English as a second language (ESL), in which students are put in special classes in which only English is spoken.

Although he created one of the state’s first bilingual programs when an administrator in Hoboken, Paramus Superintendent Harry Galinsky is now leading the association’s campaign to change the law.

“It’s not a frontal attack on bilingual education,” Galinsky said.

Rather, “the issue has become very politicized, and we’re no longer looking at what’s best for kids.”

Bilingual education covers a wide spectrum: from teaching students all academic areas in both English and their native language in self-contained classrooms, to pulling students out of regular classrooms for periodic tutoring by a bilingual teacher or aide.

Educators differ over the effectiveness. Some educators argue that bilingual education enables students to progress academically while learning English. But others say students can learn English quicker if that’s the only language they hear.

The school administrators association is still drafting its proposed amendments. But the state Education Department’s DiPatri, who is in charge of formulating bilingual-education policy, said: “We obviously support some changes in the law.”

“Bilingual education is an effective approach, but it’s not necessarily the best in all circumstances,” he said. “What we’re looking for, if it comes down to one word, is flexibility.”

DiPatri said the state should require districts to serve the 36,000 students in the state who cannot speak English, but should not dictate how districts achieve that goal, as long as their approach is educationally sound.

New Jersey is one of 11 states that require bilingual education.

There is increasing pressure nationwide to consider alternatives to bilingual education, typified this summer by Calif Gov. George Deukmejian’s veto of a bill to extend his state’s bilingual education law.

Under New Jersey’s law, a district must provide bilingual education when it has 20 or more students who speak the same foreign language and cannot speak English. If a district has fewer students, it can provide classes on English as a second language.

Either approach would be acceptable, regardless of the number of students affected, under the proposed legislation. Districts still would be monitored by the state and held accountable if students failed to progress. Programs to assist the students would have to be approved by the state.

Last year, most of the 36,000 students who spoke English poorly received bilingual instruction, state education officials said.

“It makes a lot of sense to me,” Assembly Speaker Charles Hardwick, R-Westfield, said of the proposed changes. “That’s not exactly a commitment, but pretty close to it. Requiring bilingual education when you have 20 students, that’s not working.”

Hardwick added: “I told the Commissioner of Education, Saul Cooperman, if they didn’t change it, I would certainly introduce legislation to change that. I’m glad to see it’s moving ahead.”

Bilingual teachers have vowed to fight such a bill. “Our concern is districts will serve the students minimally,” said Ana Maria Schuhmann,president of New Jersey Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/Bilingual Educators.

The fear may be premature. North Jersey districts with large numbers of foreign-born students have indicated a commitment to continue with bilingual education, even if given an option.

“You just don’t eliminate that in one fell swoop,” said Frank Napier Jr., the Paterson superintendent of schools. “It’s been the expressed desire and need of the community. So we’d probably continue with it.”

In 1984, the last year for which statistics were available, 11,536 students in North Jersey, Bergen, Passaic, Morris, and Hudson counties received some type of bilingual instruction.

Even so, critics say the state should not give districts the option of doing away with bilingual education.

“Bilingual education does work,” said Maria Vizcarrondo-DeSoto, executive director of ASPIRA, an organization that works with Hispanic students.

“One advantage of speaking your native language is you can continue to develop academically in those subject areas like math, science, history while learning English.”

Legislators have promised that the bill will get a fair hearing, after the November elections. “It won’t be on the back burner,” said Sen. Matthew Feldman, D-Teaneck, who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee. “It’s of vital interest.”

Those who advocate alternatives to bilingual education have found a forceful ally in U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, who has argued that school districts should have more say in deciding how to teach English.

“There is a strong movement, spurred by the English-only movement, spurred by the president of this county, spurred by the secretary of education, to get rid of bilingual education,” said Joseph Beard, the director of the National Association for Bilingual Education.

The impetus for changing New Jersey’s law has come from Paramus’s Galinsky, who objected to a state order to hire a bilingual teacher for 33 Japanese students who spoke English poorly. Noting that Paramus has a successful ESL program, Galinsky said: “Why fix what’s working?” Galinsky pressed the point at a meeting of local school officials with President Reagan last spring.

“There is a myth that abounds in our land that if non-English speaking students are not in a bilingual program, they have been abandoned,” Galinsky told the president. “Nothing is further from the truth.”

(SIDEBAR, PAGE b02)

Undertanding how programs work

Bilingual education is a term that encompases a host of educational programs.

In some districts, an elementary school bilingual teacher may teach foreigners math, social studies, and science in both English and their native language.

In other districts, students might attend regular classes and then once a day or several times a week work with a bilingual tutor who can assist them in various subjects.

Alternatively, some schools team science or math teachers with bilingual teachers or aides.

English as a Second Language (ESL) classes stand in marked contrast. They are geared to teach foreigners English, and the teachers speak only in English. Students generally attend ESL classes part of each day. They are in regular classes the rest of the day.

Some districts have experimented by teaming an ESL teacher with a social studies teacher.



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