WASHINGTON – The White House will cite the lagging educational performance of Hispanic students today as it urges states and school districts to ensure that every high school graduate in America is proficient in English by 2010.

President Clinton will direct the Department of Education to find a test to determine whether students can speak and write English adequately – a test that does not now exist, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Maria Echaveste said yesterday in an interview.

The recommendation, by raising the profile of English proficiency, will open up debate on such politically touchy issues as bilingual education and English-only policies. Latino groups have generally supported bilingual education, which allows students to learn in their own languages, generally for three years, before being placed into English-language classrooms.

Many Hispanics are also very sensitive to “English-only” movements in some states, which they perceive as anti-immigrant.

Some educators and experts argue that bilingual education doesn’t force youngsters to learn English quickly enough, and say that students should instead be immersed into English-language classes.

Massachusetts has a bilingual education program that serves about 5 percent of the state’s 965,000 school children, said state Department of Education spokesman Jonathan Palumbo.

Clinton “has always been very clear that what’s important is that students learn English in the most efficient way possible,” Echaveste said.

Clinton won’t announce a position on bilingual education today; instead the matter will be debated by educators, administration officials, and business leaders at the White House in a workshop on Hispanic education, Echaveste said.

Education Secretary Richard Riley has been a strong proponent of bilingual education. In March, he called on public school districts to create 1,000 more dual-education schools in the next five years.

But Clinton has generally been more “flexible” on the issue, said Jorge Amselle of the Center for Equal Opportunity, which is skeptical of bilingual education. “He’s certainly angered a lot of Hispanic ethnic groups and bilingual lobby.”

The White House Council on Economic Advisers will release statistics showing that Latinos, who represent the fastest-growing ethnic minority in the country, lag behind whites, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans in high school completion, college admission, and high-tech education.

Since the jobs of the future are in high technology, Latinos as a group are likely to become poorer compared with other ethnic groups if they are not educated for the new economy, Echaveste said.

It is not clear whether language barriers are the sole reason for the disparity, she said. Even second- and third-generation Hispanics, who presumably are more likely to speak English, have poorer education performance records than non-Hispanics, the council report says.

Clinton’s five goals for fixing the problem include expanding early childhood education for Latinos, ensuring proficiency in English on completion of high school, improving test scores, increasing the high school graduation rate, and doubling by 2010 the percentage of Hispanics who earn college degrees.



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