SUSD finds bilingual-ed scores better

District's results reflect state's

In San Joaquin County’s largest school district, as elsewhere in California, graduates of bilingual education scored higher at most grade levels and in most subjects than students who speak only English did on a statewide test of student achievement.

Graduates of Stockton Unified School District’s bilingual-education

program also scored higher than students who are fluent in English and at least one other language but who didn’t learn English in the district’s bilingual program.

Bilingual-education backers said the scores — released two months after voters chose to dismantle the state’s bilingual-education system — counter opponents’ argument that the system shortchanges students, preventing them from learning English quickly and succeeding in school.

“I think this is a very comforting sign that, yes indeed, bilingual education works when properly implemented,” said Harry Maxey, Stockton Unified’s top bilingual-education administrator.

But the scores have not swayed bilingual-education opponents.

Ron Unz, the Palo Alto software entrepreneur who wrote Proposition 227 to dismantle bilingual education and successfully led the charge to put it on the June ballot, said the scores are not a compelling rebuttal. The scores represent the achievement of only a fraction of bilingual students and of only successful bilingual students, he said.

“It’s very simple,” he said. “By definition, the students who are … graduating bilingual education are the ones who are scoring well on tests.”

Students graduate from bilingual programs when they become fluent in English and score well on tests in academic subjects, area educators said. To graduate from Stockton Unified’s bilingual program, for example, students must be fluent in English and score at or above average on districtwide academic tests.

The Standardized Testing and Reporting exam was given this spring to (bilingual-education graduates) be in mainstream, English-only classes and do well?” she said. “And the answer seems to be yes.”

Glee Johnson, Wilson’s undersecretary for child development and education, said she is skeptical of these claims but is leery of drawing any conclusion until test scores from throughout the state have been released and interpreted. Many districts have released their own scores, but the court order has blocked the release of statewide scores.

“I think there’s a good chance that trend is not there,” she said. “But the real answer is we don’t know.”

In other area districts, for example, bilingual-education graduates did not consistently outperform their peers.

At some grade levels in Lincoln Unified School District, for example, students who speak only English outperformed bilingual-education graduates. In Manteca Unified School District, bilingual-education graduates fared about the same as other students at many grade levels. And in high school grades in several districts, including Stockton Unified, bilingual-education graduates did not consistently outperform peers.

“There are so many other factors that affect academic performance,” said Linda Myers, Lincoln Unified’s associate superintendent for education services, explaining why she is hesitant to attribute high scores solely to bilingual education. “I just don’t think we have enough data to make those statements.”

For example, bilingual students who were at least partly schooled in their native countries tend to perform better than bilingual students who received no initial schooling, said Roger Tom, who oversees Stockton Unified’s curriculum.

Jacobson attributed higher scores among Lodi Unified’s bilingual-education graduates to several factors and cautioned against directly comparing their scores to those of students who speak only English.

As in other districts, graduates of Lodi Unified’s bilingual program must score well — at or above the 36th percentile — on districtwide academic tests. Thus, she said, it would be more accurate to compare the state test scores of bilingual-program graduates to the scores of students who speak only English and who also scored at or above the 36th percentile on districtwide tests.

Area educators also noted that students in bilingual programs get extra instruction from specially trained teachers. Research also suggests that bilingual-program graduates may be performing well because a student who is literate in his or her first language has a greater ability to acquire another language, Jacobson said.

But Unz calls that a doubtful theory and contends that bilingual education hinders even the brightest, most-motivated students.

“If those students had been taught English from the beginning,” he said, “instead of scoring in 60th percentile, maybe naturally that small group of elite students would be at the 80th percentile.”



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