Bilingual education on board's radar screen

MALDEN, Mass.—How non-English speaking students are taught in Massachusetts could change, if the state’s education commissioner has his way.

Bilingual education, already on the hot seat with the Board of Education, drew more daggers from some board members Monday as they discussed a proposal to ease the state’s rigid bilingual requirements.

State Education Commissioner David Driscoll wants school districts to be able to apply for waivers from the state’s current bilingual education law. The regulations now require schools to offer bilingual classes when a minimum of 20 students in the district speak the same native language.

Instead, Driscoll wants schools to be able to offer alternatives, such as English as a second language courses.

Several board members have already made their displeasure with bilingual education clear.

At Monday’s meeting, Board Chairman John Silber called bilingual education a “grotesque failure.”

At its meeting last month, the board voted to ask the Legislature to limit children to one year in bilingual education classes.

Under current state laws, which passed 28 years ago, Massachusetts’ 44,000 bilingual students can spend three or more years in so-called Transitional Bilingual Education programs. These classes teach students all subjects in their primary language and introduce English gradually.

Many schools offer other alternatives as well.

Sandra Alvarado, director of the Latino Parents Association in Boston, where 26 percent of students are bilingual, said the board seems intent on destroying bilingual education.

“I think that they’re looking for any means to dismantle bilingual ed,” said Alvarado, who came to the Boston schools from Puerto Rico in 1974 when she was 7.

The board did not vote Monday on Driscoll’s proposals, which would require school districts to submit detailed waiver plans to the Department of Education.

Driscoll also wants to increase the rate of bilingual students who take standardized tests.

Beginning in 2003, all public school students must pass the 10th-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests to graduate from high school. That includes all students whose first language is not English.

“Because of this ‘high stakes’ requirement, it is imperative all English-language learners be helped to learn English as quickly as possible,” Driscoll said in a memo to the board.

Students with limited English proficiency are now required to participate in the Grade 3 Iowa Reading Test only if they are recommended for regular education in the following year.

Driscoll wants to increase the numbers by having all students who entered U.S. schools in kindergarten or first-grade participate in the Iowa program – regardless of whether they have been recommended for regular education. The scores would not be included in an overall district’s performance.

Driscoll is also recommending the development of an English proficiency assessment test to identify a student’s ability in reading and writing and determine if the student is ready for regular classroom work.



Comments are closed.