California scores called inconclusive

Bilingual-learning ban has no big effect, schools chief says

California’s controversial law that banned most bilingual education programs at the state’s public schools has not dramatically narrowed the learning gap between students who have limited English skills and those who are proficient in English, according to test scores released last week.

While limited-English students in some districts showed significant gains, average scores on state achievement tests increased only slightly for the those students in the first year after lawmakers passed Proposition 227. Immigrant students still scored far below pupils who speak English fluently, state education officials said.

“It’s too early for anyone to celebrate or throw stones,” said Delaine Eastin, the state superintendent of public instruction. “Our schools serve a population that is extremely diverse. Not surprisingly, these scores demonstrate that it is difficult for these students to do well in academic content areas until they are proficient in English.”

Harcourt Educational Measurement, the company that published the test results, was forced to re-score California’s Stanford 9 achievement tests after releasing flawed reports on June 30. In a snafu that initially raised hopes around the state, the testing company mistakenly averaged the scores of those students who are English proficient with those who have limited English skills, inflating their scores dramatically. Limited English-proficient students make up about 25 percent of the 4.3 million students statewide who took the tests.

The revised test scores, released late last week, came as a letdown for some who had touted the initial round of strong marks as clear proof that bilingual education was detrimental to immigrant children. While there is cause for optimism in several school districts, it is too soon for critics of bilingual education to claim victory, some observers say.

In San Diego County’s Oceanside Independent School District, where Proposition 227 founder Ron Unz touted the improved test scores – including some that were up by more than 400 percent – the picture still looks somewhat bright for the district’s 5,500 limited-English students, most of whom come from nearby Mexico.

On the revised tests, the district’s 10th-graders posted a 50 percent increase over last year, while second- and third-grade scores were up a dramatic 92 percent. Proposition 227 “did not hurt the kids, and in fact, it helped many learn more quickly,” said Oceanside Superintendent Ken Noonan, a former bilingual educator who has enforced the English-only law to the letter.

After only one year, he warned, it’s probably too soon to draw firm conclusions about the significance of the test scores in the wake of Proposition 227. The state has instituted a number of education reforms including a systematic and explicit phonics approach to teaching reading along with reducing class sizes in the first and second grades, he said.

Like other states, including Virginia, California also has put in place a standards-based curriculum and yearly assessment program designed to put schools and students on notice that they must improve quickly, he said.

“I think all those things have contributed to the success of kids under 227, and we may have not had the success if we had not been doing these other things,” he said. “It seems almost as if the timing was just right. My suspicion is that if we do this well, children will not have an English language deficit in three years.”



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