No benefit found in English-only instruction

No benefit found in English-only instruction
- Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Teaching overwhelmingly in English, as mandated by 1998's Proposition 227, has had no impact on how English learners are faring in California, a state-mandated study released Tuesday has found.
The ballot measure, approved by 61 percent of the state's voters, promised that immigrant children and others who don't speak English at home would assimilate much faster if all their classes were taught in English.
It fueled an emotional debate about how best to educate the state's growing population of immigrant children. California educates one-third of the nation's English learners.
Using test data, the five-year, $2.5 million study found little difference between students who were taught in English-immersion classrooms and those enrolled in bilingual programs.
"We've looked at the available data extensively over the past five years, and we don't find any compelling evidence for the premise underpinning 227: that a major switch to English-immersion would be a panacea for English learners," said Amy Merickel, co-author of the study. The study was conducted by the American Institutes for Research and WestEd, independent, nonpartisan research agencies, on behalf of the California Department of Education.
Researchers studied students' proficiency in English and in other academic subjects in state tests conducted from 1997 through 2004.
Silicon Valley software entrepreneur Ron Unz, who bankrolled the Proposition 227 campaign, said he considered the study worthless.
"I think it's garbage, and it's extremely expensive garbage," he said. "If you want to know if rocks fall upward or downward and you spend enough money, you can find someone to say 'Sometimes they fall upward.' "
Unz said his own analysis of state test scores for the four years after Proposition 227 passed found that English learners in bilingual classes did not improve at all, while those in English immersion programs tripled their performance.
Merickel said that because the state data provides only annual snapshots such an assessment doesn't show whether individual students are progressing over time. By definition, students who do well in a bilingual program and master English, are replaced by new English learners, she said.
To track the progress of individual students over time, Merickel and her colleagues looked at longitudinal test results from the Los Angeles Unified School District, which educates more than half the state's 1.7 million English learners.
Coming on the heels of Proposition 187, which banned public services for illegal immigrants, and Proposition 209, which outlawed affirmative action in public programs, the English-only measure brought race politics and the national debate on immigration into the classroom.
"We've been arguing about the wrong thing for a long time, and the needs of California's English learners are getting lost in that debate," Merickel said.
In line with the findings of several recent studies, including reports in 2004 and 2005 from the Public Policy Institute of California and the state Legislative Analyst's Office, the researchers said that how California educates English learners will play a significant role in the state's future.
"Given that English learners are such a large, growing and vital component of California's future, embracing the challenge of learning how to be more successful with this large population of students is essential to our state and national well-being," the authors wrote.
Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, a professor of education and head of the immigration project at New York University, said all students need much more sophisticated skills and the higher level of language skills needed for the job market of the future take longer to acquire.
"The data show very, very strongly that you learn English in two ways: one is you need good linguistic models, good teachers ...," he said. "And the better your foundation in your first language, the better you'll do in the second language."
The study's authors found that English learners have done better academically since the passage of Prop. 227. But all California students improved in the same period, and the performance gap between English learners and native English speakers has changed little.
The researchers noted that Prop 227's implementation coincided with other educational reforms -- including the federal No Child Left Behind Act, new state standards and assessments for English learners and new state funding for English language instruction -- making it hard to gauge which factors contributed to student success.
Many teachers and administrators told the researchers Prop. 227 was useful, however, in focusing attention on how -- and how well -- English learners are taught in California.
The study's authors identified nine schools across the state that were successfully educating English learners and interviewed their principals to find out the secrets to their success. The principals said what matters most are the quality of instruction, a school-wide commitment to teaching English learners and careful planning and assessment -- not the language of instruction.
The state education department's manager for language policy, Veronica Aguila, said the state will highlight effective practices. She also said officials will continue ensuring that districts tell parents they can demand that their school provide bilingual instruction, as several Bay Area districts do.
About 8 percent of current California students are in bilingual programs, down from 27 percent before Proposition 227 went into effect in fall 1998.

Previous findings
California state auditor's report, June 2005
-- Limited monitoring holds English learners back and makes it hard to assess performance statewide.
-- State tests don't reveal which programs best help English learners.
Public Policy Institute of California report, April 2005
-- No evidence that changes under Proposition 227 boost English learners' achievement.
-- Students in bilingual programs improve more slowly than those in English-only programs but they also tend to be poorer and less prepared.
California legislative analyst report, February 2004
-- About half of English learners who start California public school in kindergarten become proficient, but more than half of those who start later never do.
E-mail Tyche Hendricks at thendricks@sfchronicle.com.
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