Posted on 02/01/2006 3:44:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Texas education officials are ready to hear pros and cons of English immersion
AUSTIN - The State Board of Education will consider the controversial topic of English-immersion instruction as an alternative to the state's bilingual programs at its meeting next week.
The board has invited a California school superintendent and a representative of a conservative East Coast think tank to speak Feb. 9, opening a debate that could extend to the Legislature.
In traditional bilingual classes, students are taught in their native languages while they are learning English. In immersion programs, the students receive all or most of their instruction in English.
Immersion advocates say the program takes advantage of the ability of young students' brains to readily absorb a new language. In some states, students have achieved proficiency more quickly through immersion, but other studies have found the programs don't live up to their billing.
"We're not out to undo years and years of what we've done," said board member Gail Lowe, who initiated the presentation. "But it's incumbent on us to be informed about successful programs."
The board has invited Don Soifer, vice president of the Lexington Institute of Arlington, Va. The public policy group believes in limited government and market-based solutions to public policy challenges.
Also scheduled to speak is Kenneth Noonan, superintendent of the school district in Oceanside, Calif., about 30 miles north of San Diego.
Noonan also is vice chairman of California's State Board of Education.
California's 1-year rule
In 1998, California voters passed a proposition that requires students who are not proficient in English to spend at least one year in a structured English-immersion classroom.
Board Chairwoman Geraldine Miller, R-Dallas, said in a letter to Soifer that the board wants to learn about "ways we as state policymakers can encourage school districts within Texas to move into this model of successful instruction to enable non-English speakers to close the achievement gap more effectively."
Miller said the board is inviting key legislative staffers to attend the session so they might become better-informed about immersion.
Supporters of bilingual education from Texas and California also will address the board.
Board member Joe Bernal, D-San Antonio, credits Texas bilingual programs for helping improve achievement of minority students when compared with similar students in other states.
"We have developed a program with a lot of accountability," said Bernal.
But House Speaker Tom Craddick said last month in a speech to the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation that there needs to be more accountability to make sure students are progressing toward English proficiency.
School districts that have 20 or more students in the same grade who are classified as having limited English skills are required by state law to offer bilingual education. Districts often have problems finding enough bilingual teachers for those students.
Though districts get more money for bilingual students, educators say it isn't enough to help those students catch up. Those students are at high risk of dropping out.
Soifer said bilingual programs segregate students and often put more emphasis on multicultural studies than on teaching students to read and write in English.
Arizona's disappointment
Jeff MacSwan, an associate professor of language and literacy at Arizona State University, said Arizona's experience with English immersion has been dismal.
He found that after a year of English immersion, 11 percent of students he studied had become proficient in the language.
MacSwan said decisions about whether to put students in bilingual or immersion programs are best made at the district level with parental involvement.
"Good conscientious educators can succeed in either model," MacSwan said.
Board of education seeks to broaden textbook control
Attorney general asked to eliminate limits on its power to review content
Associated Press
AUSTIN - Texas Board of Education members aligned with social conservatives have asked the state attorney general to strike down restrictions on their power to review and reject the content of public school textbooks.
The request was initiated by Republican Terri Leo of Spring, one of five board members aligned with social conservatives and a critic of the 1996 legal opinion limiting board control over textbook content.
Leo requested the opinion with the approval of board Chairwoman Geraldine Miller.
Battles over content could touch on the teaching of evolution, what students are told about birth control and sexual abstinence, and interpretations of history.
Morales ruling 'erroneous'
Leo's request for a new opinion argued that the original one issued by former Attorney General Dan Morales was "erroneous on its face" and should be reversed, restoring full board authority over textbook selection.
The letter did not mention that the Legislature has repeatedly rejected bills in the past decade that would have given the board more control to screen and reject textbooks it might deem inappropriate for students.
Former state Sen. Bill Ratliff, who wrote the 1995 law that stripped the board of many of its powers and turned them over to local school boards, said he was "very clear" about his intention to include authority for textbook selection.
Ratliff, a Republican who later served as lieutenant governor, told the Dallas Morning News that Morales' opinion correctly interpreted the law.
"Nothing has changed," Ratliff said. "I am still sure that was the intent of the legislation."
Bipartisan support
While Republican members aligned with social conservatives have been the most ardent critics of the Morales opinion, other board members including some Democrats have supported restoring the panel's textbook-review authority.
After the law was passed, upset board members asked for an opinion from Morales, who upheld the restrictions. He ruled board members were required to approve textbooks that were free of errors and contained at least half of the essential knowledge and skills in their subjects.
Also supporting the Morales opinion at the time was Gov. George W. Bush's press secretary, Karen Hughes, and another GOP leader in the Legislature, Teel Bivins of Amarillo, then chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit organization that often spars with social conservative groups over religion in schools, said textbook selection had become bogged down by social conservatives' demands for changes on evolution, sex education and other sensitive topics.
"Every year, some board members demonstrate that given the opportunity, they would edit and change textbooks based not on the facts but on their personal beliefs," he said. "This is a road you don't want to go down if you want a good education system."
Opinion is force of law
An attorney general's opinion is a written interpretation of a law. It carries the weight and force of law unless modified or overturned by a judge, the Legislature or a subsequent attorney general's opinion.
Americans for Prosperity, a group that promotes conservative causes, argued that a new attorney general's opinion affirming the board's authority over textbook selection is long overdue.
"We feel strongly they do have the authority and responsibility to review textbooks," said Peggy Venable, the group's director.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3627042.html
Immersion was what helped generations of non-English European children to learn English ASAP when they arrived in this country, and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't do the same for non-English speaking children from other parts of the world. Well, no reason but the teacher's union.
Incidentally, I think one of the reasons that some people on some threads get so riled up about Hispanic immigrants is precisely because of bilingual programs. They are very divisive and give the impression that Hispanics don't really want to learn English or be part of American society. This is not the truth, of course, and many Hispanics have even sued to get their kids out of "bilingual" classes.
"Bilingual education" has been a disaster from just about every perspective.
immersion programs???...what the hell is that???...liberal happy speak for higher taxes??
And the root cause of the high rate of dropouts.
Immersion programs are what we used to have before we called them that. In other words, it was just a regular English speaking class room for everybody, although usually with a few pull-out ENGLISH classes for kids who had just arrived and knew no English whatsoever.
The problem is that the US schools are not doing immersion.
As you point out, the success rate is very high - mainly because it's really the only way to learn any language well.
Bilingual programs are just a way some people get/keep thier jobs. Immersion was being used in the valley in 1991 - they know what they need.
>> Board member Joe Bernal, D-San Antonio, credits Texas bilingual programs for helping improve achievement of minority students when compared with similar students in other states. <<
WTF? Texas has just about the highest drop-out rate in the nation!
>> immersion programs???...what the hell is that???...liberal happy speak for higher taxes?? <<
No, it's the liberals who hate immersion programs. Immersion means exposing children to (gasp!) English.
Pro-choice anyone? Let parents choose whether their kids are in one or the other.
Currently, parents are pressured, or not allowed at all, a choice in the education of their kids. The administrators always shuffle the kids in whatever way will gain the most dollars for the system.
The teacher asked my daughter's class to fill out a form that asked their race and ethnic group. My daughter answered 1/2 and 1/2. The teacher told her bluntly that she could not be half and half. She had to choose one or ther other, which meant either choose mother and reject father or vice versa. My daughter refused.
My wife and I were called in for a conference that was originally billed as a discipline problem with our daughter. It was then that the facts and motivations were uncovered. The asst principal stated that she really would like our daughter labeled "Spanish speaking" so that she could be placed in a bilingual class. There was extra funding available if the school met a certain threshold percentage of Spanish speaking children and the school was only 3 kids short of meeting that threshold. They were also pressuring a couple 4th general kids of Hispanic ancestry to be forced into the bilingual class in order to get the funding.
Follow the money. Change the criteria for getting the money and watch the education theories suddenly change.
""We're not out to undo years and years of what we've done," said board member Gail Lowe..."
Yeah, you really hate to stop doing something that's worked so well!
</sarcasm>
Have you ever heard of ANY problem that some so-called "educator" couldn't solve with more money?
This didn't work in CA and it won't work anywhere else.
What the dems are upset about is that they see the minorities getting out of the rut the dems have dug for them and now the minorities are turning away from the dems.
The only way to get them back is to emmerse them in their own languages and keep them from learning English - which keeps them from getting a good job, etc. Therefore, the minorities will remain dependent on the dems to DO FOR THEM.
DON'T ALLOW BILINGUAL - EXCEPT FOR NEW IMMIGRANTS - WHILE YOU'RE TEACHING THEM ENGLISH!!!
Starbase,
You have the best homepage I've seen on FR.
It should be it's own permanent thread with examples and principles accumulating.
Some of the ones we need to look out for are the ones where we are inarticulate and destroy ourselves with our own words.
Identity money builds identity politics.
If you get money "because you are gay, or Hispanic, or Black or diabetic or a senior citizen" it builds your group into an identity voting constituency.
If money is appropriated to those who provide goods or services, then the same feeling of indebtedness is not built or expected.
Thus teachers should get money "because they are teachers".
That builds a voting bloc. But calculating the number of students times their improvement in reading level and then basing money on that accomplishment will not build a voting bloc
http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0126english-learners26.html
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