English Learners

California students who are not proficient in English improved their scores on the Stanford 9 standardized test at about the same rate as their fluent classmates, but new state data released Monday continue to show an immense disparity between the two groups. Broken out by fluency, the test results highlight the stark reality that there are two distinct levels of learning and achievement in the state.

Re "Bilingual Education," Ventura County letters, July 30. In this letter Denis O'Leary asserts that "one year of intensive English immersion in California has failed." But he fails to back up this assertion, and the facts are otherwise. After one year of English immersion, statewide English learners' test scores have increased in every area, in every grade level. Some school districts saw increases of up to 18% in some areas for English learners. There is other evidence of progress since 1998.

A year after voters approved the anti-bilingual education law Proposition 227, tens of thousands of California schoolchildren with limited English skills showed only modest gains in Stanford 9 test scores released Thursday. Statewide, third-grade reading scores for English learners, who make up 21% of the test takers in California, rose only 4 percentile points.

Here's what happened to the standardized test scores for a certain bunch of Cypress students: The reading scores for fifth- and sixth-graders in this group went from a dismal 23rd percentile last year--putting them in the bottom quarter of the nation--to an above-average 53rd percentile this spring. Small potatoes compared with their third-grade peers. Their math scores jumped from the 47th percentile to a stellar 70th over the last year. Who is this impressive group of achievers?

I am one of 5,500 bilingual teachers who work for the Los Angeles Unified School District. For the past 19 years, I have taught students whose first language is not English. Almost 100% of these students are, by my standards, poor. I've taught kindergarten through fifth grade, gifted and remedial students. While I know that many of our immigrant students in LAUSD are successfully progressing through the system, I also know that some of them are not.

Congratulations to the Orange Unified School District trustees for scrapping the bilingual education program (April 18). It has proven it does not work. As a teacher of a language (Esperanto) I can tell you that total English immersion is the best method. We already print the voting ballots and vehicle code in several languages. It's about time we say we cannot afford to be all things to all people. To my friends of other lands who have chosen the United States to live and work I say, become united with us and learn our language and culture.

It is always hard to find a person who makes a lot of sense. Carol Jago ("English Only--for the Kids' Sake," Commentary, Dec. 18) describes a growing problem and suggests a solution that is long overdue. I am an immigrant student who arrived in the United States at a very early age. Back then, there were no ESL, LEP, ELL classes for students whose first language was not English. All of my classes were in English including science, math and social studies. I must admit that it was hard to understand the teacher; however, as time went by I began to understand the classes little by little to the point that English became a way of life.

Responding to a sharp drop in student scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test this year, Oxnard Union High School District officials plan to encourage students who learned English as a second language to take an alternative college entrance exam. Gary Davis, assistant superintendent of educational services, said students who are not native English speakers will be encouraged to take the American College Testing exam in place of the SAT.