by Lance T. Izumi, Fellow in California Studies
Pacific Research Institute
May 5, 1998

Announcer lead: Time for Perspectives. Lance Izumi says that that recent research criticizes the effectiveness of bilingual education.

How does it feel to be a passenger on the education version of the Titanic? Just ask the opponents of Proposition 227, the ballot measure that would replace bilingual education with intensive English instruction, also known as sheltered English immersion. Faced with continued high poll numbers for Prop. 227, opponents of the initiative are desparately trying to find life-raft arguments that will save bilingual ed from sinking into the ocean of history.

So far, though, their attempts seem to have run aground. For instance, David Tokofsky, a Los Angeles school board member and Prop. 227 opponent, admitted that he's troubled by the lack of evidence that bilingual education works. Tokofsky warned pro-bilingual school officials that they "better have more than emotional responses . . . to justify continuation of [bilingual] programs."

In contrast, a recent national study by New Mexico State University economics professor Marie Mora found that English immersion was more effective than bilingual education in improving student performance. In her study, Prof. Mora compared the test scores and drop-out rates of a national sample of limited-English-proficient Hispanic eighth-graders who were instructed through either bilingual education or English immersion.

Prof. Mora's findings are eye-opening: Hispanics who received instruction in bilingual education or English-as-a-Second-Language had significantly lower English fluency acquisition, were more likely to drop out of school, and made lower reading progress than their otherwise similar peers who received English immersion.

Further, a second recent study by Prof. Mora and University of Maryland Prof. Mark Hugo Lopez found that first-generation Hispanic students who received bilingual instruction earned about 50 percent less than their peers who received English immersion.

These studies confirm what many Californians feel instinctively, that is, that the current bilingual education status quo isn't working. Until they can show otherwise in a clear and convincing way, Prop. 227 opponents seem destined to go down with their ship.

With a perspective, I'm Lance Izumi.