English Immersion Works In California

In July 1999, Marcos Breton authored a feature article for the Sacramento Bee focusing on the academic and culture challengers facing three Hispanics Sisters, the Zamora's, attending Sacramento State University in California. The girls are the products of 13 years in the California public school system.

According to Breton, the girls labored under the burden of low expectations and tepid family support. The girls missed "months of classes each year while their family traveled to Mexico." Ultimately, the girls found themselves overwhelmed and underprepared for college classes.

Although the sisters followed by Breton faced multiple real and devastating challenges, Breton's unspoken assumptions reveal something about the Liberal conventional wisdom. Breton argued that the girls were burdened by Proposition 227 where a large majority of Californians decided to end bilingual education. No proof was offered as to why English immersion was a burden. None was necessary. To some, bilingual education just has to be correct, because it necessarily includes a politically correct respect for other cultures.

In turns out that one can respect other cultures just fine and still reap the advantages of English immersion. It is almost certainly true that bilingual education as previously practiced in California maintained dependence on the non-English language for far too long. It may also be the case that total immediate immersion in English may not be optimal, at least for some students. Wherever the best balance empirically lies, political polarization makes it necessary to choose one or the other.

The jury is in and it seems that the elimination of bilingual education in California was accompanied by an increase in Hispanic academic achievement. Second graders with limited English ability who were tested jumped from the 19th to 28th percentile in reading when compared to national standards. In math, they hurdled from the 27th to the 41st percentile. Moreover, those few school districts that applied for and received waivers permitting the retention of bilingual education did not enjoy the same increase in achievement.

One problem in associating English immersion with the improvements in California is that there were a number of changes in Californian education at the same time. ``Whole language'' instruction was jettisoned in favor of phonics instruction. Was it the improved reading from phonics instruction or from English immersion that helped limited-English students improve mathematics? In any case, it is clear that English immersion did not doom students to an ``intellectual purgatory'' as gloomily predicted by President Clinton [1].

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