Thursday, March 17, 2016

More evidence supporting bilingual education than ever

Sent to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Re: Republican Ron Unz joins race for Boxer's US Senate seat (March 16, 2016)
In 1997, Ron Unz sponsored Proposition 227, which effectively dismantled bilingual education in California. State Senator Ricardo Lara has sponsored a measure that would overturn 227 and restore bilingual education. Unz has announced his candidacy for the US Senate, and plans to use his candidacy as a platform to opposite Lara's measure.
   Proposition 227 passed even though evidence in favor of bilingual education was strong. There is now more evidence that bilingual education does a better job of helping children acquire English than do all-English programs.
   In a recent analysis, Cal State San Marcos Professors Grace and David McField examined all available studies comparing bilingual education and English immersion. They concluded that when both program quality and research quality are considered, the superiority of bilingual education was considerably larger than previously reported.
   Bilingual programs, when set up and evaluated correctly, do not prevent the acquisition of English – they facilitate it.
Stephen Krashen

Original article: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/mar/16/republican-ron-unz-joins-race-for-boxers-us/
Source: McField, G. and McField, D.  2014. "The consistent outcome of bilingual education programs: A meta-analysis of meta-analyses." In: The Miseducation of English Learners, edited by Grace McField, and published by Information Age Publishing in 2014.

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