English Perversion
by Aaron Margolis, May 23rd, 2006 at 06:38am
We can thank the overwhelmingly liberal legislature for the poor fluency amongst the non-native English speaking students, after all, it was the Democrats on Beacon Hill who gave the axe to the voter approved English immersion program.
Three years after Massachusetts ended statewide bilingual education, most non-native English speakers are not fluent enough to function in a regular classroom, state test results show.
The tests, along with survey data and other reports reviewed by the Boston Globe, suggest that the new law is falling short of its main goal: quickly teaching children English so they can join their peers in regular classes after a year.
Eighty-three percent of children in grades 3 through 12 could not read, write, speak, or understand English well enough for regular classes after their first year in Massachusetts schools, the test showed. Of students who had been in school for at least three years, more than half were not fluent, according to the test, given for the first time last year.
Four years ago, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure that required public schools to teach students primarily in English. The law, which Governor Mitt Romney campaigned for, requires non-native English speakers to be placed in a separate program that teaches English as a second language for a period ”not normally intended to exceed one school year,” then enter regular academic classes. It did not include money for training teachers.
A state survey in December and January, which the Globe obtained, found that more than half of the 52 school systems educating the vast majority of non-native English speakers did not set up separate classes to teach English as a second language.
Nice job, Democrats. This is your doing.
Entry Filed under: Education
7 Comments
1. Whit | May 23rd, 2006 at 2:15 pm
What are you? Some kind of idiot? How is the rotten system we have now the fault of Democrats, if Romney was the one who pushed for it? The fact is that bilingual ed. works, and the system that replaced it does not. You don’t think that kids need any time at all in a classroom that directly teaches them English? I am not even sure what you are proposing. Do you suggest that kids should just be thrown into a regular classroom immediately? How could that possibly do any good? How would they learn any of the content? Anyway, I don’t really care what you think should be done, so this is entirely rhetorical.
2. Gregarious Burns | May 23rd, 2006 at 9:52 pm
The Founding Fathers of our once great nation understood the importance of education, reasoning that in order for democracy to work, the electorate had to be well educated and well informed. All things being interconnected, the Founding Fathers included Freedom of the Press, the free exchange of ideas, as the bedrock for our Constitutional Republic. If a populace is not well educated and well informed on the issues which confront it, then the system will fail; for, even a well intentioned system whose Fourth Estate lacks objectivity, honesty, or is otherwise manipulated by the powers of government and corporatism, hubris, propaganda, the electorate will undoubtedly make the wrong decisions.
[Additional Commentary Omitted - Off Topic]
3. Charley on the MTA | May 24th, 2006 at 8:39 am
When did the legislature give the axe to the program? The article seems to say that the law passed by the voters is indeed law, and isn’t working very well.
Please show how the legislature “axed” the program.
4. Charley on the MTA | May 24th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Never mind previous comment: got it here:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/BG9.htm
Still, you guys should link your arguments - makes it easier to follow.
5. Charley on the MTA | May 24th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
No, I was right. The lege didn’t “axe” the program at all.
6. Andy | May 24th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
like you fellas, I was not happy when English immersion was canned by the legislature… English immersion works… and the folks at bluemassgroup can pretend that “watering down” the program isn’t the same thing as killing it then they are kidding themselves..
7. Whit | May 24th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
In what way does English Immersion “work”? Just because you say it doesn’t make it so. What have you got to back that up? It’s enough for you that kids speak English after a few years of sitting in a classroom missing all the content? Isn’t it an advantage to have kids who are literate in TWO languages? I guess so long as brown folk can work at Au Bon Pain, that’s enough for everyone.