Cause of Higher Calif. Scores Sore Point In Bilingual Ed. Debate

By Mary Ann Zehr

Opponents of bilingual education are welcoming improved standardized-test scores in California as powerful new ammunition in their fight for English-only instruction, interpreting the gains as clear affirmation that students should be immersed in English from the moment they enter school.

But while that interpretation has received prominent attention in the national news media since the scores' release last month, some California education officials, as well as academics and interest groups that defend bilingual education, see it as an oversimplification of what has actually happened in the state.

English-immersion proponents have cited the new scores as proof that California's 1.5 million students with limited English proficiency are much better off since the passage two years ago of Proposition 227, a ballot measure that sought to replace bilingual education with English immersion in the state's public schools. Some advocates have drawn a direct cause-and-effect link between the initiative and the news that California's LEP students have substantially improved their performance on the Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition for the second...