To the Editor:
The campaign to fully restore bilingual education in California needs to include the research. Despite efforts by academics, this research was not brought to the attention of the voters.
Not mentioned in the Education Week article is the fact that studies done before and after Proposition 227 passed consistently showed that students in bilingual programs outperform similar students enrolled in English-only programs on tests of reading English. Had the public known this, the outcome of the election might have been different.
Also, as researcher Grace McField noted in the article, dismantling bilingual education in California did not improve achievement for English-learners in California.
Both of these findings deserve much more salience in the bilingual education debate.
Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus of Education
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, Calif.
