More Voices on Bilingual Teaching

* In response to your Aug. 15 editorial, “Political Cloud Over Schools,” I would agree that politics should not determine education curricula. What should determine curricula is what works in the classroom. However, how to determine what works is not so simple.

As a former classroom aide for five years in the Los Angeles area, where English only was used, and as a former bilingual education teacher for 13 years, I have come to the conclusion that English immersion works for some students and bilingual education works for some students, but neither program works all the time with all students.

As the editorial suggests, I think schools should offer parents the choice of one program or the other. Parents of language-minority children should be respected enough to be given the choice of which program to use when dealing with this language issue.

As a parent now myself, educational choices are what I appreciate the most when making important decisions regarding the education of my own children. Parents of language-minority children deserve no less.

ELLEN DORFMAN

GOLDENBERG

Seal Beach

* It is beneath your high standards to portray bilingual education programs as not being successful when statistics and facts prove that they are.

Teachers like Gloria Matta Tuchman (“Testing the Limits of Bilingual Education,” Aug. 8) feel they are doing the best for the children, but longitudinal studies show that most students whose second language is English and who are in an English immersion program can’t keep up with their peers academically after the fourth grade.

Of course, first-graders will show that they do well in an English immersion classroom: What highly cognitive or abstract concepts are tested in first grade?

Virginia Collier, a researcher of George Mason University who has conducted a longitudinal study of bilingual programs in the nation, has found that those whose second language is English do well in English-only classrooms up until third grade.

Collier’s study shows that after third grade these same students do not do well on the standardized tests in English and their scores continue to drop through high school. Is this what we want for California? I think not.

Her longitudinal study shows that students who have been in bilingual programs show steady growth throughout their school experience. This information should be made public to citizens of California so that they, as a well-informed citizenry, can be aware of programs that do help our bilingual students succeed academically, but never at the expense of their first language.

EVANGELINA CRONIN

Yorba Linda

* Regarding the editorial “Political Cloud Over Schools,” Aug. 15: By putting this issue on the November ballot, the school district is wasting taxpayers’ money and at the same time dividing the community.

I strongly agree that “politics should not determine educational curricula. The test should be what works in the classroom, not at the ballot box.” School board members are wrong, and Latino parents should consider a recall campaign in order to protect their children’s right to an equal education.

This issue will not go away soon. Instead, it will feed more fire into the passions of Latino activists who firmly believe that bilingual education indeed works!

JAIME VEGA RODRIGUEZ

Santa Ana