Bilingual Program and Dropouts

Assemblywoman Carole Migden, in promoting her bill to exempt students who speak limited English from taking the Stanford 9 exam (June 10), says the test is “demoralizing and insensitive” to such students.

This argument is clearly disingenuous when you consider that California’s bilingual program, even after Proposition 227, routinely tests all students for English proficiency, labels them according to their proficiency and places them in classes according to those labels. These labels stay with students, determining their academic direction through high school. The impact of such labeling on the student is much more detrimental to self-esteem than anything deriving from the Stanford 9, which has no bearing on report cards, class selection or promotion to grade levels.

Migden, in effect, is supporting the tracking of English learners into separation and failure.

DOUGLAS LASKEN

Woodland Hills

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Re “Facing Truth on Dropouts,” editorial, June 9: When we eliminated bilingual education programs, we denied children the right to graduate from high school by not allowing them to take the required courses for graduation in a language development program. After all, how is a high school student who recently immigrated to the U.S. supposed to complete all the required courses for graduation when all those classes are conducted in English?

As a high school counselor working in a school with 80% students of color and 60% of the students acquiring English as a second language, I have seen hard-working, studious and intelligent immigrant children not graduate simply because they were not allowed to take regular classes due to their limited English-speaking skills. Their high school program was limited to electives such as keyboarding, art, choir, wood shop, etc. Schools need to address and serve the needs of the students, parents and community--now!

JACQUELINE M. BORJA

Montebello