IS BILINGUAL EDUCATION DEAD?
“The STAR results are a clear indication that we can teach children who have limited English proficiency — and teach them well — in English,” Ron K. Unz, a driving force behind the anti-bilingual movement, told Education World. Supporters of bilingual education claimed that even if students taught in English learned English better, their academic progress in other subject areas would fall dramatically, Unz noted. “In fact,” he said, “test scores in California went up more rapidly in mathematics than they did in English. “In California, teachers have been the biggest critics and skeptics of bilingual education,” Unz added. “Bilingual educational was a fad based on no research. It never worked well, and its future, based on these latest test results, is a lack of existence.” John B. Mockler, California’s interim education secretary, for one, begs to differ. Mockler attributes the gains in STAR scores to a number of separate education reforms implemented last year. Those include a reduc
