A+ COMMISSION SUPPORTS 
DUAL-LANGUAGE IMMERSION

The A+ Commission agrees with Dr. Richard Gomez of the state's Migrant Education Program that one major problem in raising student achievement is that most students taking English as a Second Language courses are enrolled in pull-out programs shown to be the least effective.

"There is a clear picture of the need to overhaul our programs," A+ Commission Director Chris Thompson says.

"According to landmark national research on English Language Learners, approximately 80 percent of the students who are English Language Learners are getting access to the least-effective programs [the standard "pull-out" programs]. And a tiny percentage -- 3% -- are getting access to programs that clearly work, that are getting results. These are the dual-language programs," Thompson says.

The dual-language programs teach all students -- typically starting in kindergarten -- in two different languages -- in both English and Spanish, for example. Later in high school, students from this kind of program outperform native English-speaking students in overall academic assessments, such as the SAT.

The relative merits of various types of ESL programs have been clouded by inadequate research. As seen in the accompanying graph, all the various types of training programs for English learners display similar results after only three years. You only see the dramatic differences when you look at how students compare many years later as they approach graduation.

"So the results of kids in a low-quality program, let's say, during first, second and third grade, are going to look very similar to those of students in a high-quality program," says Mr. Thompson. "But in third to fourth grade they hit that wall that should be a door, as they transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

"The movement from developing the language skills to learning the content areas is a transition many kids from the low-quality programs just cannot make successfully," he adds. "Whereas the kids from the high-quality programs not only make it, they excel at it, to the point where in the 11th grade they are significantly outperforming kids who have English as a native language."

It wasn't until the groundbreaking national research looked at 11th grade students and what kind of program they had back in elementary school that this picture emerged, Mr. Thompson explains.

The clear "winner" in the research was the dual-language immersion programs now being developed in several Washington school districts. But most districts are still using the traditional ESL "pull-out" programs that were shown to be by far the least effective.

"That's something we're concerned about and included in our report, encouraging school districts to look at," he says. "The commission is not in a position to require it, but we are encouraging districts to look at these dual-language programs.

The advantages of the dual-language immersion program are so great that many English-speaking, non-Hispanic white parents want their children to attend in order to become natively bilingual.

"I would love for my children to have that kind of opportunity for a whole range of reasons. It would do nothing but a tremendous good to have them finish elementary school fluent in two languages," says Mr. Thompson.

"There is so much potential here for a wide range of students -- not just those who come to school needing to learn English," he says. "I'm talking to my school district about these programs."

When there are enough native Spanish students and native English students, they are typically paired up so they can help tutor one another.

"I have to believe that becoming a 'teacher' is going to do a lot for the self-esteem of kids throughout the classroom. Becoming partners in the learning process -- student to student -- is going to be of great value," Mr. Thompson says. "There is so much very exciting potential here -- largely unexplored so far."