[EDLING:944] USA: Is bilingual education report being downplayed?

[Francis M Hult]

By way of lg-policy...

> >From USA Today,
> 
> Is bilingual education report being downplayed?
> By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
> 
> The government will not publish a report it commissioned on bilingual
> education and critics say that's because the Bush administration disagrees
> with the findings, which cast doubt on the efficacy of teaching immigrant
> children through English-only lessons. The U.S. Education Department
> appointed the National Literacy Panel, a non-partisan group of university
> researchers, in May 2002 to do a two-year study taking "a good, hard look
> at the existing research" on bilingual education. At the time, Russ
> Whitehurst, assistant secretary for Education Research and Improvement,
> noted that the No Child Left Behind education reform law "puts a strong
> emphasis on using education practices and programs based on sound,
> scientifically-based research."
> 
> The new findings were submitted in draft form last spring, but the panel's
> chairman on Wednesday said Whitehurst plans to give publishing rights back
> so the panel can find its own publisher. That brought criticism from Bruce
> Fuller, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, who says the
> decision echoes others in which the administration has downplayed research
> with which it disagreed.
> 
> "A lot of us have applauded the secretary of education and the White House
> science adviser for pushing higher-quality experimental designs in
> education, so now we can test school reforms in the same way we test drugs
> or food additives," says Fuller. "But even after we meet these high
> standards, the administration doesn't necessarily listen to the results."
> Over the past several years, conservative activists nationwide have
> advocated abandoning bilingual programs for new immigrant children in
> favor of English-only instruction. But James Crawford, executive director
> of the National Association for Bilingual Education, a professional
> association for teachers, says that contradicts "a large body of
> educational research."
> 
> Whitehurst was not immediately available for comment. Education Department
> spokesman Chad Colby declined to comment on the report. Bush hasn't
> advocated so-called English immersion, but No Child Left Behind requires
> that immigrant children be tested in English after three years. Exceptions
> are allowed, at a school's discretion, to test in the child's native
> language instead. Crawford says he's concerned "that the department would
> hold up releasing a study that is scientific simply because its conclusion
> is politically inconvenient."
> 
> But panel chairman Timothy Shanahan, of the University of Illinois at
> Chicago, says he'd be surprised if the book-length findings weren't
> snapped up by a publisher. He says he doesn't think the Bush
> administration is trying to distance itself from the report, but simply
> decided to let the panel publish it independently. "If they tried to eat
> the copyright, that'd be different," he says. "That would mean that I
> can't show you the report. The fact is, it's going to be available and I
> intend to see that this thing gets published in a highly visible way."
> 
> 
> Find this article at:
> http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-08-24-bilingual-education_x.htm