Immersion schools may help students

[Harold F. Schiffman]

forwarded from [EDLING:1664] edling at ccat.sas.upenn.edu

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413095

Posted: June 05, 2006 by: Jerry Reynolds

WASHINGTON - A Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing on
education May 25 raised the idea that Native-language immersion schools
deserve emphasis alongside the national No Child Left Behind program.
Educators throughout the nation are required to cope with the quantitative
Adequate Yearly Progress scores in reading and math that assess a school's
competence under No Child Left Behind. As a result, said Ryan Wilson,
president of the National Indian Education Association, ''There's a huge
push to advance only scientific education.''

In the meantime, Wilson and other witnesses said, evidence mounts that
Native- language immersion programs are associated with stronger student
interest in learning and higher academic achievement. Kevin Skenandore,
acting director of the Interior Department's Office of Indian Education
Programs, said a survey of Interior's five best-performing Indian schools,
its five worst-performing schools and all Hopi schools (they have all
passed the AYP benchmarks) yielded support for that position. Sen. Lisa
Murkowski, R-Alaska, drew from the educational experience of her own sons
to note that dual-language schooling can be a concern to parents in the
early school years. But later in the educational process, she said, it
becomes clear that immersion learning of a second language early on pays
off in better academic performance across the board. As Wilson expressed
it in his written testimony, ''National studies on language learning and
educational experience indicate the more language learning, the higher the
academic achievement.  Solid data from the immersion school experience
indicates that language immersion students experience greater success in
school measured by consistent improvement on local and national measures
of achievement.''

Some of the May 25 testimony, as well as several examples Murkowski
marshaled from Alaska, suggested that tribal students in the usually
rural, often isolated environs of Indian country have a hard time finding
relevance in the conventional, Western-inflected pedagogy. Though data on
Native language immersion schools is still being compiled, the theme of
several witnesses was that learning a Native language along with English
may resolve the problem of educational relevance for many students. But
Wilson added that while Native cultures and communities are losing
immersion-program resources, including many speakers, ''at lightning
speed,'' they are recovering their languages ''at horse-and-buggy speed.''
He offered NIEA's support for several bills before Congress that would
encourage Native language immersion programs. Senate Bill 2674, the Native
American Languages Act Amendments of 2006, has been sponsored by Sens.
Daniel Akaka and Daniel K.  Inouye, of Hawaii; Sen. Max Baucus, of
Montana; and Sen. Tim Johnson, of South Dakota, all Democrats. In the
House, Republican Reps. Heather Wilson, of New Mexico, and Rick Renzi, of
Arizona, have offered House Bill 4766, the Native American Languages
Preservation Act of 2006. Also in the House, Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, has
introduced H.R. 5222, the Native American Languages Amendments Act of
2006.

S. 2674 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and
Ryan Wilson urged quick action. He added that it can bring about ''a new
day'' in Indian education. But much remains of the old days, including
Indian test scores that trail national averages and faltering marks on the
AYP standard of the No Child Left Behind initiative of President George W.
Bush. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., vice chairman of the committee,
pronounced himself ''a little perplexed'' at Interior's response: a
''reorganization'' to increase the ratio of senior executives to staff
personnel. The reorganization is the target of a tribal lawsuit announced
one day before the hearing