How Can We Best Serve LEP Students? A Reply to Nicholas Meier and Stephen Krashen

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 80, Issue 9, 1999, Pages 707-710

  Baker, Keith ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0346460664     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. Ann C. Willig, "A Meta-analysis of Selected Studies on the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," Review of Educational Research, vol. 55, 1985, pp. 269-317; and Keith Baker and Adriana de Kanter, "Federal Policy and the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," in idem, eds., Bilingual Education: A Reappraisal of Federal Policy (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1983), pp. 33-86.
2. Ann C. Willig, "A Meta-analysis of Selected Studies on the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," Review of Educational Research, vol. 55, 1985, pp. 269-317; and Keith Baker and Adriana de Kanter, "Federal Policy and the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," in idem, eds., Bilingual Education: A Reappraisal of Federal Policy (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1983), pp. 33-86.
3. For a discussion of methodological errors in Willig's analysis, see Keith Baker, "Comment on Willig's 'A Meta-analysis of Selected Studies on the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education,'" Review of Educational Research, vol. 57, 1987, pp. 351-62.
4. Eva Pena-Hughes and Juan Solis, "abcs," mimeo, McAllen (Tex.) ISD, 1980.
5. The extent to which advocates of bilingual education have replaced reason and facts with myth is easily demonstrated in the extreme case: How much English is learned in a 100% Spanish environment? How can there be any question that there is an adverse effect on learning English from the excessive use of some other language in school? The key policy question, which advocates of bilingual education have avoided for a generation, is to determine the point at which too much Spanish at school becomes harmful. The best answer we have to date comes from only two studies: the Ramirez study and the El Paso study. And the answer seems to be any point above 30%.
6. Baker and de Kanter, op. cit.
7. The factors Meier cites that supposedly differentiate Canadian from American classrooms have long been cited by bilingual education advocates in opposition to SEI. However, no evidence that any of these factors affects learning English has ever been put forth. Moreover, the studies I cited in my Kappan article consistently show the superiority of SEI over bilingual education programs and disprove these hypotheses.
8. J. David Ramirez et al., Final Report: Longitudinal Study of Structured Immersion Strategy, Early-Exit, and Late-Exit Transitional Bilingual Education Programs for Language-Minority Children (San Mateo, Calif.: Aguirre International, Report to the U.S. Department of Education, Contract No. 300-83-0250, 1991).
9. Ramirez' point is that LE students should not be moved to the mainstream abruptly, because a gradual transition characterized the one program showing continuing progress. There is no comparative discussion of LE, EE, or SEI.
10. The public final report appeared two years after the completion of the report that the U.S. Department of Education buried.
11. Jay Greene, "A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," mimeo, University of Texas, Austin, March 1998; Christine Rossell and Keith Baker, Bilingual Education in Massachusetts (Boston: Pioneer, 1997); and idem, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs," Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 30, 1996, pp. 7-74.
12. Jay Greene, "A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," mimeo, University of Texas, Austin, March 1998; Christine Rossell and Keith Baker, Bilingual Education in Massachusetts (Boston: Pioneer, 1997); and idem, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs," Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 30, 1996, pp. 7-74.
13. Jay Greene, "A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education," mimeo, University of Texas, Austin, March 1998; Christine Rossell and Keith Baker, Bilingual Education in Massachusetts (Boston: Pioneer, 1997); and idem, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs," Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 30, 1996, pp. 7-74.
14. Virginia P. Collier, "Age and Rate of Acquisition of Second Language for Academic Purposes," TESOL Quarterly, vol. 21, 1987, pp. 617-41.
15. "A Study of Language Minority Students in Fairfax Co.," mimeo, Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools, 1989.
16. For more, see Rossell and Baker, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs."
17. In my original article I discussed research that showed that SEI students are more likely to attend college than LE students.
18. Seattle's SEI program, which my article cited as the only program model that meets the requirements of California's Proposition 227, was challenged in court by advocates of bilingual education programs, who withdrew their lawsuit in the face of overwhelming evidence portending certain defeat in court.
19. Educational Progress of Students in Bilingual and ESL Programs: A Longitudinal Study (New York: New York City Public Schools, October 1994).
20. W. Edwards Deming, "The Logic of Evaluation," in Elmer Struening, ed., Handbook of Evaluation, Vol. I (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1975), pp. 53-68. Consider an example of such controls: if you want to buy the fastest car, should you get a Honda Civic rather than a Jaguar because, when weight and horsepower are controlled, the Honda is "faster"?
21. She argues: "With or without such help [bilingual education programs], there is little danger that LEP students who have gone through the American school system can avoid learning English. . . . They are surrounded by it wherever they go. . . . Any English instruction they are given there [in school] facilitates the process, but it is in most cases not a necessity. The real problem for these students . . . [is that] the price paid for learning English is the mother tongue and their cultural identity." Lily Wong-Fillmore, "Teaching Bilingual Learners," in Merlin C. Wittrock, ed., Handbook of Research on Teaching, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1986), p. 680.
22. Beware of Clintonesque hairsplitting of definitions. SEI, EE, and LE constitute a continuum with regard to the use of English in the bilingual classroom. Regardless of what you choose to call it, the best program choice lies much closer to the SEI end of that continuum.
23. For details on how we decided which studies are valid, see Baker and de Kanter, op. cit.; and Rossell and Baker, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs."
24. For details on how we decided which studies are valid, see Baker and de Kanter, op. cit.; and Rossell and Baker, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs."
25. Stephen Krashen and Douglas Biber, On Course: Bilingual Education's Success in California (Sacramento: California Association for Bilingual Education, 1988).
26. G. Baer and D. Fishbein, "Editorial," New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 316, 1987, pp. 1270-77; and M. Shill, R. Baynes, and S. Miller, "Fatal Rabies Encephalitis Despite Appropriate Post-Exposure Prophylaxis," New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 316, 1987, pp. 1257-58 .
27. G. Baer and D. Fishbein, "Editorial," New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 316, 1987, pp. 1270-77; and M. Shill, R. Baynes, and S. Miller, "Fatal Rabies Encephalitis Despite Appropriate Post-Exposure Prophylaxis," New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 316, 1987, pp. 1257-58 .
28. Teresa P. et al. v. Berkeley Unified School District, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco, 1988. Krashen testified against the Berkeley program; Berkeley won.
29. I actually wish the district had used about 117 minutes of Spanish, for that would have replicated Ramirez' EE results. However, 90 minutes, if correct, comes close enough. Both the Ramirez study and the El Paso study show superior learning with about 70% of teacher talk in English.
30. See Rossell and Baker, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs"; and Baker and de Kanter, op. cit.
31. See Rossell and Baker, "On the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education Programs"; and Baker and de Kanter, op. cit.
32. Krashen also overlooks the point I made in my original article that no valid method exists to identify a child's "primary language," except in the obvious monolingual case.
33. It's worth repeating here. Using about 30% Spanish, EE programs produce the same positive results in English as do SEI programs using considerably less Spanish. Since all these programs get the same outcomes, are they not allowed under Proposition 227? The advantage of EE programs over SEI programs using less Spanish is that they also teach Spanish. LE programs develop Spanish at the cost of English performance, but this is not the case for EE programs. They teach English as well as any program model and develop Spanish in addition. If EE is the program of choice, how can it be accommodated under Proposition 227?